Michèle Gerber Klein

Using previously undiscovered material, Surreal tells the riveting story of Gala Dalí,(1894-1982) who broke away from the her cultured but penurious background in pre-Revolutionary Russia to live in Paris with both France's most famous poet, Paul Éluard, and artist Max Ernst. By the time she met the budding artist Salvador Dali in 1929, Gala was known as the Mother of Surrealism. She rapidly became his mentor and protector, marrying him in 1934 and subsequently engineering their vast fortune. At a time when artists were celebrities, Gala acted as the ambassador of the Surrealist movement, spreading its popularity across the globe. She was the survivor of two world wars, the Russian revolution and the Spanish Civil War, and lived between France, Spain and the U.S. Gala was a heroine whose originality captivated people wherever she went, and her life story has everything : glamour; drama; true love, twisted love; ambition; money; art; defiance and daring,. In this vivid, detailed rendering, Michèle Gerber Klein has brought Gala out of the shadows to reveal a charismatic figure who played a pivotal role in the art world, yet has never received the full recognition she deserves.

Using previously undiscovered material, Surreal tells the riveting story of Gala Dalí,(1894-1982) who broke away from her cultured but penurious background in pre-Revolutionary Russia to live in Paris with both France's most famous poet, Paul Éluard, and artist Max Ernst. By the time she met the budding artist Salvador Dali in 1929, Gala was known as the Mother of Surrealism. She rapidly became his mentor and protector, marrying him in 1934 and subsequently engineering their vast fortune. At a time when artists were celebrities, Gala acted as the ambassador of the Surrealist movement, spreading its popularity across the globe. She was the survivor of two world wars, the Russian revolution and the Spanish Civil War, and lived between France, Spain and the U.S. Gala was a heroine whose originality captivated people wherever she went, and her life story has everything : glamour; drama; true love, twisted love; ambition; money; art; defiance and daring. In this vivid, detailed rendering, Michèle Gerber Klein has brought Gala out of the shadows to reveal a charismatic figure who played a pivotal role in the art world, yet has never received the full recognition she deserves.

"Michele Gerber Klein--at long last--gives Gala Dal the close-up she deserves. When Gala met Salvador, they met their destinies. Surreal takes us backstage at the endless performance piece that was the couple's life's work and life's play--a salient ingredient--and reshuffles art history along the way. Pour a stiff Pernod or Absinthe, kick back, and enjoy this delightfully sparking read."--Brad Gooch, author of Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring"Original, engaging, and fiercely intelligent, Gala Dal has at last inspired a biography that shares her own best qualities. In this brilliant book, Klein illuminates the crucial importance that Gala held not only for her famous husbands and lovers, but for avant-garde art as a whole."--Caroline Weber, author of Proust's Duchess and Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the RevolutionSurreal, the long-awaited, definitive biography of Gala Dal , unmasks this famous yet little-known queen of the twentieth-century art world, who graced the canvases, inspired the poetry, and influenced the careers of her illustrious lovers and husbands with tenderness, courage, and agency.Using previously undiscovered material, Surreal tells the riveting story of Gala Dal , (1894-1982) who broke away from her cultured but penurious background in pre-Revolutionary Russia to live in Paris with both France's most famous poet Paul luard and Max Ernst. By the time she met the budding artist Salvador Dal in 1929, Gala was known as the Mother of Surrealism. She rapidly became his mentor and protector, marrying him in 1934 and subsequently engineering their vast fortune. At a time when artists were celebrities, Gala acted as the ambassador of the Surrealist movement, spreading its popularity across the globe. She was the survivor of two world wars, the Russian revolution and the Spanish Civil War, and lived between France, Spain and the U.S. Gala was a heroine whose originality captivated people wherever she went, and her life story has everything: size; glamour; drama; true love, twisted love; ambition; money; art; defiance; daring and sweeping social unrest. In this vivid, detailed rendering, Mich le Gerber Klein has brought Gala out of the shadows to reveal a charismatic figure who played a pivotal role in the art world yet has never received the full recognition she deserves.

Christian Dior described him as the inspiration for the New Look. Salvador Dali called his work soft sculpture, and Virginia Woolf exclaimed, He is a genius. As George Bernard Shaw tells us, only unreasonable men change the world. This portrait of the life and times of Charles James winner of two Coty awards, and the subject of a 2014 Metropolitan Museum of Art show draws on the glamour of Europe in the 1930s, and the dazzle of New York City from the 40s through the 70s as it travels with James from his birth to privilege in England in 1906 and follows his career through his complex and turbulent relationships with exceptional women such as Elsa Schiaparelli and Eleanor Lambert, ending with his penurious death in New York s fabled Chelsea Hotel. As engrossing as a novel, as dramatic as grand opera, James s story will provoke, rivet, and inspire.