Spain

[Drunk Monk]

Print publishers make even more than cassette tape salesmen and typewriter repairmen, you know.

[Greg]

Well, if it doesn't work out, you can always return to being an armorer.

[Drunk Monk]

So on to the Dali Museum.  When we were first discussing taking a big Europe trip during the winter, Spain came up because it wasn't quite as cold as the rest.  The biggest consideration for me was that I have always dreamed of visiting the Dali Museum.  Dali was the most influential artist upon my rather limited career in the arts.  In high school and college, I studied his works, his writings, his interviews, all that stuff.  He had such impact upon my view of art.

There is a Dali Museum in Barcelona,  This is not to be confused with the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueres (I'll get to that later).  The Figueres museum is part of the official Dali legacy under the auspices of the Salvador Dali Foundation, part of the Dalinian Triangle.  The Barcelona museum, like the Dali Museum in Florida, are separate private entities.  If you know Dali, this is sooooo Dali.  He was part charlatan and this only feeds into the legend of the man.  The Dali Museum in Barcelona is just off of the plaza of La Seu, although you can easily miss it.  I walked past it several times before noticing it.  It's a private collection, some 4K+ pieces we were told, housed in a narrow space in the Barrio Gotic.  The bulk of it is lithographs.  Now, if you know anything about Dali, you know about the Great Dali Art Fraud.  In his later years, as Gala was clinging to her Castle estate and Dali's vitality was fading, they were both hungry to keep up their extravagant lifestyle and Dali did something quite forbidden - he signed blank papers.  No one knows how many.  So many of his later lithographs might not even be his work.  They might be his  understudies.  It is believed he wasn't even overseeing lithographic production.  So on top of being an immensely prolific artist, and having multiple versions of many of his most famous works, there are countless later lithos that may all be fakes.  But who cares?  That's part of the Dali legend.

The Barcelona museum doesn't even have a website. It was manned by three people, a ticket taker, one guard inside the museum, and someone at the exit gift shop, which was really just a table with some odd Dalinian items. It had a massive collection of lithos, most in the high numbers like 450/500. Beyond that, they had several sculptural studies for other works, and a lot of oddities, like Dali-designed wine bottles, lots of great photos, a Dali designed calendar. I've had so many Dali calendars - I even have one for 2016 - all slapdash collections of his major works, so it was really cool to see what he designed himself. There was Dali's work for the Olympics (a series of plates featuring several events), Dali's zodiac, Dali's deck of playing cards, his illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy and Don Quixote, so many odd items that I've never seen in any of his books. The centerpiece was a half-size diorama sculpture thing that he made for some Spanish festival, an insane Dalinian centerpiece that had life-sizes self-portrait statues, well documented in photos of its construction and design. At the end of the festival, it was ceremoniously burned to ashes. It was a wonderful little museum and I would have been totally blown away had we not continued on to do the Dalinian triangle.

After the Picasso and Dali museums, we walked to Gaudi's Le Pedrera and Casa Batllo, but they were swamped with tourists and really expensive (20+ €, which makes it like $70+ for all three of us to get in) so we just looked at the outside facade, stumbled through the gift shop, and moved on. I was more impressed by the building next to Casa Batllo, which was of extraordinary architecture and also charged for tours (surely to get overflow from Batllo). It must have sucked to have designed such an architectural wonder only to be upstaged by Gaudi next door. We went back to a cafe near La Seu, and marveled at the sunset playing out over that gothic architectural masterpiece.

The next day, we had tickets for Sagrada Familia, which we paid extra for at a tourist office because the damn app wouldn't work. We were scheduled to be the first tour group allowed in.

[Drunk Monk]

Sagrada Familia redeems all of Gaudi's work, and even Barcelona itself.  It is a glorious masterpiece, spectacular from every angle, enlightening in its detail, a celebration of parabolic architecture and stained glass.  Where the Gothic Cathedrals are oppressive with its grey masonry, ornate dour statues and foreboding gargoyles, heavy flying buttresses, and dark, creepy corners, Sagrada is all love and light.  It's such a reaction against Gothic style, only retaining that sense of loftiness that forces you to look to the heavens.  It's as if Gothic cathedrals are made by vampires and demons where the Sagrada was made by elves and angels.  It's enough to make you convert to Catholicism.

