Living in Florida, for over 15 years, I’ve been meaning to visit the Dali Museum for a very long time but, somehow, never got around to it yet.
A big part of my reluctance is that from our home (in Fort Lauderdale) it’s nearly a 4 hour drive to St Petersburg. So I kept putting it off—until last weekend, when a cultured and adventurous friend was visiting us from out of town.
At first, it looked like we would not be able to get a ticket, as it was sold out through the middle of June this month — given that there was also a Van Gogh exhibit (fusing art and technology) that was also showing through the middle of the month.
But, as luck would have it, 3 tickets became available last minute between 8:30pm —10:00 pm! That would give us just 1:30 hours at the museum, and around 9 hours to get there and back.
I consulted with my friend and wife and we all agreed that seeing the these two masters, even briefly, was worth it :)
The missus is an inspired trip planner and to round off our day, had us stopping off at Naples, in the early afternoon, for a dip in the water and delicious, authentic Italian pizza.
Then, in the early evening before heading off to the Dali Museum we met up with a couple at the outskirts of St Petersburg for some delicious seafood on the waterfront -- a real Floridian setting.
After wolfing down our dinner and knocking back a couple of drinks, we arrived at the museum just a few minutes after 8:30.
To honor the great Surrealist, the building housing his art was suitably far out and aesthetically-pleasing:
Turns out, with a little over an hour, we had just enough time to take it all in :)
I saw some masterpieces by Dali that I’d only seen in reproduction, like the ones I.ve shared in this post, but also some unexpected pieces from his early years, when the master-to-be was still discovering his style and imitating his teachers.
All in all, a real eye-opener and mind-bending encounter with a great artist --my first museum outing since our global pandemic began; I highly recommended it if you’re ever in this area.
Afterwards, we explored the gift store, which was a lot of fun, and the outdoor garden — with melting benches & giant Dali-type mustaches made of flowers. What else would you expect?
There’s also a video presentation of a life-size Dali speaking, made of composite photographs and quotations of his, that was amusing:
A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others. —Salvador Dali
More about the Van Gogh exhibit in a future post...
