Dali - Great Surrealistic Art
While in Barcelona it is definitely worth your while taking the time to go and visit the popular Dalí Theatre-Museum about 143 km north of Barcelona in the Province of Girona on the Costa Brava. The Museum is located in the centre of the town of Figueres next to the Rambla.
Whether you want to see more of the amazing surrealistic art of Salvador Dalí, or whether you don’t really know much about him, you’ll find the visit interesting and fun. The collection of his works that you can see there is unique and the best in the world.
During his lifetime (1904-1989) Dalí went through various artistic phases in his lifetime, and many influences, one of which was Freud, a contemporary of his. He explored many different artistic mediums as well, painting in oil, gouache, watercolor, pastels, made drawings in charcoal, made prints, designed voluminous scrulptures, and participated in many other artistic projects. Over 4,000 original works that span his whole life can be seen at the Dali Theatre-Museum.
Visit the Amazing Dalí Theatre-Museum
The artist has been described as brilliant, flamboyant, eccentric and exhibitionistic; characteristics for which he was both admired and criticized in his lifetime. A lot of this is reflected in his paintings, many of them treating unusual and a wide range of themes, as in the 1931 painting, The Persistence of Memory, in which he painted clocks as being flexible and ‘melting’ over the side of rigid surfaces and a branch. This painting is still one of his most famous works. Other themes that he painted includes different forms of decay and castration, but always executed with visual appeal, great technical mastery and imagination.
A tour of the Museum is a fantastic experience. The extraordinary building was designed to the very last little detail and built by the artist himself on the original site of the Municipal Theatre, which was destroyed in 1939 in the Spanish Civil War. On the walls outside you’ll see bread bun sculptures, golden mannequins and giant eggs.
Once you go inside the building and enter his surreal world, be ready for surprises – including not finding your way out! In the round building with around five stories, you can explore galleries full of spectacular and weird art works and strange and bizarre statues and sculptures which might change your perspective of reality. Continue down to the basement where you will find his crypt. Quite the showman still!
You’ll be able to see many of his best works on exhibition: The Girl From Figueres (1926), The Spectre of Sex Appeal (1932), Soft Self-Portrait With Fried Bacon (1941), Galarina (1944), Basket of Bread (1945), amongst many more.
He created sets of art works expressly for the Dalí Theatre-Museum, including the Mae West Room, the Monument to Francesc Pujols, and the Rainy Cadillac. He also wanted works of other artists that he admired displayed there. Some of the artists represented are: Marcel Duchamp, El Greco, and Modest Urgell. Another artist friend, Antoni Pixtot, collaborated with Dalí on the four monsters which can be seen in the interior courtyard.
Exclusive reproductions of his work can also be bought inexpensively at the Museum shop.
The castle that Dalí bought for his wife Gala, the Castle of Púbol, and where they lived, can also be visited. The Dalí Theatre-Museum is open every day of the year, with the exception of Sundays, December 25th and January 1st.