Salvador Dali Museum

As the largest collection of Salvador Dali paintings outside of Europe, the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg should be a museum most people should get to know. The museum was first opened in 1982 and, it was rebuild and reopened to the public in January 11, 2011. The new museum hold 7 of 18 “masterpieces” created by Dali, and the private collection of A. Reynolds and Eleanor R. Morse, who became great friends with Salvador and Gala Dali. The path in the museum is mostly predetermined but there is always a way to make it your own special path.

What I usually do is that I see my favorite paintings first analyze them try to find new things in it that I haven’t noticed before and then I look at the other paintings in the gallery. As the largest painting ever painted by Salvador Dali: The Discovery Of America By Christopher Columbus stands at 14 feet tall and 9 feet wild. This oil painting was completed for Huntington Hartford’s Gallery of Modern Art in New York City. This massive oil on canvas took 2 years for Dali to complete finishing it in 1959. Dali used lines to distinguish the many different elements in the painting.

There is a clear separation line, which separates the land Christopher Columbus is about to step on, the sea, and the sky. On the right side of the painting there are many crosses in different sizes, which is the first thing that gets the attention of many people. Because of the many different lines in the area you tent to look at the detail in that area more closely than you would have if all those crosses wouldn’t be there; if you look closely there other littler lines that make shadows for these crosses.

Dali used chiaroscuros through out the whole painting, but the place were mostly shown is by the shadows on the land portion of the painting. The sky also a noticeable place because there is a blue circle that represents the sun and the top surroundings are getting darker as you look to the corners. As a surrealist’s artist, Dali used color to differentiate all the elements and symbolisms he used in each of his paintings. In The Discovery Of America By Christopher Columbus, he uses different shades of blues and reds, yellow, brown, and white.

On the right side of the painting were the crosses are, there are also flags in reds, yellows, and blues. They may be representations of different regions of Catalan held by naked men facing their backs. In the middle of the whole painting there is a ship similar to the ships used by the conquistadors. The ship has two large sails and each have a large worn out red-ish color cross. There is a young man pulling the ship onto the land with great honor. He is also holding crucifix with the image of a Virgin Mary, who is represented by Gala.

On the left side of the painting there are bishops walking on the land and on the sea. Need to finish formal element and do principle of design!!!!! ? Dali used oil paint for The Discovery Of America By Christopher Columbus. Oil paint is a slow drying paint. Because the paint dried slowly, Dali was able to add many detail lines and shadow at different drying stages. This also allowed him to add different textures o different parts of the painting. One the right side, the flags have different shades of a particular color done in dots.

And farther up the painting the crosses are made by different deepness of color and inscribed on the canvas. Being able to make changed to the painting while it was still drying, Dali was able to give the painting both dull and shine properties to the painting. Having been moved from New York City to St. Petersburg, FL the painting seems to be durable and it still looks has it did when it was first painted. The Discovery Of America By Christopher Columbus is a figurative and representational piece of art. Dali is depicting the moment Christopher Columbus arrived to the new world.

What makes this painting figurative is because; Dali painted a scenario that actually happened in real life. The paint is representational piece because it represents what everyone can see, which is Columbus arriving to America. The other representation this painting has is the coming of Dali and his wife Gala to the United States. This was the first painting he did after arriving in New York City. The Discovery Of America By Christopher Columbus has previously mentioned is one of the largest paintings done by Dali for Mr. Morse gallery in New York City.

The painting has a double meaning because it shows Columbus arriving for the first time to America and everything he brought with him, but what most people don’t see or know about the painting is the personal meaning it has for Dali. The painting shows that arrival of him and his wife Gala to America also. He depicts her as a saint or as the Virgin Mary in the painting. Most people think that the person holding the banner is he, but the truth is that the person holding the banner is a saint from one of the Catalan cities near his hometown.

From most of his painting, this is one of the easiest paintings to understand, if it is your first time looking at Dali’s paintings. Without knowing the name of the painting you can tell this is an important event of history because of the ship in the middle of the painting. You can also notice it is a religious painting because of all the crosses painted and by the 2 red crosses in the sails. After starring at the painting for some time you can start seeing the other elements and hidden images Dali has painted.

Also if you look at it for too long some pieces of the painting start to move, become burry, or the start moving places. The first time I was The Discovery Of America By Christopher Columbus I was amazed by the size of the painting. The painting felt like it wanted to eat you by it gloriousness. My visual analysis of the artwork did not change; the only difference was that online you couldn’t fully see all the details on the artwork as you can in person. Portrait of My Dead Brother was also painted by oil on canvas in 1963.

This painting is not as large as The Discovery Of America By Christopher Columbus; the painting is 69×69 inches. To understand this portrait you could need to know about Dali’s childhood to comprehend the significant it have in his life. Dali’s brother was also named Salvador Dali, he died before Dali was born and his parents gave him the same name and their dead child. The portrait was very calculated. The main image is made out of cherries. The portrait was done for personal reasons. He wanted to remember is brother, but at the same time he wanted everyone to know that they weren’t the same person.

He felt his parents gave him the same name as his dead brother because they wanted him to stay with them, and somewhat deny that their child had died. One question that I have is why did it take him almost 60 years to paint a portrait of his brother? Was it to painful to have a physical reminder of his brother around him? Having lost some family member I may understand why it took him that long because, someday are harder than others especially when your parents are expecting you to be someone your not. This is what I think happened to Dali while he was a young boy. I love going to the Salvador Dali Museum.

I’ve been to many different museums all over the world and this museum always fines a way to impress me with something new. The architecture is its own masterpiece I love the spiral stairs that take you to see all the paintings. They currently have a Walt Disney exhibition on display and they show how similar Dali and Disney’s works was the only difference was the medium they were each using. The presentation of each artwork is done very precise and clean with a simple white wall. By doing this, the each of the artwork is the centerpiece. The museum overall is a great place to be and it has a great location in St. Petersburg.