Salvador Dalí must have been one eccentric dude (and by "eccentric" I mean "fucking crazy"...and by "dude" I mean "man"), but I would have loved to have a few drinks with him and actually witness the insanity up close. 2004 is the 100 year anniversary of Dalí´s birth so it´s a big deal here in Spain (him being Spanish and all). As a result there are lots of Dalí exhibits all over the country.

Today, some friends and I went to one of the "Big 3" museums in Madrid, the Renia Sofia. Looking at his paintings is a trip. He was definitely a bit "out there" to say it kindly...insane is probably another way to say it.

Here´s the scenario: I would walk up to a painting and look at it. Most of the time, I had no clue what was going on. Then, I would read the title. For example, "The Head of a Woman". So, I think to myself, oh "the head of a woman" and take a step back and look at it again. Then I´m like, "wait a minute, this shit still makes no sense." Then I ask someone else about it. The good thing about Dalí is that since he is so unusual, I didn´t feel like I was the only one who had no idea what he was going for.

The big exhibit there is Picasso´s "Guernica". It was painted in the 1930´s about the Spanish Civil War (I think). Anyway, it´s one of Picasso´s most famous paintings. I saw it today. It´s enormous. It´s like 15 by 30 feet or so (I guess that´s about 5 by 10 in meters...damn metric system). All the work was done in like 2 months when he lived in Paris. All I want to know is, how big was his damn flat? The painting is bigger than like 4 traditional European cars. Furthermore, I thought all artists were "starving". If he lived in a flat big enough to paint that in, I doubt he was missing many meals...it´s totally throwing all my pre-conceived notions about artists out the window.

http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guernica_nav/main_guerfrm.html

Surrounding this painting was all his prepartory drawings like "Mother of a Dead Child" and "Horse´s Head". Needless to say, it wasn´t the most cheery art I have ever seen. I think they actually had psychologists on duty in case anyone felt like killing themselves...