This year marks a special celebration in the art world: the 130th anniversary of the mythical woman who shaped Dalí’s Genius, Elena Dmitrievna D’jakonova, famously known as Gala.
Born on September 7, 1894, in Kazan, Russia, Gala became a key figure in Salvador Dalí’s life and work. This year also marks the 120th anniversary of Dalí’s birth, making it the perfect time to celebrate their lasting legacy.
Dalí and Gala, 1936, Photography by Cecil Beaton. From the book “Ritratto di un genio”.
Gala wasn’t just Dalí’s muse—she was his wife, partner, and guiding force. Dalí often said he couldn’t function without her. She managed his finances, took care of everyday tasks, and inspired his creativity. When they met in 1929, Gala helped free Dalí from his fears and obsessions. Dalí even called her Gradiva, after a character from a Sigmund Freud story, symbolizing victory and balance in his life.
Before Gala met Dalí, she had already played the role of a muse. She was married to the poet Paul Éluard, who gave her the name Gala. Éluard saw her rare ability to inspire great artists. But in 1929, after meeting Dalí, she left Éluard and their daughter Cécile to fully dedicate herself to Dalí. From that moment on, she became the center of Dalí’s life and work.
Gala in Dalí’s art.
Dalí’s admiration for Gala is easy to see in his artwork. He painted her many times, in pieces like Portrait of Gala with Two Lamb Chops in Equilibrium upon Her Shoulderand The Madonna of Portlligat, where she appears as the Virgin Mary. Gala wasn’t just a model, though—she represented his spiritual journey and his search for meaning in science and mysticism. Many of Dalí’s most famous works from the 1950s were inspired by her.
For Dalí, Gala’s face was something divine. On August 14, 1953, he wrote about his fear and excitement when painting her face. He believed that her image would help him discover more about himself and his art. “It is because of the fear of touching Gala’s face that I will finally be able to paint!” To Dalí, Gala’s face connected him to life, creativity, and even the divine.
From the moment they met, Gala believed in Dalí’s Genius. She dedicated her life to supporting and nurturing him, and together they built a partnership that changed the art world. As we celebrate Gala’s 130th birthday and Dalí’s 120th, we should remember their unique bond.
Gala was far more than just a muse—she was Dalí’s anchor, his inspiration, and his other half, she really was the mythical woman who shaped Dalí’s Genius. Their story is a testament to the power of love, art, and creativity.
Among the many artworks inspired by the surrealistic love between Salvador Dalí and Gala, the bronze sculpture Unicorn featuring a heart-shaped opening in a wall stands out as a profound representation of his eternal love for her. This piece celebrates their unbreakable connection, with the heart symbolizing the deep emotional bond they shared.
In his autobiography, Dalí depicts his muse and wife as the central force in his life, riding what he calls “the Unicorn of my Fate”. In this context, the Unicorn emerges as a mythical symbol of purity and perfection, reflecting Dalí’s view of Gala as his muse and the wellspring of his artistic inspiration.
For Dalí, the unicorn wasn’t merely a legendary creature but a powerful metaphor for his idealized and perfect love for his wife. It also became a recurring motif in his surrealist works, representing both their relationship and broader ideas of purity and magic.
As we reflect on the anniversaries of their births—130 years since Gala’s birth and 120 years since Dalí’s—it is fitting to see this sculpture as a tribute to their extraordinary relationship. The heart, the woman figure, and the unicorn combine to tell a story of love, art, and devotion that has transcended time.
Surrealism and the creativity that sparks from the subconscious
Started from the ashes of the first world war, the surrealistic movement had in Paris its main cultural center where the artists exchanged thoughts and influences and developed the idea and philosophy.
the surrealist group in Paris – 1930, from left to right: T. Tzara, P. Eluard, A. Breton, H. Arp, S. Dali, Y. Tanguy, M. Ernst, R. Crevel, M. Ray
Giving more importance to dreams than to reality, to irrationality and subconscious more than to rationality and logical, the artists and writers refused the cult of reason inherited from the illuminism and followed a new path, under the guidance of André Breton, leader and founder of the movement.
In his first “Manifest of Surrealism”, written in 1924, Breton defined Surrealism as the search for a new reality, the surreality, where the real and the oniric lives cross and mix, giving birth the a new creativity, the creativity of subconscious.
