THE JOURNAL
Left: Mr Salvador Dalí, The Language of the Birds, 1950. Right: Mr J Troncy, The Cabernet Sauvignon, plate from the Atlas Vermorel, circa 1900. Photographs courtesy of the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2017 and Taschen
A new book chronicles the artist’s favourite wines.
It should come as no surprise that Mr Salvador Dalí, the renowned surrealist artist, had a rather flamboyant approach to food and drink. Nor that, as one of the 20th century’s most fastidious self-promoters, he was keen to share it, at length, with his public. Hence, following on from many, many extravagant dinner parties thrown with his wife Gala, came the publication in the early 1970s of two bizarre gastronomic volumes: Les Dîners De Gala and The Wines Of Gala. Featuring recipes, instructions and musings on food and drink – as well as many some truly terrifying illustrations and artworks from the artist – these grand, preposterous volumes were hard to find for many years. However, in 2016 Taschen readdressed this situation by publishing a new, facsimile of Les Dîners De Gala?. This November its following up with the second book – a phantasmagoric and encyclopaedic journey through Mr Dali’s favourite wines.
Mr Salvador Dalí, The Cat with the Wine-Loving Whiskers, 1975. Photograph courtesy of the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2017 and Taschen
Though the actual usefulness of The Wines Of Gala is somewhat questionable – though its description of 10 key wine-producing regions is more or less straightforward, it’s latter half, which organises wines into emotional and symbolic denominations wanders somewhat off the map – it’s certainly a great read. That’s not entirely thanks to Mr Dalí himself – though he’s credited as the author of the work, the text is written by his friends, the playboy-turned-wine-grower Baron Philippe de Rothschild, the writer Mr Max Gerard and oenophile Mr Louis Orizet. But this trio certainly employ some of Mr Dali’s artistic license in depicting the subject in question, and there are some fun quotes from the artist, too. Here he is, for example, on champagne and conversation: “That prosaic clicking of the tongue, which emphasises our palate’s pleasure sounds like the popping cork of a champagne bottle; they are both the result of that seldom understood feeling: satisfaction.”
Of course, the main attraction here is the imagery, and Taschen’s gold-foil covered reproduction certainly does it justice. In fact, the words “visual feast” are more than appropriate here, as Mr Dalí’s artwork mingles with a dazzling cornucopia of references to old masters, mythological etchings and objects from antiquity. If you manage to make it through to the final section “Wines of the Impossible”, without reaching for a glass yourself, we at MR PORTER salute you.
