Author Talk at LongHouse Reserve on Gala Dali

On Sunday, June 29, at 4:30 p.m., author Michèle Gerber Klein presents an author talk and book signing at LongHouse Reserve about her book “Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dalí.”

Gerber Klein’s second book, “Surreal,” the long-awaited, definitive biography of Gala Dalí unmasks this famous, yet little-known, queen of the 20th-century art world, who graced the canvases, inspired the poetry, and influenced the careers of her illustrious lovers and husbands with courage, agency and tenderness.

Using previously undiscovered material, “Surreal” tells the riveting story of Gala Dalí, (1894-1982) who broke away from her cultured, but penurious, background in prerevolutionary 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 Dalí 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 was an 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. 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, Michèle Gerber Klein reveals Gala as a charismatic figure who played a pivotal role in cultural history but has not received the recognition she deserves.

“Surrealism revolutionized art as the world knew it, moving it away from religious or sentimental representation into the kingdoms of intuition and psychic perception, pushing hard against accepted norms,” Gerber Klein said. “At its center stood Gala — the ‘bad girl’ who not only got away with out-of-the-box behavior, but triumphed because of it. Despite her limited education (as a young woman in prerevolutionary Russia she could not attend university), she overcame emotional and financial setbacks so successfully that she deeply influenced the cultural history of her decades and beyond.

Tickets for the event are $25 to $35 at longhouse.org. LongHouse Reserve is at 133 Hands Creek Road in East Hampton.