Sigmund Freud and his theory of psychoanalysis, according to which human thoughts and feelings are influenced by the psychical processes of the unconscious layer, become the pillars for this new creativity.
Psychoanalysis invites the patient to express their feelings, dreams and thoughts in a spontaneous free flow, without the use and limits of rationality. This symbolical interpretation of dreams and of unrestricted associations, become the guiding path for the artists to free their creativity.
In his manifestoes Breton defined surrealism as: “Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express-verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner-the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern”. At the core of this idea there is the research and experimentation aimed at the liberation from the control imposed by rationality toward a new reality, completely unbound to any rational thought.
Dream and reality, oneiric and real life, past and future cease to exist in their essence of opposed entities and are reinterpreted by the artist, becoming interwoven and coexisting through the work of art. Sleep and dream are the fundamental pillars for the activation of the automatic thinking and the creativity of the artists. Sleep is a key aspect for many surrealists. Amongst them Salvador Dali considers it as a core element for the realization of his art and methodically focuses on it, using sleep as a tool.
Salvador Dalí and his relation with the surrealist movement
Apparatus and Hand – Salvador Dali
Salvador Dalí at the time in which the first manifesto was published was still at the Royal Academy of Arts in Madrid and his style was still inspired by cubism. He got closer to the surrealism movement only later and quickly became one of its main interpreters. His first surrealist masterpieces are the 1927 “Honey is Sweeter than Blood” and “ Apparatus and Hand” paintings. In 1929 he was amongst the artist who signed the second Surrealist Manifesto redacted by Breton.
His relation with the movement however was never simple, his extravagance and irrationality were probably excessive even for the surrealist. In 1939 he was expelled from the official movement for his political view far from those of the movement that was turning toward anarchist and Marxist ideas to counter the growth of the far right in the European countries.
Years later he claimed: “I am surrealism, I am the only one who is carrying it on. I have repudiated nothing; on the contrary, I have reaffirmed, sublimated, hierarchized, rationalized, dematerialized, spiritualized everything”.
The Lugubrious Game – Salvador Dali
In 1929, the year when he painted “The Lugubrious Game” he developed the paranoiac critical method, in his words “a spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on the interpretative-critical association of delirium phenomena”. During the summer Dali had a group of surrealists as guests in Cadaques, among them Magritte, Luis Bunuel and Paul Eluard with his wife Gala and their daughter. The painting triggered a vivid interest in the surrealists and lead to Dali´s acceptance in the movement. In that same summer Gala Eluard fell in Love with Dali and decided to remain with him, leaving Eluard.
Through his surrealist and oneiric vision, Dali uses art to shake our thoughts, free our unconscious, frighten our rationality. With art he wants to question us, invite us to find new meanings and communicate directly with our souls through his incredible imagination.
The role of dreams in Salvador Dalí art
For Dali deep sleep is absolutely necessary to complete with success the work of art. In his book “50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship” he writes: “A heavy, long and peaceful sleep will therefore be most propitious, not only to create the physical and psychic calm to be desired in order to attain the coolness necessary to face the white and menacing bull of your virgin canvas which, at the end of your faena, is to fall immortalized by the death stroke of your last touch, but also and expecially, you must know that it is precisely during this sleep, which you wrongly regard as reducing you to a state of paradoxical inactivity and indifference before the immence of the work which you are prepariong to execute, that you will secretly, in the very depths of your spirit, solve most of its subtle and complicated technical problems which in your state of waking consciousness you would never be humanly capable to solving”.
According to Dali after this deep sleep, at the awakening, most of the relevant work for the realization of the artwork has been accomplished. “When I awake, ballet dancers leap in my brain. As I retain the image I sketch them before they run away”.
The creative energy should be triggered with a specific methods that he calls “slumber with a key”. “You must seat yourself in a bony armchair, preferably of Spanish style, with your head tilted back and resting on the stretched leather back. Your two hands must hang beyond the arms of the chair, to which your own must be soldered in a supineness of complete relaxation. […] In this posture, you must hold a heavy key which you will keep suspended, delicately pressed between the extremities of the thumb and forefinger of your left hand. Under the key you will previously have placed a plate upside down on the floor…. The moment the key drops from your fingers, you may be sure that the noise of its fall on the upside down plate will awaken you.” This sudden awakening is extremely important as “Only the last dream, the one closest to waking, can be influenced and directed”.
