Les dîners de Gala
An installation based on the cook book illustrated by Salvador Dalí
Museum Gustaf 16 June — 21 October 2018
An installation comprising works from late output of the master of Surrealism, Dalí’s Gala is a delightful tribute to Salvador Dalí, whose life and art cannot be separated. The exhibition based on the surrealist cook book Les dîners de Gala, published in 1973.
Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was a controversial artist whose meris a pioneer of surrealist and avantgarde is undisputed. During his career of seventy years he created paintings, sculptures, graphic works, installations, stage art, jewellery, stamps, wall paper and product labels. Dalí created his reputation as the master of Surrealism in Europe before the Second World War. Thereafter, he was an artist and dandy known to everyone, who effectively alienated himself from the purists of the world of culture.
He painted portraits of the upper class, he was a celebrity familiar from newspapers and television, and he sailed from one scandal to the next. André Breton described the Dalí of world repute as a man who only heard the creaking of his patent-leather shoes. At the same time, however, Dalí opened his art in surprising directions. He was at times interested in the natural sciences, at times in the Catholic faith, classical historical painting or theatre, and he was a devoted illustrator. The artist’s reputation has been blemished by numerous forgeries, although this did not appear to particularly bother Dalí himself.
In the 1970s, he published one of the master works of his late output, the Surrealist cook book Les dîners de Gala. Dalí’s Gala is an installation, based on this book, comprising works of the artist’s late output. The book comprises altogether 136 recipes obtained at that time from the best restaurants of Paris. The book has been illustrated with Dalí’s series of graphic works depicting surralist food portions.
Rather than a show of artworks by Salvado Dalí, the exhibition Les dîners de Gala is about Salvador Dalí. The exhibition is curated by Pauli Sivonen and Tarja Väätänen.
