Dali

This past weekend was the end of the Dali exhibit at The High Museum of Art - Atlanta. To give Dali a Dali-worthy exit the museum held a continuous party... all weekend long. And I mean ALLLL weekend long. The museum opened Saturday morning and didn't close until it's normal time on Sunday.

We went to a play at Cobb Energy Center on Saturday so we decided to go to The High after our play. (the play - Oklahoma - not great. it was ok.) We got there around 11:30 pm and the line was several 100 people deep. Thankfully we then saw the Member's line. Maybe 50 people in line. So we took our spot and it moved rather quickly. We were inside shortly. (good thing because temps were dropping and would soon bring snow to Atlanta).

The Dali section of the museum was packed. We had seen the exhibit once before but at that time The Persistence of Memory hadn't arrived yet. So we made our way to this painting. I was shocked! It's a tiny canvas... maybe 6 inches by 9 inches. Still no one beats Dali in the craftsmanship of oil painting. I've read sometimes he used brushes that only had 1 or 2 hairs. His technique was just amazing!!!

But we couldn't take the crowds for too long. So we decided to wander the museum. We went upstairs to the Surrealist Gallery. The High has a great collection of Dali's fellow surrealist and it was interesting to see the group Dali started with... though eventually they kicked him out of the Surrealist group. The reason? Dali was too surreal.

Ya know, people become well-known for a reason. There were lots of paintings, sculpture, assemblage pieces. Some great. Some just didn't move me. The pieces I gravitated too? When I looked at the description card, they were all by artists I know of: Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Cornell, Man Ray to name just a few in the Surrealist Gallery. Also in the Modern & Contemporary Gallery we saw wonderful works by Chuck Close, Jeff Koons, Jean-Michael Basquiat (LOVE LOVE LOVE Him!!!!)

The exception to that "well known name" rule is Mark Rothko. Man, I just don't see the attraction there. Personally I think his work is just boring.