The “Persistence of Memory” and the “Profile of Time”
If it wasn´t for sleep and meditation, possibly today we wouldn´t have the chance to admire many of Dali´s masterpieces, including the “Persistence of Memory”, considered by many as his most important painting and conceived right after a nap by a piece of melting camembert.
The Persistence of Memory – Salvador Dali
Dali himself in his autobiography “The secret life of Salvador Dali” describes: “It was on an evening when I felt tired, and had a slight head-ache, […]. We were to go to a moving picture with some friends, and at the last moment I decided not to go. Gala would go with them, and I would stay home and go to bed early. We had topped off our meal with a very strong Camembert, and after everyone had gone I remained for a long time seated at the table meditating on the philosophic problems of the «super-soft» which the cheese presented to my mind. I got up and went into my studio, where I lit the light in order to cast a final glance, as is my habit, at the picture I was in the midst of painting. This picture represented a landscape near Port Lligat, whose rocks were lighted by a trasparent and melancholy twilight, in the foreground an olive tree with its branches cut, and without leaves. […] I was about to turn out the light, when instantaneously I «saw» the solution. I saw two soft watches, one of them hanging lamentably on the branch of the olive tree. In spite of the fact that my head-ache had increased to the point of becoming very painful, I avidly prepared my palette and set to work. When Gala returned from the theatre two hours later the picture, which was to be one of my most famous, was completed”.
The sculpture “Profile of Time”, conceived in 1977 and recalling the soft watch leaning on the tree in “the persistence of memory”, perfectly illustrates the concept of sleeping without sleeping, of that interim between unconsciousness and consciousness. Like in the painting the watch is softly lied on the branches of an olive tree, its shape melting toward a droplet that doesn´t reach the ground but seems portrayed in the instant just before its fall. The droplet mimics the spoon about to fall on the plate and thus the moment just before the awakening of the dreamer.
With the “profile of time” Dali shows time as it appears in dreams, in the instant just preceding the awakening which inevitably would bring us back to reality and rationality.
When it comes to limited edition sculptures and art pieces, there’s no other medium quite like bronze. This heavy and dense metal is the perfect candidate for creating a small amount of highly valuable and collectible artworks. Bronze casting is an ancient process that dates back to around 2500 B.C., when it was first discovered by the Babylonians. Since then, artists have been experimenting with new ways to create bronze ornaments and sculptures, often casting them in editions limited to maintain their value and keep them from hitting mass markets. Here’s a brief history of this process:
The History of Bronze Casting: From Ancient Times to Today
Bronze casting has been around for thousands of years. It was first discovered by the Babylonians around 2500 B.C., when they found that copper could be combined with tin to form a durable, more useful metal. This discovery spurred on the creation of bronze tools and eventually, very early forms of bronze sculptures. Over time, various civilizations adopted the practice of bronze casting and developed new methods of creating bronze art pieces. The oldest sculptures in bronze are probably those found at the archaeological site in the Indus Valley. Chinese artists were particularly fond of the practice and created many fine examples of bronze art over the centuries. In Europe the Greeks where very fine bronze sculptors and the collection of Roman sculptures finely preserved until now is impressive.
Some of the peculiarities of bronze that allowed the preservation of sculptures and tools during the centuries are its resistance to corrosion and its relatively high melting temperature thanks to which many sculptures have survived fires.
How Does the Lost Wax Process of Bronze Casting Work?
The process of creating a bronze sculpture begins with the creation of a model out of clay, plaster, gypsum or any other material the artist is confident to work on. The artist shapes their design and then, often relying on a foundry, creates a negative mould of the sculpture generally in gypsum and, in modern times, silicon or latex. This mould is conceived in a way that it can be opened in order to remove the initial model and fill the inside with molten wax that will take the exact shape of the initial model while it cools. This wax copy is then removed from the mould and covered in clay to form a shell all around it. To harden the clay the block is heated in an oven, melting away the wax (thus the “lost wax” process) and obtaining a block of terracotta with inside an empty cavity with the exact shape of the initial model. By pouring liquid bronze inside this block, letting it cool and destroying the clay you finally have a bronze copy of the artwork.
