Youngs Around the World

Salvador Dali (1904-89), born in the small Spanish town of Figueres just a few kilometers south of the French border, is regarded by many to be one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. He is also one of our personal favorites. In the 1960’s and 70’s, Dali created the Teatre-Museu Dali in Figueres, a culmination of his life’s work and the single greatest surrealist piece of art in the world. We decided to use our last day in Spain to make the pilgrimage, a two-hour train ride north from Barcelona.

The Figueres’ former municipal theater, burned and destroyed during the Spanish civil war, was personally converted by Dali to create the museum. A brochure that we picked up at the museum entrance suggested that “the Dali Theatre-Museum should be seen as a whole, for Dali conceived and designed everything in it with the aim of offering the visitor a veritable aesthetic experience, and the opportunity of entering the artist’s unique, fascinating world.” And what an amazing world it was, filled with Dali’s psychedelic and spectral images! Tina is unshakably convinced that there must have been some fantastic hallucinogens in Gaudi and Dali’s time. After two hours of wandering around the multilevel amphitheatre we were both overwhelmed by the artist’s unique and varied creations – paintings, drawings, sculptures, gold, jewels, and installations. Dali was certainly not confined to the medium of painting for which he is most famous. He liked to paint his wife, Gala. He liked to create things that move. Filled with cartoon-like sketches, enormous wall-covering paintings, surrealistic oil paintings, doorways morphed into giant faces, and a chaotic array of sculptures and installations, the museum left us speechless. It was easily one of our favorite museums in the world.

Our tickets granted us entry to another of Dali’s museums nearby, the Dali Joies (Dali Jewels). In the 1940’s, Dali was commissioned to design a collection of jewelry. The result was an eclectic display of beautiful bejeweled anthropomorphic creations including The Eye of Time, an eye-shaped mosaic of platinum, ruby and diamonds and The Royal Heart, a solid gold heart with an inset ruby-encrusted, mechanized heart that appeared to beat. Dali summarizes his collection best. “The jeweled pieces – ornaments, medals, crosses, objets d’art – you find are not conceived to rest soullessly in steel vaults. They were created to please the eye, uplift the spirit, stir the imagination, express convictions. Without an audience, without the presence of spectators, these jewels would not fulfill the function for which they came into being. The viewer, then, is the ultimate artist. His sight, heart, mind – fusing with and grasping with greater or lesser understanding the intent of the creator – gives them life.”

A short train ride south from Figueres is the picturesque town of Girona, idyllically perched on a riverbank with colorfully-painted houses and a rustic medieval town center. We stopped there on our way back to Barcelona and sat for a late lunch at one of the outdoor cafés. We wandered through the narrow winding streets, visiting the town’s cathedral, stopping for photos and gelato. Girona is not a major tourist destination, overflowing with historical sights, but rather a charming little town straddling a lazy river. We found its tranquil streets a refreshing change from the frenetic pace of Barcelona and the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds at the Dali museum.

And so our days in Spain have come to an end. We have truly enjoyed the sangria, the paella and gelato; the vibrant colors, the music and the laid back attitudes of the Spanish people. Life in Spain seems refreshingly immune to the frenetic pace of much of the Western world. Barcelona, jewel of the Mediterranean, is a conglomeration of Spain’s best attributes – stunning architecture, a relaxed café culture, world class museums, historic medieval neighborhoods, and one of the most enjoyable beaches we’ve ever experienced. Lladro. Picasso. Dali. Gaudi. Spain makes the world beautiful.

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