If you, many people, have come to Barcelona for the art scene, you should make sure to visit not only the museums directly in the city, but those just outside as well. Once in Barcelona, you should make sure to visit the Dalí Museum in Figueres, just a short train journey away from the big city. The Dalí Museum itself is a monumental work to behold, but on the inside rest some of the most famous paintings by Salvador Dali, and for tickets costing 14 euros, you can see them with your own eyes. Today from ShBarcelona, we list some of the unmissable Dalí paintings at the museum in Figueres within the Spanish province of Girona and give you some background information on each of them.
Table of Contents
Leda atómica
One of the paintings you must see in person once you go to Figueres is “Leda atómica”. In the center rests Gala, Dali’s muse, naked on a pedestal. Next to her, a swan opens its wings over a blanket of water. Leda is the mythological queen of Sparta, in the form of a swan, admired by Zeus.
Related article: Dalí and Barcelona
Photo by: Rafael Soba via VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA
El espectro del sex-appeal
In this small (17,9 x 13,9 cm) but great painting, you can admire the beast of sexuality in the eyes of Salvador Dalí.
The painter is depicted as a child, in a sailor suit, in his hometown next to the sea, watching a gigantic monster in crutches, a symbol of death and resurrection according to Dali.
Retrato de Pablo Picasso en el siglo XXI
Gala was Dali’s favorite subject but the artist also made a series of paintings about famous people. Pablo Picasso was one of these people, although the Spanish artist is almost unrecognizable in this surrealist artwork. Homero, Freud, Columbus, William Tell and Dali himself are also part of this series of paintings about geniuses.
Photo by: heyjupiter via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA
Autorretrato blando con bacon frito
Getting back to the subject of crutches, Dali’s self-portrait is filled with these long sticks. In this ironic self-portrait, where the exuberant artist is completely amorphous, everything is supported by crutches: eyes, eyebrows, cheeks, chin and lips.
Related article: Gaudi Vs Dali: Catalunya’s Greats
La Venus que sonríe
Photo by: EaseTheMain via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA
“La Venus que sonríe” is not the typical Salvador Dali surrealist painting, reason enough for you to be curious about beholding it. In fact, the painting isn’t surrealist at all, but instead a part of the pointillist series of paintings by the Catalan artist
Poesía de América
This large (116 x 79 cm) and enigmatic oil painting was made in 1943. Next to the American rugby players a bottle of Coca-Cola spills a dark paint on a white sheet. Could it represent the racial problems in America? And what about the skin of Africa fading in the back?
The relationship between Dalí and Barcelona has always been grim, contrary to Gaudi’s. No major works of art can be seen in the city, but in the hometown of the artist, Figueres, in the Teatre-Museu Dalí.
Other Dalí sites to visit
In addition to the museum that houses all this beautiful art located at Plaça Gala i Salvador Dalí, Girona holds other famous Dalí sites you can visit such as the Castillo Gala Dalí, one of the original homes of the eccentric artist and his wife Gala, and Casa Salvador Dalí, the artist’s home for 50 years that has been marked as a Site of Historical Interest. You can read more about each of these museums in our article about Dalí museums outside of Barcelona.
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