Museum
A visit to a Dali Museum is not only a visit to a place that houses art, but it is a visit to an art piece itself. A Dali Museum is built to replicate Dali, it is created with the surreal in mind, and it is Dali’s home. Each year, thousands of visitors from around the globe flock to Dali museums and exhibits. People travel hundreds of miles to the Dali museum in Florida. Tourists make detours during trips to Spain to stop by the Dali museum in Figueres. Dali fans from all over the world want to get an up close look at one of their favorite artists. When visiting a museum, any museum, especially a museum dedicated to a specific artist one gets pulled into the mind of that artist, in this case one will get pulled into the mind of Dali.
The Dali Museum
The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg Florida recently moved. A brand new facility was built using surrealist design. This new building will host over 200,000 visitors a year. The Salvador Dali Museum has the largest collection of Salvador Dali work in the United States. They currently have close to 100 oil paintings, over a 100 watercolors and drawings. The Salvador Dali Museum also has over 1,300 graphic prints and other art work references, such as photographs, sculptures, and a library. Housed at the Salvador Dali Museum are some of Dali’s greatest masterpieces; Daddy Longlegs of the Evening, The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid, Portrait of My Dead Brother, The Hallucinogenic Toreador, and Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
The Salvador Dali Museum’s new home is 20,000 square feet which gives the museum the ability to share and display all of their oil paintings. It also has the “glass enigma” a glass shell which provides a beautiful view of Tampa Bay. The museum has been home to some of the most renowned Dali Exhibits such as; Dali & Mass Culture (2004-2005), Dali Centennial (2004), Dali by the Decades (2007), Dali in Focus (2008), and of course, Dali in Film (2008).
The Salvador Dali Museums host a number of events and are considered a bright spot of tourism for the city of St. Petersburg.
Dali Theatre and Museum
The Dali Theatre and Museum is located in Figueres, Spain, the hometown of Salvador Dali. Personally designed by Dali and built over an old town theatre where he visited as a child, the museum was a dream come true for Dali when it opened in 1974. The museum is the home of Dali’s estate, The Gala-Salvador Dali Society, and in 1989, Dali’s final resting place.
The museum has the largest and most diverse collection of Salvador Dali art work including; Soft Self-Portrait with Fried Bacon, Atomic Leda, The Girl from Figueres, Apotheosis of the Dollar, and Dawn, Noon, Afternoon, and Evening, as well as original works of art.
The museum hosts thousands of visitors a year. They truly experience the mind of Dali. They encounter designs and rooms thought of by Dali. Dali painted walls and ceilings specifically for the museum. You also see a living room designed by Dali which is made to look like Mae West. Visitors awe at the glass dome of the museum, which provides a wonderful view of the Spanish sky. It is meant to represent a new world, a Dalinean world. You walk into the dome and out of this world, into Dali’s mind.
Both of these museums; The Salvador Dali Museum & The Dali Theatre and Museum, are Dalinean landmarks which provide art lovers with a unique museum experience. They represent the life of one of the 20th century’s most innovated thinkers. They help carry on Dali’s legacy and promote his brand of Surrealism. Please make an effort to visit a Dali museum. You will have your breath taken away as you marvel, up close and personal, to the brilliant works of art by Salvador Dali.