Exhibition "Atomic Leda and Other Images of Gala in the Works of Salvador Dali"

The Cultural and Historical Foundation "Link of Times" and the Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg present the exhibition "Atomic Leda and Other Images of Gala in the Works of Salvador Dali". The exhibition is organized in partnership with the Gala - Salvador Dali Foundation (Figueres).

Exhibition curator: Monsé Ager, Director of the Dali Museums of the Gala - Salvador Dali Foundation.

The exhibition will feature a unique selection of paintings and graphic works by Dali, depicting his wife and muse - Gala. Most of these works were included in the personal collection of the artist, who considered them so valuable and significant for his work that, at the request of Dali, they were constantly exhibited in his Theater-Museum in Figueres. Dali idolized Gala and over the years created his own mythology, in which she was the main character, a kind of Genius, showing him the way.

The numerous guises in which she appears in his painting - Leda and Elena the Beautiful, Gradiva and Galarina - refer to well-known subjects of ancient and European culture and at the same time reflect the metamorphoses that took place in the work of Dali himself.

The central work of the exhibition, Atomic Leda, was created by Dali in 1947-1949 and is rightfully considered one of his most important creations. Here Gala is depicted in the form of the Spartan queen Leda, who, according to myth, was seduced by Zeus, who took the form of a swan. In "Atomic Ice" Dali fully realizes the principles of his "atomic mysticism", according to which all objects and elements of the composition are depicted as if suspended in space and not in contact with each other. For Dali himself, Atomic Leda was a milestone work, his first true masterpiece, an “ideal picture” built in accordance with the rules of the golden section and sacred geometry. In it, he reaches maturity as an artist and henceforth considers himself entitled to teach others.

Another masterpiece in the exhibition is Galarina (1945), a half-length portrait of Gala, which refers to the work of Raphael, the master who played a primary role in the creative universe of Dali. "Galarina" has not left the walls of the Theater-Museum in Figueres since the death of Dali, and its display in Russia is a real sensation.