Surreal

The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dali

'In Michèle Gerber Klein's new biography, Surreal, Gala Dalí gets her due' - New York Times Book Review

The long-awaited, definitive biography of Gala Dalí, which unmasks this famous yet little-known queen of the twentieth-century art world.

Using previously undiscovered material, Surreal tells the riveting story of Gala Dalí,(1894-1982) who broke away from her cultured but penurious background in pre-Revolutionary Russia to live in Paris with both France's most famous poet, Paul Éluard, and artist Max Ernst. By the time she met the budding artist Salvador Dali in 1929, Gala was known as the Mother of Surrealism. She rapidly became his mentor and protector, marrying him in 1934 and subsequently engineering their vast fortune. At a time when artists were celebrities, Gala acted as the ambassador of the Surrealist movement, spreading its popularity across the globe. She was the survivor of two world wars, the Russian revolution and the Spanish Civil War, and lived between France, Spain and the U.S.

Gala was a heroine whose originality captivated people wherever she went, and her life story has everything : glamour; drama; true love, twisted love; ambition; money; art; defiance and daring. In this vivid, detailed rendering, Michèle Gerber Klein has brought Gala out of the shadows to reveal a charismatic figure who played a pivotal role in the art world, yet has never received the full recognition she deserves.