A broad abroad: FIGUERES AND BARCELONA

Figueres, the essential Dali sight and if you like Dali, one of Europes most enjoyable museums. Inaugurated in 1974, the museum is a work of art in itself. Ever the entertainer and promoter, Dali personally conceptualized, designed, decorated and painted it to showcase his life's work. The museum fills a former theater and is the artist's mausoleum ( his tomb is the crypt below center stage). It is kind of a mausoleum to Dali's creative spirit.

Dali had his first public showing at age 14 in this building when it was a theater and he was babtized in the church across the street. After the theater was destroyed in the Spanish Civil Was, Dali struck a deal with the mayor: Dali would rebuild the theater as a museum to his works, Figueres would be put on the sightseeing map... and the money has been flowing every since.

When Salvador Dali was asked, "Are you on drugs?" he replied, "I am the drug...take me."

Born in Figueres to a well-off family, Dali showed talent early. He was expelled from Madrid;s prestigious art school - twice but formed longtime friendships with playwright Federico Garcia, Lorca and filmmaker Luis Bunuel.

After a breaekthrough art exhibit in Barcelona in 1925, Dali moved to Paris and hobnobbed with fellow Spaniards, Picasso and Miro ,along with a group exploring Sigmund Freud's theory that we all have a hidden part of our mind, the unconscious "id".

His life changed forever in 1929, when he met an older, married Russian woman named Gala who would become his wife, muse, model, manager, and emotional compass. Dali's popularity spread to the US where he and Gala spent the WWII years.

In his prime, Dali's work became less Surrealist and more classical, influenced by past masters of painted realism ( Velazquez, Raphael) and by his own study of history, science, and religion.

Dali - an extremely capable technician- mastered many media including film. An Andalusian Dog ,1929, made with Bunuel, was a cutting-edge montage of disturbing eyeball-slicing images. He designed Alfred Hitichcock's big-eye backdrop for the dream sequence of Spellbound (1945). He made jewels for the rich and clothes for Coco Chanel, wrote a novel and an autobiography, and pioneered what come to becalled "installations".

Dali's legacy as an artist include his self-marketing persona, his exceptional ability to draw, his provocative pairings of symbols and his sheercreative drive.

In later years, Dali's over the top image contrasted with his ever growing illness, depression and isolation. When Gala died in 1982, Dali retreated to his hometown and later died of heart failure in 1989.

Here are some of Dali's figures welcoming people to the museum. None of the figures are alike.

The pink exterior, studded with golden loaves of bread and topped with monuental eggs and a geodesic dome - exude Dali's outrageous public persona.

Our guide gave us a nice introductory talk before we went into the museum. There is no audioguide and no logical order for a visit. Dali said there are two kind of visitors" those who don't need a description, and those who aren't worth a description. (Still raining!)

You go throught the courtyard and enter the theater ( with its audience of statues). You are faced with Dali's personal 1941 Cadillac. (Also read it was Al Capones) Put a coin into the little box next to the car and it rains inside the car. Above the boat an umbrella opens. The boat is the one Dali enjoyed with his soul mate, Gala-, his emotional life preserver, who kept him from going over-board. When she died, so did he ( for his last seven years ). Blue tears made of condoms drip below the boat.

Look closely at this picture. Can you see the matador and the bull?

This painting of Gala at the Mediterranean, takes the body of Gala and morphs it into the image of Abrahmam LIncoln. What is pretty obvious in the photograph is not so obvious when you first look at the picture. If you approach the picture you realize Abe's facial cheeks are Gala's butt cheeks. It's interesting how the photograph makes it so obvious that this picture of Abe Lincoln is there. Looking at the photograph you don't see it at first.

Dalil's crypt. When his friends considered what flag to drape over his coffin, they decided on an embroidered heirloom tablecloth instead. Dali would have probably liked this unconventional touch, if not the site. He wanted to be buried at his castle of Pubol next to his wife, but the then-mayor of Figuere's took matters into his own hands.

