Dali Museum is fantastic

by Dena Tollefson
http://www.denatollefson.com


The newly renovated Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg, Florida is fantastic! I went there last week with my parents, Dietrich and Helen Schaefer.

The museum houses 96 of Salvador Dali's original oil paintings, collected by the Morse family.
I enjoyed seeing how Dali's work changed over his lifetime, especially neat to see his early work in tight realism, Cubism, Impressionism and Dadaism, and how it all culminated into his mature work with Surrealism. He was very interested in science and Christianity- which showed up especially in his later work. His wife, Gala, appeared on many of his canvases. 

Some of my favorite paintings in the exhibit were The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, Daddy Longlegs of the Evening--Hope!, and Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man all of which include his signature plastic amorphic shapes. His use of color, masterful edges, "hidden" detail and imagination were so breathtaking.

We took an audio tour- it was very engaging. I think for me what was so neat about this particular museum was how Dali's paintings, the museum atmosphere, architecture, and even the interactive gardens created a total enveloping experience.

The Dali Art Museum building itself is a masterpiece in sculpure- the architect Yann Weymouth was so inspired by Dali's use of morphing forms- which inspired the Enigma- the cloudlike shape composed of triangular glass pushing out of the building's edge contrasting with the building's angular lines. I learned that the thousands of huge panes of glass in the Enigma are each unique in size and had to be barcoded to keep track of them during construction.

The grounds and garden were peppered with rocks imported from Dali's hometown in Spain- one can see those same rock types in so many of his paintings. It is neat to see the painting and real rocks all together in one setting.

Check it out!!