The new Dali Museum, home to the Salvadore Dali collection of Eleanor and Reynolds Morse, opened just about a year ago. It's hard to know if Dali was a genius or a mad man. I had seen what is probably his most famous work, The Persistence of Memory (or Limp Watches-as I call it), at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and was interested to see what more might be in this museum. I was a bit concerned that Rick might not particularly enjoy all that art. Turns out that he ended up spending more time gazing upon the works than I did! The museum put together a very good audio tour of selected Dali works so it was easy to learn about and enjoy the paintings and sculptures at our own pace.
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| The museum itself is a work of art. It looks like a geodesic dome that is squirting out of a concrete block. No two glass pieces in the dome are the same - an engineering nightmare! A spiral staircase in the center leads to the main exhibit floor. |
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| An outside bench executed in the spirit of Dali. |
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| Dali's moustache! |
The other art exhibit we visited in St. Petersburg was the Chihuly Collection. Dale Chihuly was educated at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He was a student of Harvey Littleton whose glass works can be seen in many museums around the world.
We had seen Chihuly's work at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago a decade before and were familiar with his organic forms and stunning colors. We waited for the docent-led tour of this collection and it was worth the wait. She was knowledgeable about the artist and his works. She also told interesting stories about the installation of the exhibit itself.
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| The only pictures we could take were in the gift shop. This piece is for sale - for several thousand dollars. |
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| A poor man's Chihuly - at the Pioneer Florida Museum and Village in Dade City. |
Stay tuned for my final post about our Florida vacation - and another Wisconsin connection.
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