SALVADOR DALI
TITLE: GALA GRADIVA (1970)
MEDIUM: Bronze sculpture
EDITION: of 99 examples in bronze
SIZE: 89.5 x 48 x 45 cm. (35.2 x 18.9 x 17.7 in.)
LITERATURE: Catalogue Raisonne ‘Le Dur et le Mou’ by Robert & Nicolas Descharnes, pg. 170, Ref #431
A P.E. cast of the 89,5 x 48 x 45 cm edition is part of the permanent collection of the Butler Institute of American Art (Ohio, USA).
After having read Freud’s analysis of W. Jensen’s Gradiva, Dali recognized Gala as his Gradiva and, like Hanold, the main character of Jensen’s story, “He was unable to explain what it was in her that aroused his interest; he only knew that from the first moment he had felt dominated by an intense attraction which time did not succeed in weakening”.
“as she walks, she gathers up her flowing garments, revealing her sandaled feet, one of which rests completely on the ground, whilst with the other she is on tiptoes, the sole and ankle almost perpendicular to the earth. This pose is not at all usual and the artist wished to place it in his sculptural work because of the special attraction it produces.” Sigmund Freud on “Gradiva” by W. Jensen.
