A double exhibition at the Gala Dalí Castle in Púbol and at La Roca Village, the open-air shopping center visited annually by more than five million people, will allow visitors to the two spaces to delve deeper into the figure of Gala, the muse of Salvador Dalí, from his clothes.
Those responsible for this exhibition, which can be visited throughout this year, have selected 24 pieces, including dresses, blouses and jacket-trouser combinations, from Gala’s extensive wardrobe, from which more than a thousand items of clothing are preserved. Three of those outfits had not been exhibited before.
The selection allows the viewer to rediscover what Gala’s intention was every time she wore one of those outfits and at the same time wants to reinforce the message that she was a “multifaceted, chameleon-like, cosmopolitan and free” woman, as the coordinator explained this morning. from the Center d’Estudis Dalinians and co-curator Bea Crespo.
The exhibition is divided into three fashion seasons, which will be exhibited depending on the time of year we are in. Starting this Tuesday, the Spring-Summer collection will occupy the showcases of the Castell-Gala Dalí exhibition hall in Púbol, which became Gala’s refuge. Starting in June, you can see eight more Haute Couture pieces and in October, eight dresses from the Fall-Winter collection.
“Púbol is one of the Dalí spaces that best reflects Gala’s participation; it was also the place she went to seek the solitude she needed when photographers surrounded the Portlligat house,” explains the director of the Dalí Museums, Montse Aguer.
Among the dresses that can currently be seen, a matching jacket dress stands out with a print designed by Salvador Dalí, which recalls the optical effects of the trompe-el oeil of Púbol Castle.
The commissioners explain that Gala wore it in 1948 at a welcome party in Paris, after the couple’s return from the United States, a country where they lived for eight years. A dress that turns Gala into a “showcase of Dalí’s ideas.” “The biggest admirer of the artist’s work shows it off through his clothing,” explains Bea Crespo.
The exhibition also exhibits another of Gala’s favorite pieces, a combination of blouse and long printed skirt that she wore in the 1970s at parties, such as Christmas or in a Vogue magazine report.
Designed by Christian Dior, explains Noelia Collado, content director of La Roca Village and also co-curator of the exhibition, that the dress generated great fascination for Dalí, considering it “the most complicated to paint in the world.”
A fashion that also allows us to appreciate, as the curators explain, the transformation and changes of the muse in her way of dressing when she left Paris in 1929 and arrived in Cadaqués. A Gala, Collado says, that she “plays with masculine codes” and begins a “metamorphosis.”
One of the garments that allows us to appreciate these transformations is a blouse and pants set by the French-American designer Oleg Cassini, dating from the 1950s, who was one of the architects of Jacqueline Kennedy’s look.
The exhibition shows a shirt embroidered with a print reminiscent of the eyes of Phoenician ships, symbols considered protective. A garment that Gala wore in Portlligat and on some illustrious visits such as that of King Umberto II of Savoy, the last monarch of Italy, and in televised interviews.
The Castell Gala-Dalí in Púbol also shows a sailor shirt, which has appeared in several works by Salvador Dalí such as in the oil on canvas The Chair. Stereoscopic work (1975), in which Gala appears from behind or in Dalí from his back painting Gala (1972-1973).
In this first phase of the exhibition, you can also see a Givenchy cocktail dress, dating from 1952, with an oyster print, which according to the curators evokes “femininity, sexuality and feminine beauty” and a jacket skirt by Pierre Cardin, one of the designers who was also involved with the Gala-Salvador Dalí couple. All the dresses shown in this exhibition have been restored by specialists in textile materials.
Beyond Púbol, another setting for this exhibition will be La Roca Village, where more than 150 fashion brands coexist. At the end of April, photographer Jordi Bernadó will exhibit a dozen large-format snapshots of those items of clothing that are displayed in the Púbol exhibition and that he has photographed in different settings of the castle.
For her part, the Valencian illustrator Carla Fuentes will imagine what Gala would be like today, a vision that she will capture on the facades of the boulevard.
