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Ladies and gentlemen, please move in a little closer as we begin our tour this afternoon. Today you will enjoy the largest collection of Salvador Dali’s works under one roof. They include several hundred oil paintings, drawings, and watercolors, more than a thousand graphics, and a variety of sculptures as well as jewelry. As you will see, Dali was multitalented. He designed furniture, created exquisite works with fine jewels, and concocted perfumes with tantalizing aromas. He developed his talents over a span of six decades, leaving an indelible imprint on the world of art.

Here we see some of his early paintings, mostly landscapes of the town of his birth – Figueras in Catalonia, Spain – and the seascapes of a neighboring town called Cadaqués. While these represent a more traditional art form, it was at this time that Dali’s controversial career began. He was expelled from a prestigious art school in Madrid because he disagreed with his professors on their techniques. He once threw himself down several flights of steps just to get attention. At the age of twenty-one, he had his first one-man show.

Four years later in Paris, he fell madly in love with Gala Eluard, the wife of a French poet. She became his lover, and later they married. She was the inspiration and model for many of his works. The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, his monumental masterpiece, shows Gala appearing on Columbus’s banner. She also served as his model for other works, such as the Crucifixion, Ecumenical Council, and Hallucinogenic Toreador.

Dali’s themes varied from one period to the next, but many contained recurring images of ants, crutches, limp watches, grasshoppers, and sexual symbols. All of these were, in some way, a carryover from his childhood and adolescence. He often placed familiar and outrageous imaginary objects side by side. A number of paintings, such as Slave Market; Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy; Hallucinogenic Toreador; and Lincoln in Dalivision portray double images. Depending on how you look at these works, you can see two entirely different views.

Surrealistic paintings are what Dali is best known for, and in most of them he left everything to the viewer’s interpretation. As you wander around on your visit today, look at the paintings up close and then move back about twenty feet and ponder them again from that distance.

Before leaving, stop at our gift shop to browse and perhaps to purchase some of the Dali memorabilia – posters, books, clothing, perfume, and post cards. On your next trip to St Petersburg, come back to visit us. We are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., on Sunday from noon to 5 P.M., and we are closed on Mondays and holidays.