Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time
Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time (or Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of Contemporary Cinema), also known as the Barcelona Sphinx, is a 1939 artwork in gouache, pastel and collage on cardboard, by surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. It measures . It is housed in the Netherlands, at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam's principal art gallery. 

The painting depicts the child star Shirley Temple as a sphinx. Shirley Temple's head, taken from a newspaper photograph, is superimposed on the body of a red lioness with breasts and white claws. On top of the head is a vampire bat. Surrounding the sphinx are a human skull and other bones, suggesting her latest kill. At the bottom of the painting is a trompe-l'œil label that reads: "Shirley!. at last in Technicolor." The painting has been described as a satire on the sexualization of child stars by Hollywood.

The painting was first shown at an exhibition held at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York, from March 21 to April 18, 1939 (although the exhibition catalogue does not mention the painting, an article in the "New York Times" mentions its presence). It has also been exhibited in 1983 at the Palau Reial de Pedralbes in Barcelona, in 1985 at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Charleroi, and again in Barcelona in 2004, at the CaixaForum gallery. From June 1 to September 9, 2007 it was one of around 100 Dalí works on display at the Tate Modern in London as part of the "Dalí and Film" exhibition.
Q204330
gouache
Concept
Q189085
pastel
Concept
Q170593
collage
Concept
Q39427
surrealist
Concept
Q5577
Salvador Dalí
PER
Q55
the Netherlands
LOC
Q679527
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
LOC
Q34370
Rotterdam
LOC
Q970153
child star
Concept
Q182580
Shirley Temple
PER
Q151480
sphinx
Concept
Q140
lioness
Concept
Q468930
trompe-l'œil
Concept
Q1467001
sexualization
Concept
Q3189569
Julien Levy Gallery
PER
Q1815135
Palau Reial de Pedralbes
LOC
Q81046
Charleroi
LOC
Q960115
CaixaForum
LOC
Q193375
Tate Modern
LOC
Q1400994
Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time
MEDIA
1939-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1939
DATE
1939-04-18T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
April 18, 1939
DATE
1983-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1983
DATE
1985-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1985
DATE
2004-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2004
DATE
2007-09-09T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
September 9, 2007
DATE
+21^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
21
NUMBER
+1^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1
NUMBER
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