Dali's 'Santiago' is my St. Nicholas!

I'm like a kid on Christmas morning, every time I contemplate the glory of Salvador Dali's monumental, awe-inspiring masterpiece, Santiago El Grande.

Here's a reproduction of it in my home. The Apostle, St. James -- patron of saint of Spain (referred to by the Spanish as "Santiago El Grande") -- could not have been portrayed more heroically.

Christmas Colors and a Colorful Catalan!

I've always loved this menacing photo-portrait of the Divine Dali by photography genius Philippe Halsman. And with the red and green hues here, well, this picture just fits the holiday season like sizzling flames along a giraffe's long neck!

Happy Holidays!!

Breverman on Dali: 'Every line counts!'

Last summer, during the first public exhibition ever of the esteemed Dr. Edmund Klein Collection of Salvador Dali dedicatory drawings, sketches, sculpture and graphics -- held at the U.B. Anderson Gallery in Buffalo, New York - internationally famed artist Harvey Breverman was in attendance.

Breverman, whose stunning and evocative works appear in museums and private collections around the world (and who resides in the Buffalo area), has, together with his wife Debbie, become special friends of my wife Anne and me.

During the gala reception for the exhibition -- which included the 15 Klein Collection sketches, a sculpture and two lithographs -- Harvey stopped dead in his tracks before what has become the centerpiece of the Klein Collection: a truly gorgeous, delicately drawn angel, which is shown here (a bit faintly, I'm afraid, and as a detail only of the complete piece). Then Breverman made a most revealing comment about the drawing:

"In a drawing such as this, which is superb, every line counts." He reminded me, and others who'd gathered around, that this work -- especially having been drawn on the blank frontispiece of a book (Le Diners de Gala) in the presence of Dr. Klein -- had to have been done in "one take." No room for reworking the ballpoint ink. No erasing and starting over. Every line counted.

The drawing, which must be seen in person to be fully appreciated, is masterful. It demonstrates, again, just how skilled Dali was as a technician, a draftsman. Add to that technical virtuosity his limitless imagination and protean intellect, and you have the Leonardo of our times.

For Breverman's part, the man is himself an ingenious painter, print maker and more. In the larger canvas shown here -- actual dimensions 66 in. x 120 in. -- he has included a self-portrait, wearing a vest, white shirt and khaki pants. The other work is a pastel and conte self-portrait.

Viva Dali, viva Breverman!

Inspired by Dali?

Lady Gaga. Elton John. Madonna. Kiss. And the list goes on.

What do they have in common? An ultra-dramatic flair, a taste for the unusual, a highly distinctive if not outrageous public persona. Or, to coin a phrase, they've got a gimmick!

Salvador Dali knew about that long before most everyone else: the mustache. The wild facial expressions. The gaggle of animal accouterments (ocelots and ant eaters, to name two species). The ornate regalia. The provocative press conferences. The kingly sceptres. And did I mention that mustache!

Lady Gaga may have raw talent. Or she may not. I confess to not (yet) knowing much about her music. But she knows that entertainment -- especially these days -- is about thinking outside the.......stratosphere! Elton John figured that one out a long time ago. Kiss sure knew how to earn the label, "different."

In all these cases, real talent underpinned the outward drama. Sir Elton John is masterful. Madonna is legendary. Kiss still rocks like few others. Lady Gaga is all the rage right now.

Gimmicks get you noticed. They get the media talking about you. And, as none other than Dali declared, "Let them speak of Dali -- even if they speak well of him!" Mrs. Reynolds Morse once told me the story of how Dali explained that, if Joan Miro were in a cab in New York City, no one would know who he was. But whenever Dali was spotted in a taxi in the Big Apple, people shouted, "Look! Look! It's Dali!"

Once again, Salvador Dali got it right. And as usual, well ahead of his time.

Even Lady Gala -- oops, I mean Gaga -- with her reindeer hat, seems to have taken a page out of the King of Surrealism's book!

Dali Exhibition in Atlanta Needs New Name!

"Dali: The Late Work" appears to be the working title -- and just recently published in a news report that went national -- of an important Salvador Dali exhibition set to open in August of 2010 at the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.

The term "late work" reminds me of the all-too-many college students of mine who commit that infraction: turning in late work.

I'm certain a more refined, more sophisticated, more appropriate title will come to be affixed to this exhibition, which, as I understand it, will focus solely on Dali's post-Surrealist period. Hopes are "high" (pun slightly intended) that the High Museum will be fortunate enough to be graced with some of the real block-buster Dalis of the 1950s - '70s. Works that have seldom if ever been shown in America before.

The late Senor Dali would be proud indeed!

New Insights into Dali's 'Santiago El Grande'

I spoke today with Jan, a young man at the Beaverbook Art Gallery in New Brunswick, Canada, who gave me some new insights into my favorite Dali masterpiece: Santiago El Grande.

I'd phoned there to check the status of something I ordered, and we got to chatting about Santiago, which this young university history major was most enthusiastic and knowledgeable about. We discussed a recent newspaper article in Fredericton, which reported on a visit several weeks ago by a Mary Carter of England, who had a lifelong desire to see Santiago El Grande in person. She finally made the trip, and the photo in the newspaper article showed Mary actually lying on her back, underneath the painting!

Jan explained to me today that Santiago, originally intended as an altar piece, was meant to be hung significantly higher than the Beaverbrook's space allows. When viewed from the proper lower angle, it's said the figure of Jesus on the cross appears three-dimensional. However, the same effect can be achieved by lying on the floor, as Mary Carter was instructed to do. At least that's what Jan says -- and this was corroborated in the aforementioned newspaper article.

Although I haven't counted them yet, Jan also noted that the 12 scallop shells in Santiago represent the 12 Apostles; I'm not sure I ever quite realized that. And something else I didn't know is that, when Santiago was first shown at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, the theme of the fair was the "atomic age." This, of course, is in part why the groin area of the rearing steed is an atomic cloud burst (but it may also have been a cover-up of the horse's genitalia, to maintain a certain modesty).

Jan says the Beaverbrook delights in showing Santiago together with two of its three portraits by Dali -- one of Sir James Dunn as Caesar, another of Lady Dunn seated upon a horse -- and that all three pictures are in some way linked together when museum docents give talks about Salvador Dali's extreme presence at the Beaverbrook.

This coming summer, your Meeting Dali! host vows to get to New Brunswick, even if I have to walk there!

All I Want for Christmas is DALI!

This delightful painting, "Noel," graced the cover of VOGUE magazine in the '40s. It's one of the most charming and beautiful works ever created by the saviour of modern art!

With the big season fast approaching, I thought it appropriate that we celebrate this fine work today. Enjoy!