Monday, April 22, 2013

Dali Exhibit at Centre Pompidou

One of the exhibits that I was looking forward to the most while being in Paris was the Salvador Dali exhibit at the Centre Pompidou.  I have been interested in going to the Centre Pompidou ever since I learned about it in high school, just because it is so modern and abstract, and I know many french people do not like it and its juxtaposition within Paris but I like it.  I have also been familiar with Dali's work prior to seeing any this exhibit because my family has shown me many of his paintings, my brother has a tattoo a melting watch from his famous The Persistence of Memory, and I have also visited The Dali Museum in Florida.  I was very excited to see what they would do with this exhibit since it is the biggest Dali exhibit Paris has seen in about thirty years, and I was not disappointed.

We went to the exhibit the very last night it was open to go with Holly, which was not the best idea since it was very crowded, we ended up waiting in line for a couple hours. But the wait was worth it.  There were over two hundred paintings, drawings, and sculptures. A couple of my favorite painting were there including Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man and Portrait of My Dead Brother.
















After looking through his numerous paintings and sculptures we snuck into a theater room and watched some of  his abstract movie, which was very confusing and I did not really understand what was going on, but that's Dali for you.  I liked listening to his voice overs though, he had so much passion for life and that kind of passion is contagious.  Another exciting aspect to the exhibit was the opportunity to put yourself into one of his photographs.  Which is shown in the picture of my roommate Nikki and myself sitting on the couch which are lips of a girls face.The exhibit and museum itself were very interesting to explore, and it was the perfect location to host all of Dali's work.  Also the view from the top floor was amazing!

After reading many reviews, after visiting the museum as I did not want to be influenced by other's opinions before I had time to make my own, I noticed that American and French perspectives are almost the same.  Mostly they were all split pretty evenly between loving and hating the exhibit.  A lot of people commented on the crowds and long lines, but then some said it was worth it, like myself.  I would say that there is more of an appreciation for Dali's work by french people.  I consider this exhibit much more exciting than others I have seen at The Louvre or Musee Rodin, mostly because there were so many different aspects to it.  I even liked it more than the permanent collection in Florida.


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