Sculptpedia Statues, Busts and Sculptures Park sculptures and installations Ancient World & Antiquity Middle Ages & Renaissance Marble & Other Stones Bronze & Other Metals

Rainy Taxi

Rainy Taxi is a 1938 surrealist and Dadaist artwork by Spanish artist Salvador Dalí. The version displayed at the Dalí Museum in Figueres transforms a Cadillac Series 62 convertible from Dalí’s collection into a black taxi. It features a driver wearing a shark hat and a woman in an evening dress seated in the back, surrounded by a wet interior where lettuce, chicory, and Burgundy snails appear to grow. Rain falls inside the car through an ingenious piping system that can be activated by visitors using a 1 euro coin. The front is topped by a giant mascot-like radiator figure, a copy of Ernst Fuchs’s La grande Esther. The work is currently exhibited in the entrance patio-garden of the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Catalonia.

Rainy Taxi suspended between stone buildings and a glass dome under a blue sky.
Rainy Taxi hangs in the open courtyard of the Teatre Museu Dalí.
© · CC BY-SA 3.0
Rainy Taxi sculpture at the Dalí Theatre-Museum, with a black vintage car, a nude bronze figure above it, and ivy-covered stonework behind.
Rainy Taxi at the Dalí Theatre-Museum, showing the vintage car and the bronze figure above it.
© · CC BY-SA 2.0
Rainy Taxi sculpture with two grappling figures beneath hanging blue teardrops
Rainy Taxi at the Dalí Theatre and Museum, showing the dark figures and the rain-like blue drops above them.
© · CC BY-SA 2.0
Rainy Taxi sculpture visible through an arched window at the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, with a yellow boat and blue hanging strands.
Rainy Taxi seen through a large arched window at the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres.
© · CC BY-SA 3.0
Surreal black and white scene of Rainy Taxi seen through a fractured windshield, with a mannequin in the driver\'s seat and reflections of two people in the windows.
Rainy Taxi seen through a reflective windshield, with a mannequin at the wheel and figures reflected in the glass.
© · CC BY 3.0

Identification

TitleRainy Taxi
TypeSculpture / installation
Alternative titlesLe Taxi pluvieux; la Cadillac pluvieuse; Cadillac Lluvioso; The Rainy Taxi; Mannequin Rotting in a Taxi-Cab

Historical context

Date1938
StyleDadaist surrealist art
Work statusCreated in several versions

Creator

ArtistSalvador Dalí
Artist nationalitySpanish
Artist life dates1904–1989
Notable claimDescribed by Dalí as the largest surrealist monument in the world

Discovery and provenance

Main hall designerMarcel Duchamp and Wolfgang Paalen
Travel and exile contextDalí and Gala visited the United States with this car and later spent eight years in New York from 1939 to 1947, fleeing Spain and Europe during World War II
Vehicle provenanceThe Cadillac came from Salvador Dalí's personal collection and was offered by him to Gala Dalí; it was used during the couple's travels in the United States in the 1930s
Water installation supervisionWolfgang Paalen was responsible for supervising the water installations
Model claimDalí stated that there were only six examples of this Cadillac model and claimed examples were owned by Franklin Roosevelt, Clark Gable, and Al Capone
Exhibition organizersAndré Breton and Paul Éluard
Later versionInstalled in 1974 at the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres after the building was transformed into a museum
Second version recreationRecreated in New York in 1939
First version creationCreated in Paris in 1938
First exhibitionExhibited in 1938 at Galerie Beaux-Arts, Paris, for the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme

Materials

Base vehicleA Rolls-Royce for the Paris version; a New York yellow taxi cab for the New York version; a 1938 Cadillac Series 62 convertible with a V8 engine for the museum version

Physical characteristics

CompositionAn actual automobile with two mannequin occupants
Vehicle transformationTransformed into a black taxi

Appearance

Front hood elementA Trajan's Column made of tires
Driver figureA chauffeur with a shark head, seated in the front seat and wearing a shark hat
Passenger figureA woman in an evening dress seated in the back seat, with tousled hair
Interior environmentLettuce and chicory grow around the passenger, with live Burgundy snails crawling across her body
Rain effectRain falls inside the car, creating a damp, wet setting
Upper hood elementA giant leaking boat atop a man tied up with a tire
Radiator mascotThe Great Esther, a realistic fantasy sculpture by Austrian sculptor Ernst Fuchs, serves as a giant radiator cap on the front hood
Radiator mascot detailsDecorated with a mane and harnessed by two chains

Technique

Interactive featureActivated by the public using a €1 coin slot
Rain mechanismAn ingenious system of pipes

Location and ownership

Current locationEntrance courtyard patio-garden of the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Catalonia
Associated museumDalí Theatre-Museum (Museu Dalí) in Figueres, Catalonia
Exhibited versionThe version displayed at the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres
Reconstruction statusA reconstruction of the original installation is installed in the open courtyard
SurroundingsSurrounded by Art Deco golden mannequins in the former theater boxes and by other Dalí works on the patio walls, including statues, monsters, and drawers

Significance

InterpretationIt illustrates the extravagant and delirious side of the interwar period and the two World Wars in an artistic, intellectual, and humorous way
Historical contextAssociated with the international popularity of surrealism, which was then very much in vogue internationally

Other

Reference to other siteIts statues, monsters, and drawers recall the sculptures of the Monster Park near Rome