Behind The Enigma

×

Expand

A Russian artist and creator simply known as Gala, who married two of the most influential figures in the Surrealist movement, continues to be an enigma long after her death. During her life in the inner circle of artistes, she was painted by the key figures of the Surrealist movement, and worked with Salvador Dalí on many of his later pieces. She eventually became the centre of so many scandals that André Breton commented that she had a destructive influence on everyone she befriended. Despite her own talents, she has long been seen more as a muse to her husbands, Paul Eluard and Dalí, than as an artist in her own right.

This new exhibition at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, which brings together works by Max Ernst, Picasso and Brassaï amongst others, is the first international show dedicated to the woman herself, rather than the artists that she inspired. Featuring more than 40 pieces from the Dalí Foundation, alongside works borrowed from private collections and art galleries across the globe, it uses letters and personal objects from Gala’s boudoir to question how far the muse used her status amongst the Surrealists as inspiration for her own artistic work, some of which is also on display.