Found a cosy pub out of the wind and drizzle somewhere near embankment, called The Sherlock Holmes.
Nice pint of IPA after a few hours with Dali, crazy chap, but boy, can he sculpt !
It's not a huge exhibition, but gives you a feeling of the genius of Dali that no book could ever give. I'm not fanatical about his paintings and sketches, it's the sculptures I find so intruiging.
The exhibition takes you through some of the various phases and influences of Dali's work, "Sensuality and Femininity," "Religion and Mythology," and "Dreams and Fantasy.". The walls are all in black which I found a bit odd, to me, it didn't really match the work. I suppose it was to attempt to let the work stand out on it's own, but if felt more like a night club than a gallery. The passageway leading to the first gallery room wouldn't go amiss in the Doors nightclub, Marshall street, in the early 90's
My visuals of Dali's world would be sunny, bright and colourful, given the fact that he grew up in that environment.
Eggs, crutches, drawers, penises, vaginas, bums, boobs, ants, clocks, snails horses and of course, Gala.
"I do not understand, when I walk into a restaurant and order a grilled lobster, why I am not served a cooked telephone."
It would be too easy to label Dali as a madman, what scares me is the weight of his intellect, it's simply staggering.
I managed to spend two hours and went through the works on display twice, had a seat on a couch and took a sneaky photo or two, for keepsakes (naughty naughty)
The gallery has a shop, where, for a mere £8000 and upward, you can buy tiny replicas of sculptures and prints of sketches and paintings. I was tempted, but decided possibly next time would be better. I'll take a few plastic lobsters in with me to see if they'll take those instead of money.
