Gala Placidia was painted by Salvador Dali, a famous Spanish Surrealist painter, and printmaker. Gala Placidia depicts many spheres that look like a woman’s profile from a distance. This painting has an illusion effect in the viewer’s eyes. At first glance, it consists of a lot of big and small spheres that were centered at one point. From a certain distance, the viewer will find a calm woman like a Goddess who closes her eyes. The dominance of blue color makes this painting so soothing.
Salvador Dalí, “Gala Placidia. Galatea of the Spheres,” 1952 (Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, VEGAP, Barcelona, 2018). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/
‘Gala’ is Dali’s wife. The interesting fact is Dali has many nicknames for his wife. Sometimes he calls her ‘Gala, Galushka, Gradiva’ because of the oval shape of her face. Other times he calls her ‘Oliva, Oliveta’, which comes from ‘Olive’, suggests her skin color. Many nicknames were derived from it, such as Oliueta, Oriueta, Buribeta, and Buriueteta. Dali also gives her another name, ‘Lionette’, because for Dali, “when she gets angry she roars like the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion”.
Salvador Dali is well known for his exploration of subconscious imagery. Some people say his paintings have a dream-like quality. However, in an interview, Salvador Dali says that is not a dream, but a hypnagogic image. It is an image that emerges when someone falling asleep. It usually occurs 10 or 15 minutes before sleep. At that moment, a person will experience vivid images, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, or sounds.
From the psychoanalysis perspective, Surrealist’s painting is a representation of unconscious memories, thought, feeling, and wish. Surrealism and psychoanalysis have the same source of inspiration, that is “unconscious mind”. Psychoanalysis tries to explain human behavior that primarily was driven by the unconscious mind, while Surrealism attempts to evoke the unconscious mind by using visual art. Gala Placidia is also Dali’s desire that nested in his unconscious mind, then it was expressed on a canvas.
Salvador Dali is always remembered for his passionate and eccentric personality, as well as his amazing artworks.
