Salvador Dali: Gardens of the Mind at Selby Gardens

With Wanda

Seeing a local gem from a visitor's perspective is always an eye-opening experience. (Feel free to groan.) Bad puns aside, that was definitely the case when Wanda and I took in "Salvador Dali: Gardens of the Mind" at Selby Gardens. We had a blast.

In recent years, Selby Gardens has created Gardens-wide exhibits inspired by the work of visual artists, including Warhol, Gauguin and Chagall. It's a smart way to attract visitors who might think, "I've visited the Gardens. Who needs to go again?" (Semi-guilty as charged.) The current exhibit is an homage to the Surrealist master Salvador Dali.

Everywhere we looked, the curators had worked in a Dali-esque feature. We started in the Conservatory, which seems to have cornered the market on eyeballs. It also includes a Dali-designed Mae West Lips sofa (image below) on which visitors could take a load off and enjoy their surroundings. (Interestingly, Dali never intended these sofas to actually be functional.) The guide to the exhibit helpfully explained what the unusual elements meant to the artist. The somewhat creepy eyes are a reference to ways of seeing and perception.

Other elements interspersed throughout the Gardens include eggs (hope, love, birth and conception), spirals (divine geometry), crutches (challenges, weaknesses and an instrument of art and intelligence) and boats (water, life and Dali's beloved coastal home). And then, of course, there are the mustaches, a symbol of the artist himself. (It took a lot of time to get into position for this mustache to be in the proper place! Thankfully, my allergies were in check that day.) The exhibit also features a Butterfly House chock-full of all kinds of butterflies (which, in Dali language, represent metamorphosis and transformation).

And then there was the actual art. The first gallery in the Museum of Botany & the Arts included a few of Clyde Butcher's large-format black and white photographs from his trip to Costa Brava to capture the coastline that so inspired Dali. They were no less stunning for having seen them previously at the "Visions of Spain" exhibit at the Dali Museum in St. Pete. (To read my blog about that exhibit, click here.)

Chrysantheneum
Fretescens (Marguerite)

From there we entered a darkened room in which a set of Dali's ten color lithographs known as "FlorDali" was on display, compliments of the Dali Museum.  These whimsical drawings feature various flowers, although they are not a variety you'll find in your own garden.This bacon and egg-laden chrysanthemum made me want breakfast rather than to stop and smell the flowers.

The little known series was created by Dali between 1939 and 1941, a few years after his expulsion from the Surrealist Group. The Group included Rene Magritte, Joan Miro and Andre Breton. The reason he was kicked out of the Group was not a change in his artistic style. Instead, he had been found guilty in a trial by a jury of his Surrealist peers of "counter-revolutionary activity involving the celebration of fascism under Hitler." Some suspect jealousy over Dali's popularity was a factor as well. In any event, the expulsion clearly did not hamper Dali's pursuit of his art and his celebrity. To see the entire FlorDali series, click here.

If you're interested in seeing a few more images of the exhibit, click here for a great introduction by Jennifer Rominiecki, President and CEO of Selby Gardens. The exhibit is scheduled to run through June 28.  Here's hoping we'll be out and about well before then.

Stay safe!