Hello Dali - Part Three

Hallucinogenic Toreador

(This is Dali's work about bull fighting. The female in upper left corner is wife Gala who disapproved of the sport. You night be able to see the faces formed by the Venus de Milo statues and one is crying. There is a dead bull in the lower center you might be able to see as well. The blood coming from the nose forms a pool that symbolizes a lake that he loved near his boyhood home. A lady is on a raft which symbolizes growing tourism. The flies represent death and the markers at the top represent the fallen bullfighters. The green cloth is a tie and the red garment is a red cape. See the faces?)
Discovery of America

(The young man pulling the ship onto the shore was a waiter at the coffee shop Dali went to regularly. The lady on the large pennant is Dali's wife Gala. The many crosses symbolize the divinity of America and/or its ideals. The round orb at the lower center didn't sit well with Dali's patron and most prolific buyer of his art and he expressed as much to Dali. Dali told him when he understood what it was he could call with complaints. It was 10 years later while looking at an eclipse the man suddenly knew what it was and excitedly called Dali. "I know what it is! It is the place place of America and earth within the planets and how it may evolve through time." Dali responded by saying, "It took you long enough." And then he abruptly hung up on him.)

Ecumenical Council

(Again many things are going on here, too. Gala once again is the model for the kneeling figure. In the upper right corner he used an octopus to get the effect he was looking for. The central upper figure is God flanked by the divinity of Christ and a dove on the left represents the Holy Spirit, thus the trinity.)

While Mackenzie and I were dazzled by the weird, mind-numbing other-worldliness of Dali's surreal work, we ultimately loved the more traditional "masterworks". Huge, upwards of 14 feet high canvasses of classical works done later in his life, these took a year to do and are breathtaking. Paintings filled with all kinds of things going on: paintings-within-paintings, symbolism, hidden faces and objects. Most artists would have used a ladder system to paint such large paintings - not Dali. He cut a hole in his floor and raised and lowered the canvas with pulleys.

You all get an A for patience. Admittedly Dali is not everyone's cup of tea. It would have been interesting to hear a conversation between Dali and Norman Rockwell, two seeming opposites.

We are actually planning another trip soon.