Gala My Ass Painting By Richard Barone

Year:

Medium:

Oil Painting

Size - (USA):

60 W x 48 H x 0 D (inches)

Size - (metric):

152.4 W x 121.9 H x 0.0 D (centimeters)

Theme:

Surrealism

Edition:

Original

Artwork ID:

634881

PDF Copy:

Artwork Info Sheet (PDF)

Artwork Description:

Gala was, of course, Salvador Dali’s wife and the subject of many of his paintings. Gala Contemplates the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln 1976 is not a portrait of Gala but of a waitress Dali met at a restaurant in New York City. Dali had a friend ask her to pose for the painting in his studio. Gala Dali 1894-1982 was 82 at the time. Dali’s model had problems keeping the pose for long hours in the studio and used a cane for support. The model I used for the painting was Nay Charles and flexes her powerful back muscles and, being black, shares a more meaningful connection with Lincoln. She covers her eyes to protest the setting of the museum. Dali’s idea for image transformation was taken from an article in Scientific American by Leon Harmon titled “The Recognition of Faces” that explained the digitization into grids of Lincoln’s image on a five-dollar bill. Was this genius It is said that Dali was a candaulist and got sexual gratification watching his wife make love to other men. Also, before he died, he signed thousands of blank sheets of paper in order for his heirs to make and sell prints as originals, which was fraud. There is a paternity claim in the courts and orders to have Dali’s body exhumed for a DNA sample. A former maid. To be continued. The original site of Dali’s Museum must have looked good to him at the time, on a waterfront like the places in Spain that gave him inspiration. Today, the museum overlooks the St. Pete Yacht Club and the street between the building and the water becomes the site of a Grand Prix race every year. His huge Gala painting cum Lincoln hangs there. Ants are able to fall from great heights and walk away unharmed. Not on the same scale with humans and evidence of intelligent design in nature. Dali’s use of ants had a different meaning.

Artwork Keywords:   Dali, Salvador Dali, Gala, Dali Museum, Surrealism, Original Painting

Materials:   Oil Paintings