City turns for Dali museum opening
Source: Agencies |
January 13, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FOR a few hours on Tuesday, the Florida city of St Petersburg turned into a surrealist canvas in honor of Salvador Dali, the genre's master.
A man wearing a large snail hat led a parade of drummers, who were followed by a phalanx of pirates past shimmering water and vibrant palm trees. Wild green parakeets fluttered in the air. Spanish royalty was on hand, as were several mayors and hundreds of art lovers.
A number of people had attached pencil-thin Dali mustaches to their upper lips.
Everyone gathered beneath a glass-and-concrete building - the new, US$36-million museum that features a collection of Dali's works.
It replaces the old Dali Museum, more than doubling the exhibition space and improving hurricane protection. It is considered the world's most comprehensive collection of Dali's work.
Princess Cristina of Spain, daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, called the museum a "superb setting, a state-of-the-art building" that evokes the waves, magic and light of Dali's native -Mediterranean sea.
The museum's signature architectural detail is a wave of glass paneling that undulates around the building - a striking feature that was designed by architect Yann Weymouth, who helped create the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.
"The city of St Petersburg gains a landmark and outstanding beacon of cultural beauty," the princess said.
Dali, who was born and raised in Figueres, Spain, is best known for his surrealist paintings of melting clocks. Yet he was a classically trained painter whose art ranged from old master-style still lifes to religious iconography. A full range of his work can be seen at the St Petersburg museum.
A man wearing a large snail hat led a parade of drummers, who were followed by a phalanx of pirates past shimmering water and vibrant palm trees. Wild green parakeets fluttered in the air. Spanish royalty was on hand, as were several mayors and hundreds of art lovers.
A number of people had attached pencil-thin Dali mustaches to their upper lips.
Everyone gathered beneath a glass-and-concrete building - the new, US$36-million museum that features a collection of Dali's works.
It replaces the old Dali Museum, more than doubling the exhibition space and improving hurricane protection. It is considered the world's most comprehensive collection of Dali's work.
Princess Cristina of Spain, daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, called the museum a "superb setting, a state-of-the-art building" that evokes the waves, magic and light of Dali's native -Mediterranean sea.
The museum's signature architectural detail is a wave of glass paneling that undulates around the building - a striking feature that was designed by architect Yann Weymouth, who helped create the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.
"The city of St Petersburg gains a landmark and outstanding beacon of cultural beauty," the princess said.
Dali, who was born and raised in Figueres, Spain, is best known for his surrealist paintings of melting clocks. Yet he was a classically trained painter whose art ranged from old master-style still lifes to religious iconography. A full range of his work can be seen at the St Petersburg museum.
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