After that, we spent our last Barce day shopping and with a visit to the Palau de la Musica Catalana.  That was also an architectural treat, made more so by a tourist performance of Toccata and Fugue on the mighty pipe organ there.  Designed by Lluis Demenech i Montaner, our tour guide joked that Gaudi was a more famous architect because his name was easier.  But it's important to keep Gaudi in context - there were so many other significant architects in Barce providing the foundation for Gaudi's artistic leaps, and it's a shame that those architects get so overshadowed.  That being said, if we were ever to to Barce again, we would be sure to catch a day performance in Palau de la Musica Catalana.  Any show (one of the upcoming ones was ABBA Amazons, which sounded too good to be true).  It is a shrine to music, the most beautiful theater I have ever been in.

The next day we embarked on our pilgrimage to the first two corners of the Dalinian Triangle.

[El Dingo]

I have a pretty short bucket list. La Sagrada da Familia is on there. I am not religious in any way but love intricate, detailed architecture.

[Drunk Monk]

The Dalinian Triangle is about 40 square kilometers of pure Dalinese surreality.  The three corners are: the Gala Dali Castle in Pubol, Salvador Dali's house in Port Ligat, and the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueres.  It's tricky to navigate because, as you'll see in my tale, you need to make reservations in advance and travelling between locations is not that easy.  This was our plan, most carefully constructed by my beloved wife after hours of wrestling with the Dali websites: From Barcelona, we were to take the commuter train to Pubol, hop a cab to the Gala Dali Castle which was about 2+ miles from the train station.  Then we were to hop back on the following commuter train to Figueres, which was the end of that line.  However, because of restrictive times on when the triangle corners were open, we would then hop a commuter bus to Cadaques, check into our AirBnB, and then walk to Port Ligat, which was separated by a small hill from Cadaques.  Then, that afternoon, we would see the Dali house.  The next day, we planned to get back on that bus to get back to Figueres, then hop a cab to the Theatre-Museum, then get back to our AirBnB that night via that same commuter bus. The bus between Cadaques and Figueres is about an hour ride. The catch? The entry times for our reservations were strictly regulated and did not match up with the arrival and departure times of our various commutes. We would be late and the websites warned us that the times were strict.

So with great excitement, we bid goodbye to Barcelona and began our pilgrimage to the Dalinian Triangle.

---

[Greg]

Seems to me, you might have rented a car to ease your burdens.

[Drunk Monk]

Actually, I've never driven in a foreign country.  And I would certainly not wanted to have started in Spain.  They drive all crazy there.  Can't tell a street from a sidewalk.  There was literally no place to park in Cadaques - it's just not that kind of town.  There was probably parking in Figueres but I didn't see it.  It would have been far more stressful and expensive to rent a car (and remember, we were traveling as economically as possible as we are a threesome and only two of us work).  Plus I really enjoy public transit in foreign countries, especially trains.  You really get to see the people and the countryside.  

The train to Pubol was pleasant.  The flat expanse gave way to scenic countryside, hills and mountains.  We got off the train in Pubol, caught a cab immediately and made it to Gala's Castle efficiently.  This is the least visited corner of the Dalianian triangle and there were maybe only a dozen tourists there.  Dali renovated this castle as a gift to Gala and she only accepted it on the terms that he could only visit her there after having a written request approved by her.  It is a gorgeous location, overlooking Mediterranean fields in the peaceful countryside, a tiny village that no one would give a second thought to if not for Gala's castle.  The castle was rebuilt with Dalinian aesthetics, just like all of the corners of the Triangle - Dali's art was in every nook and cranny, his sculpture in the lovely gardens, his murals everywhere, his lamps and end tables, even the dishes were Dali designed.  There was even an unfinished canvas because after Gala died, Dali left his home and lived here, to be beside her, even in death, and he was always working so he left a lot of unfinished pieces.  I was amused to learn that they were both huge fans of Wagner, and Wagnerian opera filled Gala's  vinyl collection, played like musak throughout the castle constantly, and Wagner busts adorned a huge fountain in the garden (one with an evil fish spout that Tara did not like at all).  Every room, every spot in the garden, it was all quite lovely, the kind of spots that just invite you to sit down, have a cup of tea or a glass of wine, and enjoy the surroundings.

I've never quite understood Gala.  She was very mysterious.  Formerly the wife of poet Paul Elaurd before Dali plucked her away, she's not a stunning beauty, but there are many reports that she had a very penetrating stare, a sharp mind, and managed Dali extravagantly. She had a great booty - Dali painted and sculpted her butt a lot - arguably the most captivating derriere in the history of art.  She rests in the cellar of her castle and it was a very solemn moment to stand there and gaze upon one of the greatest muses of them all.  There are places for two tombs, but in the end, Dali was buried elsewhere.

