Surrealism

Gala Eluard

This painting is designed after a photograph of Gala Eluard, the muse and lover to the Surrealist authors Paul Eluard, Salvador Dalì and finally Max Ernst.

The painting is divided vertically into two horizontal sections. The lower section depicts most of her face with a mostly-cold color palette, in a highly realistic fashion, with details such as her eyelashes finely outlined. Her forehead then curls diagonally into a roll of paper, as the upper section unfolds all over the paper. Such section uses a warmer palette, and is characterized by a lack of recognizable elements, aside from three gray discs, two damaged and one intact, against an abstract backdrop, in stark contrast with the lower part.

At the center of the image is a gigantic female figure, stretching her arms wide. She appears stark against a blue sky below which is a potato field. The figure is surrounded by several objects in varying degrees of abstractness, and she features a single pointy breast with a black, winding thread pouring out of it. Elfin creatures float in the sky around her, and on the left an anthropomorphic butterfly, in the shape of a woman, moves away from the main figure's oddly shaped nose, with other strange creatures climbing a ladder. The name comes from the potato lodged in the main character's forehead, from which three tendrils grow out.