Born to wealthy parents in 1904 in Spain, Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí I Domenech enjoyed a privileged childhood. He attended a fine arts academy in Madrid and earned recognition as a developing artist with is first show in 1925. His first taste of intercontinental appreciation came in 1928 when several of his paintings were displayed in the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pennsylvania.
Dalí went on to become a central figure in the Surrealist Movement in the early 1930s. During World War II, he and his wife, Gala, relocated to the United States. During this period, the artist began a gradual transformation, moving away from Surrealism and into his classic period during which he produced 19 large canvases, including “The Hallucinogenic Toreador,” “The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus” and “The Sacrament of the Last Supper.”
Salvador Dalí Museum founders A. Reynolds and Eleanor Morse originally selected Beachwood, Ohio, as home to their exhibition. Their collection quickly outgrew the facility and a search began for a new center to house their works by Dalí.
A St. Petersburg attorney spearheaded an effort to bring the collection to the Tampa Bay area. Community leaders joined the cause and helped convince the Morses that a site on Bayboro Harbor in downtown St. Petersburg would be the perfect venue.
The Dalí Museum opened in 1982 and has welcomed millions of visitors since then. By the end of the 1980s, the museum had added the Raymond James Community Room, an 11,000-square-foot hall suitable for lectures, educational programming and private functions. Subsequent renovations include the addition of interior walls which divided the original space into six separate galleries offering more exhibit space.
The museum’s collection includes 96 oils, more than 100 watercolors and drawings and over 1,300 graphics, sculptures, objects d’art and photographs. The first major addition to the original Morse collection came in 1992 when the museum purchased “Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid.” Later acquisitions include “Portrait of My Dead Brother” in 1995, “Venus de Milo with Drawers” in 2002 and “Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea Which at Twenty Meters Becomes A Portrait of Abraham Lincoln” in 2005.
The museum’s docents lead hour-long public tours of the galleries daily. Tours of visiting exhibitions also are offered. Tours are offered at no additional charge.
More information;
http://thedali.org/home.php