We only saw a little of the gift shop until we realized that we had to go immediately to make the next train. We tried calling the cab at the number he gave us on a little card, tried to get assistance from the very unhelpful staff there, but to no avail. We were a few miles from the train station, and had no choice but to start walking, luggage in hand, knowing there was no way we could ever make the next train and get to Port Ligat in time...

[thatguy]

When we were in Spain last year, we rented a car from the train station in Sevilla, then drove to Granada for the day to see the Alhambra. We drove back at night and there was a lot of road work on the highway, and a little rain as I recall. We were wiped by the time we got back to Sevilla. It was actually a pretty painless (though long) experience (Note: my GF did most of the driving). 

The subway in Barcelona was amazing. I haven't experienced a train system that functioned as well as that.

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

We took one of those bus tours from Sevilla to Granada.  But that's getting ahead of my tale.  And yes, the subways and trains throughout Spain were phenomenal.  Madrid and Barce subways were great.  And the train stations were bigger than some of our local airports like OAK and SJC.  But like I said earlier, I felt under-dressed.

Fortunately, that cabbie found us a few hundred feet into our walk of shame back to the Pubol train station.  He scooped us up and we made the train with plenty of time to spare.  

We got to Figueres on schedule.  The train station is right across a square from the bus station.  We found a lovely diner that was pretty normal looking except it was adorned with some giant ants ala Dali.  I regret not taking pix of that.  

The bus ride to Cadaques was insane.  It kept near the coast for a lot of it, my first view of the Mediterranean sea, and past the town of Roses, which has a spectacular ancient fort ruin.  Then there was this mountain pass which was vertiginously narrow and windy, a terror to ride as most of it was a single lane and we were in this huge bus.  But that bus driver did it every day and was a pro.  I had a few HWY17 flashbacks, but eventually relaxed into the ride, enjoying the cultivated hills of terraced olive trees.  Cadaques was beautiful - my favorite place in Spain - a postcard perfect Mediterranean bay with picturesque white buildings, narrow labyrinthine cobblestone streets (or maybe they were sidewalks - hard to say there).  We had a terrible time finding our AirBnB.  Our luggage was compressed into one travel backpack and one roller suitcase (and some day packs).  Roller luggage hates cobblestone.  We asked several locals, consulted with several maps, and spent way too much time trying to find it.  Cadaques is quadralingual - Spanish, Catalan, French and English.  Lord knows how they communicate as everyone seems to only know one of those languages.  But we found it and it was the most luxurious place we stayed at.  We dropped our luggage and dashed to the Dali house, over a hill that separated the bays of Port Ligat and Cadaques.  

But we were too late.  The ticket takers looked at our reservations and said they'd put us on a wait list for cancellations.  Sadly, we glanced into the gift shop and waited...

[Drunk Monk]

Again fortune smiled as we did manage to get in, although in surreal fashion, ass-backwards.  We were allowed to go into the garden first, which is actually the surrounding grounds, usually at the conclusion of the tour.  The grounds are full of olive trees and surreal buildings, statues and sculptures.  Lots of lovely little places to hang out - built-in chairs, lounge beds, fountains - it would be a really nice place to spend a lazy afternoon.  Dali's house has many narrow passages, so they only take guided tours of less than a dozen, and the tour guides are multilingual enough to handle the four tongues of the area.  We heard it in Spanish and English.  Dali designed the house and gardens himself of course, and it has a commanding view of Port Ligat bay, which I've seen in so many of his paintings.  The light in Port Ligat, which comes streaming into every window, is magical.  He even set up a special ornate mirror so the first rays of sunrise would fall on his bed every morning.  Dali's house is filled with object d'art, bookshelves (all the books are faux now as Dali's actual library is archived in Figueres), lounge chairs, still-life models, and general Dalinian madness.  His canvas room was impressive - he had this huge moving easel structure that he designed.  It took up an entire wall and was set up so he could paint massive canvases from an easy chair.   It is the perfect studio, filled with light, spacious and inviting, with a window on the bay.  A short staircase away from his easel room was his art supply cellar, which looked like a Chinese apothecary drawer, packed with paints and brushes.  There are some unfinished works on his easels.  When he heard of Gala's death, he left for Pubol, dropping his brushes in mid-stroke, and never returned to Port Ligat.  I could feel him in every nook and corner of the house.  

