Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Dali Museum, St. Petersburg , FL


While at the ITC conference (see prev. post) I was able to take in the Dali Museum with a new friend attending the conference. 1. Why is the largest collection of Dali work in St. Pete's ? Easy answer: "The best place to see European Art is in America..at the beach". Long answer, the museum documents how a couple from Ohio had a Huge private collection of his work and were trying to find a home, people in St. Petersburg got it together and decided they would be the best stewards of the collection. 2. As an art teacher, I am always excited for the chance to see the actual works of art instead of the reproductions I have been looking at in books and the web. At times the disconnect from the actual work and the reproductions are more dramatic than others, Dali's is definitely one that I recommend seeing the real thing. It was great to find myself spending long spans of time looking at one work at a time, tons of amazing detail and discoverys happening that just do not translate to reproductions. 3. Biggest surprise: Dal's most famous work, Persistence of Memory is actually better in reproductions, this original was small and dark. 4. Was so happy to make the a new discovery Dali's animated collaboration with the late Walt Disney called Destino (click for video sample).
While walking to the bus stop after the museum a Surreal moment happened as a lady was giving a man haircut on a park bench.

1 comment:

Rehab Prophet said...

The animated video is excellent. I had no idea there was any collaborative work b/t those two. Thanks for the heads up. The haircut photo is a little surreal with the fringe on top.