Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Surreal as you like...

Another highlight of my time in Spain in May (see A Day at the Rock) was a short trip with my son 
 to Cadaqués, a seaside town north of Barcelona (where he and his girlfriend live). 
They often go camping on this coast, and know it well.  

The scenery is stunning, and we had several lovely days there, 
but that's not the reason for this post.


We are both fans of Salvador Dali's paintings, and we were very keen 
to see the Dali Museum at Figueres, and his house and garden at Portlligat





The Museum and everything in it was designed and conceived by the artist, 
and is considered to be his last great work. 
It was amazing, strange and weird at times, but always brilliant. 

None of the photos I took inside came out well, but I did have a chance to see 
one of my favourite paintings, Galatea of the Spheres:





 The next day we walked over the hills from Cadaques to Portlligat to Dali's house. 
You have to book several weeks ahead to go inside, which we hadn't done, 
but we were able to buy tickets to walk around the garden, 
which I'm sure was far, far better than the house!


 The garden winds its way up to the top of the property. 
Here's the view from a high point:








As you will see, it was all white, with lots of lovely cool trees. 
And an egg theme...








One end of the very inviting swimming pool:








and, along a narrow channel, the other end:



 



There were some Dali-esque oddities, including quite a few 'snakes':









But the overall feeling was of a lovely, calm and peaceful place. 
I'd go back tomorrow, if I could:




Please click on the photos to enlarge them. They look better when they're bigger!

10 comments:

  1. Oh my. Oh my, oh my.
    Jealous thoughts. Thank you for taking us with you.
    I think (though it changes) on of my favourites of his work is Swans Reflecting Elephants...

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    1. I love that one - in fact, all of his elephant ones! In later years he did get a bit too over the top, even for my weird tastes...

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  2. I'm in awe...the snakes, even though imitation, I can easily and readily do without (I hate snakes - with good reason)...but I am in awe of the property. What a magnificent place!!! How I love to wander about there at leisure. Dali's spirit would be alive there - I'm sure it can be felt during one's roaming.

    I'm a Dali fan. What an intriguing character he was...as well as being an intriguing, brilliant artist. I have a wonderful "coffee table" book on some of his works. Years ago a friend of mine had a similar book but it was filled with recipes...accompanied by Dali's works of art. I was so envious...I searched high and low for a copy of the book for me, but never found one.

    Have you seen the movie "Little Ashes"...starring Robert Pattinson as Dali? I really enjoyed it.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ashes

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    Replies
    1. You are quite right, Lee - his spirit was definitely there. It was so different from the museum the day before, much calmer and cooler. And yes, intriguing. I'm not disappointed that we didn't see the house as well, as the garden was perfect.
      If you're interested, there are some good photos of the inside of the house here: http://manonthelam.com/salvador-dali-house-museum-cadaques-spain/

      No, I haven't seen the movie. It's not available in NZ as far as I can tell, and when I tried to watch it online, my computer crashed. Thank you for reminding me about it - I'll have to look for it again.

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  3. Gorgeous photos and I love the egg theme.

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    1. Thank you. Yes, I do too. A number of Dali's paintings had eggs in them.

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  4. Spanish culture's influence on the arts, architecture and design have always intrigued me. There's a sense of ordered whimsy here that makes me wish more among us subscribed to this way of being. Delightful, and you've capture it so perfectly through your photos!

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    1. Thank you Carmi. it was a memorable trip, and the photos do help to hold on to the feelings i had while I was there.

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