Dali Museum Tampa Bay Arts Scene written by Denise Gabbard

Tampa Bay Arts Scene....Really!


The Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida area is drawing art lovers from all over the country, in many cases even from around the world. Why, you ask? It’s because the area is now host to a string of trendy new galleries and museums that house must-see collections, and still have time to work on your tan.

Dali Museum
St. Petersburg boasts the new $36 million Salvador Dali Museum that has replaced the old museum and doubled the space. This is considered the most comprehensive collection of Dali’s work, even more so than the Dali Theater and Museum in his native Figueres, Spain. The original museum was founded in 1980 by an Ohio couple, A. Reynolds and Eleanor Reese Morse that donated the lion’s share of the Dali pieces. They started collecting when they got married in 1942 and amassed almost 100 of his works, and also met and became friends with Dali and his wife Gala.

The new museum, which had its grand opening the first week of January, sits above Tampa Bay and even lured Spanish realty to the Bay area for the party. It is a stunning piece of architecture, a sleek building made of concrete and waves of glass paneling that changes color with the sunshine. In the gift shop, you can find signature things like melting wristwatches that made Dali so famous as an eccentric artist.

Chihuly Collection

Dale Chihuly is a master glass worker, and the Morean Arts Center is hosting an exhibit of his works. At the Chihuly Collection, there are studio edition glass works available for sale. Also at the Morean Arts Center, you will find workshops, a glass studio, and other art classes. There are also lots of other exhibits. Currently there are several pertaining to the state of Florida: Paradise Lost/Paradise Found and Disappearing Florida.

Tampa Museum of Art

In February 2010, Tampa welcomed its new Museum of Art in the downtown theater district on Gasparilla Avenue. The museum is a $33 million building that houses permanent collections including Greek and Roman antiquities, American modernist and realist paintings, photography, and sculpture. The museum will also host a Degas exhibition from March 12 till June 19, 2011. Degas: Form, Movement and the Antique will bring a number of the French artist’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures that examined the relationship between his two dimensional works and sculpture, during a period when he explored movement and form. This exhibition will closely complement the permanent collection at the Tampa Museum of Art of the Greek and Roman antiquities that influenced Degas from his familiarity with the Louvre collections.

St. Pete Museum of Fine Arts

Renovated and expanded in 2008, the Museum of Fine Arts has a comprehensive collection of art pieces, ranging from antiquities to current day works. The current presentation is Romantics to Moderns, and it is billed as an important survey of watercolors and drawings from the UK. This exposition is lent to the museum from the Collection of BNY Mellon Wealth Management, and runs from January 22, 2011 to May 1, 2011. It is based on 70 drawings and watercolors by 48 British artists, each of them completed between the late 1700’s and early 1900’s.
As you can see, the Tampa area is no longer just a mecca for beach-goers, but it is also developing a thriving arts community. When planning a visit to the area, leave yourself a few days to check out the galleries and museums. You will not be disappointed.
This guest post was written by Denise Gabbard,
Chief of Marketing for artGalore

Salvador Dali Disney Destino

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Actor Alan Cumming to play Salvador Dali in upcoming film

Actor Alan Cumming to play Salvador Dali in upcoming film

Alan Cumming, who’s currently playing against type as a ruthless campaign manager on The Good Wife, will play

Salvador Dali in an upcoming film.

The movie, directed by Australian Philippe Mora, will start shooting this summer, and it will be in 3D—the first time (we know of) that the technology will be used for a film focused on art instead of action.

Because it’s a film about Dali, one of (it not the) greatest surrealist artist, it won’t be your average biopic, but instead “a series of dream-like, fantasy sequences intersected with reality, [that are] profoundly evocative of Dali’s art.”

As the last few films were shot down for being inacurate portrayals of Dali,

It will be interesting to see if this makes the cut.

It is time for a film that depicts Dali in his true light, as the Master of Surrealism.

Salvador Dali's 1965 work titled: Studio of Dali

Hand signed rare limited edition lithograph.

Salvador Dali created the original painting that was used to create the signed lithograph shown above.

Dali painted the original work during the 1964 Worlds Fair.

1964 Worlds Fair

The Studio of Dali is an impressive image that includes an image of Dali's brother who passed away before Dali was born, also his wife Gala is in the image along with a nude model at Dali's studio. The image shows a few different perspectives of Dali at work in the studio. There are a few rare videos of Dali in his studio and some still images, here are a few examples.

While original oil paintings and drawings have dominated Salvador Dali auctions in the past, original lithographs, etchings, engravings and other mediums are showing up more and more often as availability becomes an issue. There was a time when you could purchase a pencil signed Picasso print in the hundreds of dollars, those days are long gone as some Picasso prints have reached the 2MILLION Dollar mark at major auction houses. Salvador Dali passed away a number of years after Picasso, but as Dali's name continues to gain more and more momentum with countless exhibits and new Museums opening, I think we are on our way to high priced Dali works as well.

Stand by for updates in the near future.

Salvador Dali High Museum 5th best attended exhibit in history of museum

Dalí fifth best-attended exhibit in High Museum history

The High Museum of Art's "Dalí: The Late Work" exhibition drew 20,214 during an open-for-31-hours-straight grand finale, raising overall attendance to more than 270,000.

That makes it the fifth best-attended exhibit in High history. But considered in context, the numbers are more impressive: Three of the top-five shows were from the Atlanta museum's extended partnership with Paris' Louvre museum and ran for nearly a year each. The Dalí exhibit, by contrast, was up for 22 weeks.
"I certainly hoped the exhibit would be a big draw. To actually see the volumes of people was beyond my expectations," "Dalí" curator Elliott King said in an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Salvador Dali Museum Florida

The Salvador Dali Museum in Florida is now open. Here are some shots of the new museum exterior and interior. A Surreal structure with an impressive collection of Dali works.

If you have any Dali related questions, feel free to call:

888-888-DALI Ext. 204