Journey to a Surreal Dimension: The Salvador Dali Museum
By: Chloe J. Roberts
August 18, 2012
The new Salvador
Dali Museum is an art lover’s paradise.
The museum is home to the largest collection of the Spanish painter’s
work located in this country. Founded by
passionate art enthusiasts A. Reynolds and Eleanor R. Morse, the museum is a
treasure trove of over 200 oil paintings, watercolors, prints, photos,
sculptures and drawings. Inside the Dali
gallery you will see many famous works from every period and every medium of Dali’s
lifelong creative career ranging from his early still life and cubism paintings
to his famous surreal masterpieces to his later post-surrealist creations.
Dali’s art
captures the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and the non
sequitur. The images depicted in his art
are simultaneously detailed, vibrant, deeply symbolic and hauntingly
mysterious. Inside the museum you will
find his most famous painting, The
Persistence of Memory, and seven of his masterworks, including Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea,
The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and The Hallucinogenic Toreador.
As you enter the
museum you immediately ascend a helical staircase which leads to the upstairs
gallery. Inside the upstairs gallery you
will discover a lifetime of Dali’s masterpieces and you will hear the story of
the tortured artist with a flair for the dramatic. As you view Dali’s immaculate paintings, you
will learn that he was a man whose soul was filled with paradox. At the age of 16, Dali lost his mother to
cancer. Dali felt his mother’s death was
the greatest blow he had experienced in his whole life. Reeling from her death, Dali went to art
school in Madrid where he painted the still life art you will see at the entry
of the gallery at the museum.
As you stroll
through the gallery you will see Dali’s soul unfold through his beautifully
imaginative paintings. Dali was a firm
believer in Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis. Dali believed that surrealism was
destructive, but it only destroyed the shackles limiting our own vision. Like many past and present artists, he
painted his dreams. Dali’s primary
inspiration was his troubled relationships and haunted subconscious.
Inside the
gallery you will see the painting that spawned the private collection which is
now housed in the museum in its entirety.
After viewing the painting that started the museum, you will see Dali’s early
still life art depicting fish, bread and colorful landscapes. Passing down the
gallery you will see a few cubism works, mixed media dada pieces and many of
his famous surreal masterworks. You can
also view an exhibition on the care and restoration of the paintings in the
museum.
Inside the new Salvador
Dali Museum you will enjoy hours of viewing painting after painting brimming
with extensive symbolism. The one of a
kind museum is conveniently located about an hour away in downtown St.
Petersburg. It was well worth the quick
jaunt to see the beautiful and famous painter’s art and to hear the inspiring
and heartbreaking story of Salvador Dali’s life.
Chloe J. Roberts was born in
Miami, Florida. She is a lawyer,
dramatic writer and an art enthusiast.
This is a Roving Oar Review
This is a Roving Oar Review