T was exhausted and chose to chill at our cozy AirBnB while S and I scavenged for dinner.  We found an authentic French bakery just down the street that was filled with scrumptious pastries, which we brought back for T later.  But dinner was at L'Hostel, a restaurant that was such a fav of Dali's that he designed the logo for him.  Pictures of Dali back in the day adorn the wall, along with other celebs that have dined their like Shakira, Keith Richards and Sting.  Their tapas were great and the open air area faced into Cadaques lovely beach and bay.  it was lovely.

But the next day, we had to take that crazy mountain bus back to Figueres to see the final corner of the Dalinian Triangle - the Theater-Museum.  And of course, our bus would arrive late, after our ticket reservation time.

[thatguy]

Go inside and beyond Dalí’s painting Archeological Reminiscence of Millet’s Angelus and explore the world of the surrealist master like never before. Experience Dreams of Dalí in the special exhibit Disney & Dalí: Architects of the Imagination at The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, or at dreamsofdali.org. Opens January 23, 2016.

Try the 360 video in your favorite VR viewer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1eLeIocAcU

or watch the promo video:




More info here: http://thedali.org/dreams-of-dali

--tg

[thatguy]

And coming to Museum of Monterey:


http://www.montereyherald.com/arts-and-e...ali-museum

Museum of Monterey to become a Salvador Dali museum
The Museum of Monterey will become the home of a permanent collection of 543 works by Salvador Dali. The museum will also have a new manager and may change names. David Royal — Monterey Herald

The Museum of Monterey is about to undergo another major change, becoming the home of a private collection of 543 works by Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali.
The owner of the collection, Pebble Beach businessman Dmitry Piterman, and the Monterey History and Art Association, which currently operates the museum at Custom House Plaza, have entered into a joint venture that will see Piterman managing the day-to-day workings of the museum.

The original etchings, mixed media, lithographs, sculptures and tapestries by Dali will take the place of the art and artifacts currently on display at the Museum of Monterey, a collection that reflects the area’s history on land and sea. Curator Tim Thomas will work to find other homes for those items, said Lawrence Chavez, president of the history and art association’s board of trustees.

The change may result in another new name for the museum, which had been the Monterey History and Maritime Museum before it became the Museum of Monterey in 2011. The working name of the joint venture is Dali 17, reflecting the time the prolific artist lived and worked at Hotel Del Monte in the 1930s and ’40s. The hotel was once the starting and finishing point for 17 Mile Drive. 

Dali was an early member of the Carmel Art Association, exhibiting photographs and helping jury the group’s annual high school art competition. He spent summers at the hotel.

Chavez said he’s excited for the change in direction.

“Monterey won’t be a one-trick pony anymore,” he said.

Piterman and Chavez described the new venture as mutually beneficial. Piterman had been looking for a place to exhibit his collection, and the association had been looking for a way to draw in more visitors to the museum, which has been struggling financially for years.

The works are said to be the second largest private collection of original Dali art in the United States, and the museum will be the first of its kind on the West Coast. There are other Dali museums in St. Petersburg, Florida, and in the artist’s hometown of Figueres in Catalonia, Spain.

“We’re really excited because it’s a new direction,” Chavez said. “Right now I’m looking out the windows toward the wharf and I’m seeing people just walk past the museum. That’s not going to happen anymore.”

The change in management will also allow the association to focus more on its other holdings, he said.

“I think it’s going to be good for the community and it’s going to be good for the MHAA because we can really concentrate on our mission, which is to preserve art and adobes in Monterey,” Chavez said.

Piterman, a Ukrainian-American whose previous business dealings included buying stakes in Spanish soccer teams, has exhibited his collection three times before — once in Spain for about five years, and twice in Belgium.

He said he started building his collection just after graduating from the University of California Berkeley .

“I started in the late ’80s and have been collecting through the mid-2000s, and I’m just kind of reactivating my collection,” he said.

Piterman said he’s not only attracted to Dali’s technical skills, but also to his approach to life.

“He studied philosophy, he studied psychology, he studied dreams, he studied science and he incorporated all of these in his paintings,” he said. “It’s that kind of out-of-the-box thinking and out-of-the-ordinary art that impresses people around the world.”

The new museum may reflect that kind of thinking. While Chavez said it will undergo some general renovations to flooring, lighting and the like, Piterman floated an idea for something more dramatic.

