Paris. Dali

For the last several years I have been meaning to go to L'espace Dali, a museum which houses several hundred of the sculptures of Salvador Dali. Seeing the works raises the question of just when is a sculptor a sculptor.  While all of the works are pure Dali, and he was responsible for the idea, the image and the maquette or small model, the actual construction of the full-size work was undertaken by others. The final product, although under the supervision of Dali, was made by professional artisans.  It is an interesting question, but anyone looking at the works would know immediately that they were the "brain children" of Salvador Dali.  Many of them are especially reminiscent of his paintings, especially those dealing with time.

Alice in Wonderland

Many of the time pieces that one sees in "The Persistence of Time," painting have been made into beautiful pieces of scupture.

The Nobility of Time

The Persistence of Memory

Some of his works are barely on the borderline of surrealism, while others are well into that zone.  In some the message is quite clear while in others it is very much left to the observer to infuse the piece with meaning.

St George and the Dragon

Homage to Terpsichore

His Homage to Terpsichore is about one of the mythological muses. One of the dancers is classical sculpture while the other is "cubist."  It has been suggested that they represent the "ever-growing and chaotic rhythm of modern life."  Yet they dance together just as we adjust to change.

On a completely different plane we have Dali's sofa based on the lips of Mae West.  Can't you just hear it whispering, "Come up and see me some time"?

Mae West's lips Sofa

The Sofa in a Dali room

Finally, here is one last work, "The Snail and the Angel."  One writer has said of it that "a winged messenger of the gods, capable of limitless speed, bestows the snail with the gift of motion by touching down on its back for the briefest of moments."

The Snail and the Angel