Before I try to describe the Dali Museum let me explain something. While on vacation in Barcelona, Spain my family and I went on a bus tour with a group of people we don’t know. One of the stops was to the Dali Museum. I have never heard of this man, but there were other things on this tour I wanted to see, so I agreed to go. That was my first and last bus tour. The lady who did the tour was nice and my husband and I did get to take a nap on that bus, but that museum was something else! If you don’t know who Salvador Dali was, he was an artist known as a “Surrealist.”
If you read last weeks blog about Gaudi and where the saying “thats gaudy” came from then you will understand when I say the Dali Museum wasn’t only gaudy, it was seriously over the top. I mean the Cathedral Gaudi started to build is completely amazing to look at. Dali’s Museum was, well there really are no words for this museum. To me the entire place was way to much. The first room we were taken into had a car in the middle of it and a bunch of golden globe statutes. If you put a coin in the slot by the car, it would make it rain….inside the car!
The next room we went to had a picture of Venus de Milo. There is more to that picture than meets the eye, like the fact that when you looked at it a certain way it becomes a picture of Abraham Lincoln! I’m not giving any other secrets away on that though. If you want to know more you need to go see it for yourself.
The rest of that place had many different paintings. Some had you trying to figure out what Dali was thinking when he did them. Others, Yeah all I could think to myself was “why”? This museum was over all not my taste. Granted he did use interesting colors in his art and I did think it was fascinating how he put those colors together, but it wasn’t my taste of art. I would much rather look at paintings by Vermeer.
My daughter on the other hand got way more out of this museum than I did. This place opened her eyes to a whole new world of art. These are her thoughts about this place:
“We went to the Dali Museum today. I’ve learned more from just a few rooms here than I have this whole trip. Every time I go to any art gallery or museum I see different art and I see all the views different artists have seen and used (elegant strokes with the brush, perfect color contrast, precision, perfection) it’s always inspired me to do something but never enough to actually do it. This time, at this museum I saw a whole new view of art that I’ve never seen before. The artist Salvador Dali had an incredible view of everything. He made his art, quite literally, surreal. There were paintings that made no sense, drawings that looked like he was going to do something but left it a sketch, silly things that he just put there to be funny, things that looked like I could have made them at home with random things, glue, and tape and so much more. I’ve always wondered what kind of art I really could do since I have always been interested. Now I know. I want to draw things that confuse people and really make them think. Things that maybe only I will ever understand. Things that are basically just random pencil movements that, if you look hard enough, turn into something different. His art taught me to make what I think is funny or amazing or just odd and show people even though their reactions would probably be ‘what???????’ Like he did with all of his art.”
As you can tell from the above my daughter got way more out of this museum than I did. I’m thankful that she did. This place may not have done anything for me, but it showed a new world of art to my daughter. It inspired her to do her best with her art, which by the way I have seen and love. This place put a whole new light on the matter of art for her and I can’t wait to see what she does with her own talent. As for the Dali Museum I’m good if I never go back. It was without a doubt different and something I won’t forget, but once was enough for me.
Kathleen Smith is an indie Author, blogger and she has her own podcast Kathleen’s Korner. You can read or listen about her life in Brooklyn and Upstate NY . You can also either read or listen to her personal story of how she and her husband kept their marriage together through 3 miscarriages in Miscarriages My Story