“Most of the Dali museums have a distinct look to them, so with time we’re going to try to convey the look through the building as well, adding some surrealist elements,” he said.

As for the Museum of Monterey’s current crop of works, Chavez said the association is being diligent in their redistribution, trying to match them with the locations they represent.

Some of the nautical exhibit will go to San Francisco’s Maritime Museum, he said, while other items will go to the Monterey Public Library, the Defense Language Institute, Fort Ord, Big Sur and other areas. Chavez said there will likely still be a small exhibit at the museum of objects that directly pertain to Monterey.

“Everything that is here will find its home,” he said. “We’re being very, very careful.”
Contact Jeannie Evers at 831-726-4340.

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

You're on a role there with me, tg. Nice segue to continue my tale...

So we got to the Dali Theater-Museum, but like I mentioned earlier, our e-ticket timing was not in synch with the bus system.  As soon as we got off the bus, we hopped a cab to the museum, only to find a huge line snaking around the building.  My family glumly took their position in line and I circled the building to take photos.  I found a tiny door on one side, far away from the front entrance that was for e-tickets.  The guy there said 'You're late. We close in 5 minutes.' So I had to dash around the building, find Stacy in line to get the email confirmation, then dash back to that tiny door.  In retrospect, I think he would have waited.  He just liked to see the tourists run.  I got the tickets unceremoniously and trudged back to the line, but saw another tiny door for Dali Jewels (we had tickets for that too).  The doorman said 'Don't wait in the line. Just go in." So we cut in front of a few hundred people, squeezing past the tight turnstiles, and we were in.  Finally.  A place I had dreamt about for years.  I made it.

The Dali Theater-Museum is the world's largest surrealist object.  Recovered from the bombed-out ruins of the Figueres Municipal theater, Dali redesigned it into a house for his art by making the whole building into art.  It is constantly in flux between being an art museum and art itself.  And it's Dali's tomb, the ultimate homage to his magnitude.  The courtyard houses one of his largest sculptures.  There's the Mae West room, which is a random array of furniture that when viewed from a particular angle forms the bust of Mae West.  Doorways, ceilings, walls - all adorned with surreal objects placed by the master himself.  It's a gaudy brick-colored building, surrounded by more statuary, covered with croissants and topped with huge white eggs.  There's a geodesic dome in a central room with some massive pieces.  And there are so many great masterpieces, and whole sections of works I've never seen before - his Israel studies, his early works when he was dabbling in other styles like cubism and realism, his mechanical sculptures (that required a coin to activate like a boardwalk arcade), a whole floor dedicated to his Cadaques rock studies (these are remarkably detailed images of ocean rocks, where figures emerge, and after seeing Cadaques, I could totally see where he saw them).  It also has some of Dali's private collection, including some magnificent El Greco and Duchamp.  The explanations of some of his works were as revealing as they were mysterious - particularly Imperial Violets, which never made so much sense to me, especially after seeing The Enigma of Hitler in the Sofia Reina in Madrid. It's like strolling through Dali's mind, falling in a rabbit hole, dropping acid, or going mad. As Dali said, 'The only difference between me and a madman is I'm not mad.' and 'I don't do drugs. I am drugs.' I was dizzy with it all, my head spinning exactly how the master wanted. Dali was so prolific, tackling every media, and flipping from comic whimsy to the most profound and sublime.

But then there was more. Dali Jewels was a whole separate exhibit of jewels designed by Dali or based on his works, housed in a perfectly lit displays. Diamonds, gold, platinum, silver, gemstones, delicately assembled into Dali's visions - simply dazzling and taking surreality to its most extravagant heights.

I really wanted to grab some souvenir but we had to dash back to catch the bus. We could have waited for the later evening bus, but a Cadaques sunset called us back. This saddens me a little as the museum had a cool gift store and there were many surrounding shops that looked Dalinian. And when we got back to Cadaques, all the shops were closed, so I never got anything. I can get it online if I really want more stuff. But still, it would have been pious of me to bring something back for my altar as Dali figures so highly in my personal pantheon.

That being said, the sunset in Cadaques was one of the most beautiful I've ever experienced. We found a wonderful tapas bar right on the beach, and then strolled the shoreline as that magical Mediterranean sea light faded into darkness. It was totally worth it. That light! I could see how it inspired Dali. Cadaques is like no where else in the world.

Next: Sevilla

[Greg]

It's like unfinished . . . ?