All photos courtesy of Salvador Dali Museum
“Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid”
(top) was painted in 1962-63, “View of
Cadaques with Shadow of Mount Pani”
(left) in 1917 and “Apparatus and
Hand” (above) in 1927. These artworks
and others from Salvador Dali can be
found on the museum’s Web site.
■ Salvador Dali’s works
appear on the Web,
portraying the artist’s
career and eccentricites
By jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Ten years ago, the idea of some
entertainment reporter in Eugene
writing about an art exhibit open
ing in St. Petersburg, Fla. might
have seemed silly. Suggesting a
spur-of-the-moment visit to the
Salvador Dali Museum, close to
3,000 miles away, no doubt
sounded as impractical as recom
mending the use of lizards to la
dle sunflower soup.
Surrealism has never been eas
ier to access, however, thanks to
the Internet. In fact, the Dali Mu
seum is plugged in at its site,
www.daliweb.com.
Dali, who is arguably the art
genre’s master, likely would have
been pleased to see the explosion
of cyberspace since he spent much
of his life mentally conversing
with other worlds of reality. Al
though best-known for his surreal
ist work, he also succeeded with
impressionism, cubism and what
he called his “classic period.”
Yet, the multi-talented
Spaniard died Jan. 23,1989 at age
85, just missing out on the Web
and its impact on society.
The Dali Museum opens its
“Masterpieces of Surrealism” ex
hibit on Jan. 29, but art lovers
from around the world can get a
peek at the best by logging on and
surfing around.
The site takes enthusiasts
through Dali’s early years, rough
ly from 1914 to 1927, then into
his surrealist stage from 1929 to
1940. The remainder of Dali’s life
is considered his classic period,
so named because it was the time
he produced 18 large oil paint
ings, pieces that consumed at
least one year of the artist’s time
and measured at least five feet in
one direction.
Many of the images concerned
scientific, historical or religious
themes and his famous “The Hal
lucinogenic Toreador” emerged
from this time span, in 1970.
The museum’s founders, A.
Reynolds and Eleanor Morse, col
lected well over 1,400 pieces, be
ginning with their first purchase
of a Dali original in 1943.
Not every art piece can be
viewed on the Web site, but the
designers have given visitors
enough images to get an overall
sense of Dali’s style.
Dali’s critics have always com
plained that the artist was more
interested in the commercial as
pect of his work than the aesthet
ics. The museum doesn’t shy
away from this attack, offering
several anecdotes from Morse
that basically confirm Dali’s ten
dencies toward a financial focus.
On that note, take a detour
through the virtual gift shop if
you want a few wacky items for
your own collection.
In the book “Salvador Dali: A
Panorama of His Art,” Morse
sums up what attracted him and
his wife to Dali’s works, as op
posed to other surrealists.
“It was always Dali who
proved to be the most stimulat
ing, whose ideas were the most
exciting, whose colors were the
most brilliant and whose talent
never failed to astonish,” he said.
See for yourself at www.dali
web.com.
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