This in short and with a huge approximation is the lost wax process to cast bronze sculptures. There are of course other activities needed, starting from the addition of channels for the flow of bronze, their removal later, ceaseling of the bronze sculpture to remove imperfections, the polishing of the surfaces to the desired aspect, the patination or painting of the finished sculpture. In modern times new technologies like welding, specific alloys, clays, resins and chemicals allow for more complex or customised works, but the main process and its principles remain unchanged since the bronze age.
One of the interesting characteristics of this process is that the first negative mould is not lost or destructed during the work and can thus be reused to produce a new wax and restart the casting to create an edition of basically identical sculptures.
The Value of Limited Editions and Their Market
As we saw bronze casting is the perfect medium for creating artworks in edition. This process is however very expensive, man-work intensive and time-consuming, making it impractical for creating excessively large editions. On the other side, the art market has learned that one of the key components of the value of a work of art is its scarcity. The trade off for artists is always between increasing the number of collectors that can have a piece of their art and limiting the size of the edition to preserve their value. Often it becomes a philosophical choice of trade off between democratizing the act of art collecting and keeping it for the elites
Like for bronze casting, also the various forms of printing since their invention have always been used for editions. The cost of producing an edition of prints however is generally more connected to the production of the initial matrix. Regardless of the tool used, be it a stone for lithographs, an etching, a woodcut or a linocut, the cost of producing an additional print is irrelevant compared to that of the matrix. As a consequence while for sculptures it is not uncommon to have editions limited to very few exemplars, prints are generally large editions (even in the thousands) and their market value is lower.
There are obviously many exceptions to this rule, the famous Andy Warhol´s silkscreens are heavily handmade, in low editions and often each print is considered as single artwork. On the other extreme some bronze sculptures are factory made in unlimited editions even if this means that their market value is not far from their production cost.
The art market standards consider a bronze sculpture basically as valuable as a unique piece when cast in an edition of 12 of less sculptures and it is officially called an “original”. Just as an example the “L’Homme au doigt” by Alberto Giacometti that sold in auction in 2015 for more than 141 million USD was edited in 6 casts plus an artist proof. An edition of more than 12 is called “multiple” and there is no maximum defined by standard, on average I would say the editions are under 500 casts. A limited edition bronze often comes with an inscription with its unique number and the edition size. This mark is usually inscribed on the bronze’s plinth or base or, sometimes, on the body of the sculpture and helps collectors identify the edition’s rarity.
“L´Homme au Doigt”, Alberto Giacometti 1947
Our Dali Limited Edition Sculptures
The limited edition Salvador Dalí sculptures of our collection are cast at the Perseo Art Foundry, one of the oldest and most prestigious bronze foundries still operating in Switzerland. They are based on maquettes originally made by Salvador Dalí who approved through his secretaries the first exemplars of the edition. Each of the sculptures is uniquely identified by its edition number, has the foundry mark on its base and is accompanied by a letter in which the Perseo Art Foundry confirms its casting.
The artisans working at Perseo have a very long working experience and together with our staff are extremely focused on the quality of their productions, selecting the best alloy for the casting and welding, investing all the time and dedication needed to minimize the possibilities of imperfections in the sculptures and constantly improving their tools, technologies and procedures. Their sculptures, not only the Salvador Dalí editions, are exhibited and sold everywhere in the world. The best ambassadors for the foundry are the great and loyal artists that ever since rely on these artisans to realize their creations.
Buying art is rewarding for our soul but often it is also a good financial investment. Art acquisitions can or should be based not only on aesthetic, artistic and emotional values, but also on the potential of appreciation as an investment.
Historically art investment has offered good protection against high inflation and uncertainty or volatility on the financial markets. In the art market demand comes mainly from collectors, from financial investors who invest in art purely for speculation, from public and corporate collections and from museums or other cultural institutions. Generally the collectors acquire art as store of value for the long term, thus holding into their investments in period of uncertainty in the financial markets. In a similar way investors looking for a speculative return are attracted by the art market when the more traditional financial investments are characterized by high unpredictability. Given the intrinsic scarcity of the works of art, when both of these classes of investors are buying or holding into their art collections, the values remain high or increase.
