
Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dali

Gala Dalí, Carnets Intimes
Michèle Gerber Klein • Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dali
There was also love. It was while he was working on the Eaubonne house panels that Ernst created his erotic masterpiece: La Belle Jardinière (The Beautiful Gardener), which is a luscious nude of Gala named after a painting of the Madonna by Raphael.
Michèle Gerber Klein • Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dali
Ernst was also working on Au Rendez-vous des Amis (The Meeting of Friends) his famous portrait of Littérature’s protagonists, in which he prophetically depicted Gala, the only woman in the painting, as an independent soul searching for new horizons. Gala, who is standing next to a bust of the group’s idol, Giorgio de Chirico, has turned her back to
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Les Pléiades,
Michèle Gerber Klein • Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dali
This open ménage à trois distressed almost everyone, except Max, who, in photographs of that period, looks quite pleased with himself. Gala, meanwhile, became increasingly melancholic and petulant, if not stormy. In an apparent attempt to telegraph that Russians had their own views on infidelity and that her newsworthy tryst was an effort to please
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Max too lived in fear. Thanks to his left-wing political beliefs and status as a dangerous agitator, he was subjected to ongoing surveillance. Not only had Ernst been denied the visas he needed to leave Germany, he also worked under the constant threat that at any moment his precious art, now labeled “subversive,” would be seized by the authorities
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The vernissage, which ended up being more of a happening than an ordinary art opening, did not disappoint. Cultural celebrities such as André Gide and painter Kees van Dongen turned out to watch Aragon impersonating a kangaroo in the cellar and Soupault playing hide-and-seek by himself on the first floor. As soon as night fell, the lights were
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The Éluards both agreed that painting was poetic expression, so expanding their collection was a natural task for Gala to take on. She befriended Amédée Ozenfant, a post-Cubist painter who showed at Galerie Druet. Amédée, who liked Paul and Gala, was happy to introduce the eager young couple to the art world and its latest trends. With Ozenfant’s
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