Our trip this weekend — the final one in the Spanish art series — followed la ruta de Dali. Basically we drove up the coast (heading back to the Costa Brava) to explore what is known as Dali's triangle.
First stop on Saturday was his house, Port Lligat, in Cadaques. Nestled in a beautiful Mediterranean cove, the house is filled with ... eccentricities. Stuffed animals abound, as to strange fetishy toys. The mannequins are disturbing (and still in perfect pose). The majority of the objects were either gifts or Dali hand-made originals — and all of it's weird.
After spending the afternoon in the beautiful (albeit very seasonal) town of Cadaques, we drove to Figueres, home of the Dali Teatre-Museum. Meant to be theatrical, dramatic and interactive, the museum was built by Dali himself. With no logical organization, the building contains rooms shaped like faces, an alarming number of phallic objects and among other interesting works, a nude that looks like Abraham Lincoln from the right angle. The building is decorated in giant eggs and houses Dali's crypt. We paid our respects.
On Sunday, we left the surreal and took in the medieval. When Dali was young, he fell in love with an older, married woman — Gala. Ultimately the two married, though their relationship seems a little suspect. He worshipped her and painted her over and over (calling her his muse), but the two had separate beds and she had a string of younger gigolos. At some point toward the end of her life, she made it known that she wanted a medieval castle of her very own. So Dali bought her one and made it very clear that it was her castle. She would live there and he would only visit if invited, which apparently only happened twice. After Gala died (and was buried in the basement), Dali moved into the castle at Púbol full time and carried out the rest of his life (and work) from there.
Call it genius, call it insanity. Either way, it was extremely entertaining.
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