Art tends to increase in value over time. According to data collected by Artprice.com, the investment in art in the past 20 years have always consistently outperformed the investments in the financial markets. The graph comparing their Artprice100 index and the S&P500 here is impressive.
The last months of 2021 and 2022 have globally seen rising inflation rates. The art market in this same period has dramatically grown both in cumulated value and in the prices of single artworks. The first quarter of 2022 has seen records sales at auctions, with more than 200 artworks sold for more than 1 million USD. The most interesting for my taste being the1961 Magritte painting “L´Empire des Lumieres” sold at Sotheby´s London for more than 59 million GBP, three times the previous record for this master of surrealism. In May Andy Warhol´s 1964 “Shot Sage Blue Marylin”, sold for 168 million USD, reached the highest price in history for a XX century artwork. These are not isolated results, in the New York spring sales Sotheby´s, Christie´s and Phillips realized a cumulated turnover close to the records of 2018 and 2015, at over 2,84 billion USD.
René Magritte L’empire des lumières Image from Sotheby´s catalogue
It is true that there are risks and downsides for the investment in works of art. Compared to the financial markets the art investment is generally less liquid, the monetization might require longer time and higher intermediary fees should be expected. When considering an investment in art it is quite important to understand the correct artist and artwork to invest in, considering the desired holding time before monetization, the risks that you are willing to take and the desired returns.
Generally speaking contemporary living artists might give better returns, but expose the investor to higher risks. A young, unknown artist might be discovered as a great innovator and a leading figure of a new movement thus with a huge potential of increase in the values of his production. However there is always the risk that they won´t be appreciated by critics, art galleries and institution and they might not realize the desired growth. On the other hand the famous and established artists of last century will not see extreme sudden growth in value as the artistic and financial value of their production has already been defined and priced by the market. Those artworks should be considered as sound store of wealth, which will steadily increase over time given the scarcity of their works but without huge speculative waves and the related risks.
The artworks we manage at MassimoMartina.art are definitely in this last category. If you want to know more, feel free to ask, we would be happy to share our thoughts with anyone interested.
Lastly, when you invest in art remember to always acquire something that you like or that is meaningful to you. While you´ll hold on your investment you will enjoy its beauty, you will share your emotions with your dearest and you will nourish your soul. The highest risk is that when the time to sell will come, you´ll prefer to keep your collection and enjoy it for longer.
The Dali Universe is the brand of a collection of Salvador Dalí artworks curated by Mr. Beniamino Levi.
The Origins
Mr. Levi began his path in the art business in the late ´50s when he opened an art gallery in the very center of Milan, in Via Montenapoleone. Thanks to this activity he had the chance to meet and trade the top artists of the time. Picasso, Andy Wahrol, Lucio Fontana and Salvador Dalí where often exhibited at his gallery.
Since the late ´70s he started to focus mainly on the world of Salvador Dalí sculptures, where he developed a strong expertise. As a result in a short time he became not only a trader and collector, but also one of the most important editors. In the early ´90s he opened the Dalí Paris exhibition and started what is now the group Dali Universe.
The Maturity
The Dali Universe today is one of the most relevant institution in the Dalí art market. The number of artworks in the collection is probably the biggest in private hands. Several concurrent exhibitions are managed by the group , most notably the Dali Paris, the Persistence of Opposites in Matera (Italy), Enigma in Prague or the Dali exhibition in Bruges (Belgium). The sculptures edited by the group are in many private and public collections.
For almost 14 years Massimo Martina has lead the Dali Universe as CFO, side by side with Mr. Levi and with the COO Mr. Alex Doppia. During these years the group has grown from a family business to a professional company. It has widened the worldwide network of partners and client galleries and reinforced its position as a center of excellence for Salvador Dalí sculptures.
What´s next
There are still however many countries in which the sculptural works of the master of surrealism are still little known. The new journey Mr. Martina has embraced aims to bring this collection and these artworks to new countries. The goal is to establish partnerships with galleries and cultural entities or venues active in their communities. Partnes would have the opportunity to offer their clients and visitors a unique insight in the dreamy world of Salvador Dalí.
