Unusual Spain: Museum of a Mad Genius Salvador Dali

I would like to start series of posts about our trip to Spain. Spain is an European country but it differs so much from others. Gaudy and Salvador Dali brought unique charm and madness to it.

Today I will write about the Museum of Salvador Dali in Figueres. This town is situated 140 km from Barcelona and 200 km from Salou where we stayed but we couldn't miss the chance to see this unbelievable place being in Spain. Dali was from Figueres and the Mayor asked Salvador to give a couple of his works to the town but the artist decided to give the whole museum as a gift to his native place. The public loved it and it got the second place after the Prado museum in Madrid.

The building of the museum attracts your attention from the first sight. The eggs on the top mean birth of new lives and the bread on the walls was a kind of fetish of Salvador Dali. He often used pictures of bread in his works. Perhaps it was fear of hunger and poverty.

Salvador Dali was one of the most eccentric artists, the representative of the surrealism trend in art. He was full of contradiction and we can see that in his works. When you visit the museum, your brains could blow out as his imagination was overwhelming. You understand that he was a real genius, crazy genius. But I was also impressed that there were many realistic paintings made by Salvador Dali.

The museum has many halls full of unreal sculptures, paintings and installations. It is a labyrinth of illusions.

One of the most spectacular one is the ceiling painting. As they say Salvador Dali painted it under the impression of the poem by Joan Maragall “L'Emporda” and it symbolizes his and Gala's ascension to heaven. Look at his mustache.))

In niches of the little round yard there are many yellow mannequins which symbolize his favourite muse Gala, originally Russian. I will devote one of my next posts to Gala. We were so impressed with their story and this museum so later we decided to visit the Castle of Gala. Gala is in all his arts. All his works have traces of her presence. Of course, it is so interesting to know what made her so unique.

In the center of the yard there is a composition famous as "Rainy Taxi".
First this exposition was shown in Paris in 1938. Salvador wanted to heat the public's interest and created the auto inside of which it was raining. The floor was covered with ivy and along the mannequin a hundred of Bugrundy snails were crawling.
As the legend describes once Dali was walking during rain and he was completely wet. He was looking at the happy and dry people driving by in taxis. So he wished to restore justice and change the world and he created his "Rainy taxi" in order the people in the taxi were in the rain and outside it would be warm and cozy.

The funny exponent is a bed from the France brothel in the form of a shell. They say that Napoleon III spent nights with his favourite on it.

One of my favourite installations - joke of Salvador Dali. It is a room - face devoted to the famous Hollywood actress Mae West. She is famous with her funny remarks, one of them is "Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

The details make the whole and the whole is broken into details.

It is very difficult and probably useless to describe and try to guess the meaning of each installation, painting or sculpture made by the extremely talented artist Salvador Dali. And no doubts it is better to see it once.

All photos are mine. Some information is taken in the following sources:
http://jeremyvillasis.photoshelter.com/image/I0000KlE82IhzKYE
https://rg.ru/2014/01/23/dali-site.html
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/08/20/glad-to-see/
http://www.tourister.ru/world/europe/spain/city/figueres/museum/1814