Salvador Dalí

Executed circa 1976-77. This work is accompanied by a copy of a certificate of authenticity issued and signed by Nicolas and Olivier Descharnes. 

Salvador Dalí, born in Figueres, Spain, showed artistic talent from an early age and studied at the School of Fine Arts in Madrid. A pivotal moment came in 1929 when he met Surrealists Paul and Gala Éluard, René Magritte, and dealer Camille Goemans, who organized his first Paris solo show. That year, Gala became his lifelong muse, and he formally joined the Surrealists, developing his paranoiac-critical method. Dalí collaborated on the Surrealist films Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L’Age d’Or (1930), and in 1931 painted The Persistence of Memory, his most iconic work. Supported by patron Edward James and gallerist Julien Levy, he achieved international fame. Expelled from the Surrealist group in 1939, he insisted he remained its true representative. Dalí continued creating until his health declined in the 1980s, passing away in Figueres in 1989, six years after Gala.

Les Vins de Gala (1976–77) is a striking collage-and-gouache composition created as the cover design for Dalí’s book of the same name. Dalí has here transformed a photographic print into a dreamlike vision, layering fragmented portraits of his wife and muse, Gala, within glistening, grapelike spheres. Central to the composition is a reproduction of Dalí’s Galarina (1944–45), an intimate painting that captures Gala’s enigmatic presence.

Published in 1977, Les Vins de Gala is a lavish surrealist exploration of the world’s finest wines, organized not by region but by emotional and sensory experience. It serves as a counterpart to Dalí’s earlier publication Les Dîners de Gala (1973), a hedonistic cookbook filled with extravagant recipes inspired by his passion for gastronomy. While Les Dîners de Gala indulged in the excesses of fine dining, Les Vins de Gala celebrates the alchemical magic of wine, featuring elaborate illustrations and musings on intoxication, mythology and the subconscious. Metallic, embossed letters spelling out "DALI" crown the composition. This work exemplifies Dalí’s ability to fuse personal iconography with opulent fantasy, turning even the act of drinking wine into a theatrical experience.