The Great Masturbator

Salvador Dalí's 'The Great Masturbator' ('El Gran Masturbador', 1929), painted just as he committed himself fully to Surrealism, is a frankly autobiographical distillation of his sexual anxiety and consuming love for Gala Éluard. In the centre sprawls a vast waxen head modelled on Dalí's own profile, a grasshopper clinging to its jaw; a woman's face rises from its side, fused with a male pelvis in Surrealist metamorphosis. It is the most famous Dalí in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Exhibition Venue

Museo Reina Sofía

Madrid, Spain