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Salvador Dalí
Objet Surréaliste à fonctionnement symbolique—le soulier de Gala (Surrealist object that functions symbolically—Gala’s Shoe), 1931/1975

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Objet Surréaliste à fonctionnement symbolique—le soulier de Gala (Surrealist object that functions symbolically—Gala’s Shoe)
Artist name
Salvador Dalí
Date created
1931/1975
Classification
sculpture
Medium
shoe, marble, photographs, clay, and mixed media
Dimensions
20 × 8 × 15 3/4 in. (50.8 × 20.3 × 40 cm)
Date acquired
2007
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Norah and Norman Stone
Copyright
© Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2007.143.A-B
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Dalí’s sensual shrine to his lover

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transcripts

CHARACTER VOICE OF DALI: [VERY SOFT] Gala, Galushska, Gradiva, Oliva, Oriueta, Suliueta” … 

 

SFX: Mysterious music. Vaguely Russian.  

 

NARRATOR:  

Salvador Dalí was fascinated by dreams. And obsessed with his muse Gala Diakonova.  

 

SFX: A match is lit.  

 

NARRATOR:  

The love of his life. He began making this sculpture soon after their life together began.  

 

SFX: Shoes, clicking across marble. Stops. Walks again. 

 

NARRATOR:  

That’s her red shoe. Crowned by a gallows. For Dalí, Gala was like an addiction. 

 

CHARACTER VOICE OF DALI:  

[VERY SOFT] Gala, Gradiva, Oliva, … 

 

NARRATOR:  

Look at how he’s surrounded her shoe with sugar cubes. They’re fragile and crystalline and overpoweringly sweet.  

 

SFX Dali Voice: Mmmm 

 

NARRATOR:  

See that one hanging by a thread? Dali said the sugar cube was supposed to descend into that cup below – and melt.  

 

SFX: Sound of small object plunging into/liquid, then melting sound. 

 

NARRATOR:  

Then there’s that little tuft of hair. A photo of two lovers.  

 

SFX Dali Voice: gasp 

 

NARRATOR:  

All of the objects here are familiar, but put together they transform into something strange…sensual. Dali’s shrine to the Gala of his imagination.  

 

SFX: Dali Voice: Ahh…. 

 

SFX: Mysterious music fades 

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Other Works by Salvador Dalí

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