Dalí , Still Larger Than Life. Barcelona, 2013
That would be Salvador Dalí (Dah-LEE, not DAH-lee) to you and me.
Not only was he a great artist, he was a great actor, too–in the sense that he most definitely worked hard to develop his very odd public persona.
The most notorious Dalí anecdote? How about the time he supposedly either handed his father a “loaded” condom or sent him a letter stained with his own sperm saying, “Now I owe you nothing.” (Did it really happen? I’m not completely sure, but it is a powerful commentary on their relationship as well as Dalí’s personality that he apparently never denied it.)
He was the first painter who really fired up my imagination. Peruse his works and you might share my enthusiasm.
During my first long visit to Europe, in 1983, I went to a Dalí exhibition in Barcelona and had my mind thoroughly blown. The guy was actually still alive then (though not in very good mental or physical shape, after Gala’s death). Maybe I should of trundled off to Figueres and knocked on his door? (I was also in Yosemite when Ansel Adams was still alive and never knocked on his gallery door either–ah, the missed opportunities of life.)
To see Dalí’s amazing work:
–There is a permanent exhibition at the Palau Pignatelli (Real Círculo Artístico de Barcelona), Gothic Quarter of Barcelona at Carrer dels Arcs, 5. [Update: As of 2021, I don’t see this exhibit at this location any longer.]
–The very best experience is a trip to the Dalí Theater-Museum in Figueres, less than an hour by high-speed train from Barcelona.
Oh, and Happy Dia dels Reis Mags!
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