Portrait of Gala Laughing

The Happy Horse

The famous Homage to Mae West room is a tribute to the sultry seductress. Dali loved her attitude. Saying things like "Why marry and make one man unhappy, when you can stay single and make so many happy."

The pieces...

climb these steps

look through this hair

and Voila' Mae West herself!

LIke many artists of the time he did not restrict himself to a single medium. Dali's works included paintings, drawings, sculputures, installations, holograms, stereoscopes, photography, etc. Fifteen hundred of them are on exhibition in the museum.

Dali's art can be playful but also disturbing. He was passionate about the dark side of things, but with Gala for balance, he managed never to go off the deep end. Dali did not go into exile under Franco's dictatorship. He accepted both Franco and the Church and was supported by the dictator.

This is the former theater's smoking lounge also called Palace of the Wind.

The fascinating ceiling painting shows the feet of Gala and Dali as they bridge earth and heavens. Dali's drawers are wide open and empty, indicating that he gave everything to his art.

A tapastry of one of his most famous paintings - the Presistence of Memory. The fluidity of time.

This painting hangs in the Poetry of America room. I think there were only two pictures in the room.

We left the theater and went to the Dali's Jewels exhibit next. It shows sketches and painting of jewelry Dali designed and the actual pieces jewelers made of those designs.

In 1959 Dali gave these comments on the Jewels:

"Paladin of a new Renaissance, I too refuse to be confined. My art encompasses physics, mathmatics, architecture, nuclear science- the psycho - nuclear, the mystico-nuclear-and jewelry- not paint alone.

My Jewels are a protest against emphasis upon the cost of the materials of jewelry. My object is to show the jeweler's art in true perspective - where the design and craftsmanship are to be valued above the material worth of the gems, as in Renaissance times.

Design and Inspiration

In Jewels, as in all my art, I create what I love. In some you will note architectonic sense- as you will in certain of my paintings;again logarithmic law is evident; again the interrelation of spirit and matter; time and space.

On the relationship of time and space

Awareness of the colligation of time and space entered my consciousness in childhood. Yet my invention of the "melted watch"- first in oil and later, in1950, in gold and precious stones- evoked divided opinions; approval and understanding; skepticism and disbelief.

Today in American schools, my "melted watch" is presented as a prophetic expression of the fluidity of time...the indivisibility of time and space. The speed of modern travel-space travel-confirms this conviction. Time is fluid; not rigid.

On the ascription of human characteristics to things not human

Anthropomorphic subjects appear and reappear in my jewels. I see the human form in trees, leaves, animals; the animal and vegetable in the human. My art- in paint, diamonds, rubies, pearls, emeralds, gold, chrysoprase-shows the metamorphosis that takes place; human beings create and change. When they sleep, they change totally- into flowers, plants trees. In Heaven comes the new metamorphosis. The body becomes whole again and attains perfection."

Vaious crosses...The Persistence of Memory

the breathing heart, a golden finger corset...

Swan Lake

The Fallen Angel

Outside the museum are other works of art.

I believe there are four of these statues, all on tires. Our friend Pat thought maybe they were symbolic of someone retiring!

OMG! Did it stop raining. Time to wander around a bit and have a cup of coffee before departing back to Barcelona.

Cute bus - just not ours.

It was a great day despite the weather. We are scheduled to go to San Seastian on Wednesday and the forecast is terrible. We've discovered we don't melt and a little rain can't hurt us.

We did have some beautiful days here in Barcelona and we try to get out and see something on those days or at least just walk around the city. On this particular day we were around the Ramblas and caught some kind of entertainment.

Later we decided to have a little something at the famous Cafe de l'Opera. The cafe is an institution. The Cafe de L'Opera has a gorgeous, old world charm. With its high-ceilinged interior it conjuresup a bygone era, with a definite nod to Parisian chic. It is located right across from the Liceu Opera House.