Dali House retains copyright
If Dali House is looking a little forelorn lately for lack of fresh posts, it’s only because I’m in the painful throes of assembling a biography of Salvador Dali for Google Earth (which will be appearing here as well, naturally). It’s a massive job tracking that loon all over the world over the course of eight decades, but it’s not only fascinating, it’s richly rewarding. I’ve come across an astonishing range of facts and anecdotes of which I wasn’t previously aware, so it’s a story worth retelling in full.
One curious little item popped up while I was assembling information on all the celebratory events held in 2004, the centenary of Dali’s birth: A new Dali museum was proposed for Prague, and the name they had in mind for it was …
drumroll, ready with the cymbals …
Dali House!
BISH!
I’m pleased to report that, as far as the Internet is concerned at least, absolutely nothing came of the $26-million scheme. The proponents changed their mind, probably after discovering this blog, and went with “the Palace of Art” instead. Actually, Czech art dealer Miro Smolak — who with World Trade Center rebuilding architect Daniel Libeskind had formalised the audacious notion — was asked what happened to the original name, and said, “People here seem allergic to it.” I’m not making that up.
By any name, the idea was in vain. The Czech National Gallery thought it was a stupid idea, since Dali had no connection to Prague and little influence on Czech art. Smolak pointed out that the citizens of St Petersburg, Florida, might say the same thing, yet that sunburnt city has the world’s most comprehensive Dali collection.
