Hola Blogers,
I have been a little bored the last few days. I know I am in a minority in that I actually have time to get bored. Most of you readers will be cursing me right now as you generally work far too many hours and probably feel like you never have any time to yourself. I remember those days. That’s why I try and bring you an out of office experience every so often through my blog! How kind.
Anyway, yesterday I decided to take myself off to the Dali exhibition down by the gothic Cathedral. I’ve walked past it a hundred times and always thought about going so I am glad that I finally got myself down there. None of the really famous pieces were there. I presume they are around the world (probably in London and New York) in the major galleries. However, for those of you who don’t know, Dali is from Catalonia. When he was alive (throughout most of the last century) he lived mostly by the sea on the Costa Brava. There is also an enormous mansion in land (in Figueres) that looks amazing (in fact absolutely bonkers from the outside) and that is full of his works: drawings, jewellery and sculptures I believe. I really want to go …..but our next free weekend is not until January so I’ll have to wait for that one as I want to go with my hubby.
I found the artwork that I saw yesterday really interesting. As we all know, Dali is famous for his “everything is not what it seems” style of art. You see something at first glance but then on a closer look you realise there is much more going on, more layers to the piece. This style was present in just about every one of the works I saw, and I guess I saw around 2000. There were other constants in his work that stood out to me, namely: sex, animals and self portraits. Here there and everyway, both male and female genitals could be clearly seen (I say clearly, they were among the secondary levels of the painting, so not the first thing you see but not exactly hard to find). Genitals strangely protruded from the most unusual places, not necessarily from a body, or from a human body. Many animals were merged into others, or merged into humans, and many of the humans were clearly him (as he included his signature ring master’s beard). Horses appeared to be a particular fetish of Dali, perhaps due to the sexual symbolism so frequently referred to in dream analysis. Did he know of such references? Probably. I’m sure he knew what he was saying with the horses. Someone as “out there” as him was sure to have read a book or two on dreams and the subconscious.
Dali was definitely having fun when working. I don’t think he took himself or his work half as seriously as most other artists did and do. Many of the pieces actually make you laugh out loud, which is rare for an artist of such stature. There was even a homage to FC Barcelona!
Take a look at some of Dali’s work next time you get the opportunity. One of Catalonia’s greatest!
S xx
I have been a little bored the last few days. I know I am in a minority in that I actually have time to get bored. Most of you readers will be cursing me right now as you generally work far too many hours and probably feel like you never have any time to yourself. I remember those days. That’s why I try and bring you an out of office experience every so often through my blog! How kind.
Anyway, yesterday I decided to take myself off to the Dali exhibition down by the gothic Cathedral. I’ve walked past it a hundred times and always thought about going so I am glad that I finally got myself down there. None of the really famous pieces were there. I presume they are around the world (probably in London and New York) in the major galleries. However, for those of you who don’t know, Dali is from Catalonia. When he was alive (throughout most of the last century) he lived mostly by the sea on the Costa Brava. There is also an enormous mansion in land (in Figueres) that looks amazing (in fact absolutely bonkers from the outside) and that is full of his works: drawings, jewellery and sculptures I believe. I really want to go …..but our next free weekend is not until January so I’ll have to wait for that one as I want to go with my hubby.
I found the artwork that I saw yesterday really interesting. As we all know, Dali is famous for his “everything is not what it seems” style of art. You see something at first glance but then on a closer look you realise there is much more going on, more layers to the piece. This style was present in just about every one of the works I saw, and I guess I saw around 2000. There were other constants in his work that stood out to me, namely: sex, animals and self portraits. Here there and everyway, both male and female genitals could be clearly seen (I say clearly, they were among the secondary levels of the painting, so not the first thing you see but not exactly hard to find). Genitals strangely protruded from the most unusual places, not necessarily from a body, or from a human body. Many animals were merged into others, or merged into humans, and many of the humans were clearly him (as he included his signature ring master’s beard). Horses appeared to be a particular fetish of Dali, perhaps due to the sexual symbolism so frequently referred to in dream analysis. Did he know of such references? Probably. I’m sure he knew what he was saying with the horses. Someone as “out there” as him was sure to have read a book or two on dreams and the subconscious.
Dali was definitely having fun when working. I don’t think he took himself or his work half as seriously as most other artists did and do. Many of the pieces actually make you laugh out loud, which is rare for an artist of such stature. There was even a homage to FC Barcelona!
Take a look at some of Dali’s work next time you get the opportunity. One of Catalonia’s greatest!
S xx
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