He should have donated one work to Figuereshis hometown and instead gave an entire museum. More than fifty years have passed since the painter and draughtsman Salvador Dalíat the request of the first citizen Ramon Guardiola, decided to pay homage to the Catalonia with a new structure, on the site of the old Municipal Theatre, which was badly damaged by bombing during the Spanish Civil War, at a time when the artist was still a child. Thus was born the Teatro-Salvador Dali Museum.
It was the turning point in the life of Dalí. Returning home after a long period spent travelling around Europe, getting to know other cultures and life in capitals such as Paris and Madrid, in 1960 he began working for the Theatre-Museumin Figueres. A large project that required perhaps the maximum of artistic expression and energy, so much so that the work was completed 14 years later, in 1974. Although other additions were studied later, until the mid-1980s. The Salvador Dali Museum became a huge homage to the city's most famous character.
Genius and madness in the Salvador Dalí Museum.
It now contains a series of sculptures and mechanical works, as well as a gallery dedicated to the works of Antoni Pitxothis friend and companion, who after Dalí's death became the museum's director. The Spanish painter's was a 'theatrical dream', as he himself called it. The idea for the museum started from his need to understand it as 'a single block, a labyrinth, a great surrealist object'. The thought was aimed at visitors, so that they could enjoy the works and leave the Theatre-Museum almost awakened from a beautiful dream.
A dream come true, so to speak. Even non-museum lovers will be enraptured by the genius of Salvador Dalíeven before entering the building in Figueres. Already from the outside one can see, in every single detail, all the extravagance of one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. One example above all, the pink turret topped by giant eggs. Inside, however, chaos. The 22 rooms have been arranged without any criteria whatsoever, precisely with the idea of making the visitor feel bewildered.
The Salvador Dali Museum is a monument, perhaps the only testimony of the Catalan artist celebrating the Surrealism and his creative life. It is the second most visited museum in Spain after the Prado in Madrid. Dalí dedicated the last fifteen years of his life to the museum before being buried inside it, a few blocks from his home, in 1989.
