The Avant-garden
Located on the downtown waterfront of St. Petersburg, Florida, The Dalí Museum’s Avant-garden draws inspiration from our local flora and from Salvador Dalí’s fascination with duality—art and nature, the Apollonian and the Dionysian.
Dalí was born and lived much of his life on Spain’s Costa Brava. As the name “Fierce Coast” implies, his homeland is rocky and severe, swept by the Tramontana, a wind that blows south from the Pyrenees. Over time, wind and rain have scoured the land, sculpting its metamorphic rocks into eccentric shapes.
These stones are so central to Dalí’s work that we’ve made them an important element throughout the Avant-garden. One such stone—a solitary boulder of metamorphic pegmatite—was gifted to the Museum by the Mayor and people of Cadaqués, Spain, and now rests at the center of the East Garden.
The Dalí Dome
The Dalí Dome is a monumental, 360-degree space at The Dalí Museum designed to immerse visitors in art through light, sound and motion. Standing 39 feet tall, over 60 feet wide and covering more than 2,000 square feet, The Dome provides the community with new multi-sensory experiences celebrating art of all forms.
The Wish Tree
As an homage to our community’s heartfelt hopes and wishes, The Dalí’s new Wish Tree has been planted in the Museum’s North Garden following Hurricane Ian’s devastating effects on the existing tree. Once acclimated, the Museum will return the whimsical ribbons and strings upon the branches for visitors to once again place their wishes.
The Golden Ratio
Dalí was fascinated by the way mathematics reveals a hidden order in the world—there is an uncanny correspondence between what we perceive intuitively and what conforms to mathematical principles. One proportion in particular has been so highly valued that it is called the “golden ratio.” A demonstration of this can be found on the patio of the East Garden directly under the Enigma’s Bay Vista, where you’ll see a large rectangle comprised of several square pavers. When a square section is removed from this shape, the remainder is another gold rectangle. At each intersection of the spiral and the square, we have inscribed one of the numbers of the Fibonacci sequence.
Sculptures
As an ode to Dalí’s iconic mustache, a 17-foot mustache sculpture created by local artist Donald Gialanella adorns the Avant-garden. To ensure its longevity, Gialanella used CorTEN steel, a special alloy that forms a thin oxidized patina that protects the material from corrosion. He designed around the principle of parallax, featuring a series of parallel profile plates so that the appearance of the sculpture changes based on the vantage point of the viewer. Tampa Steel & Supply sponsored this surreal installation as part of its service to the Tampa Bay region, which began in 1983. Along with the mustache are four bronze sculptures Dalí conceived between 1973-1975: Christ of St. Jon of the Cross, Terpischore (Muse of Dance), Carmen Castanets and Winged Triton.
The Grotto
Florida was given its name by its early Spanish explorers, meaning “flowered.” The Museum entrance is indeed full of flowers, where you enter into a different world, to a degree washed of your past. This is a place of a different order; it tells us to be ready for reversals of expectation, and yet it is a calm place, destined for reflection. One can sit on the numerous benches carved from limestone and named for donors to The Dalí.
Fountain of Youth
Walking through The Grotto to the north face of the Great Stone, you see air plants that take all their nutrients from the air and rain. There, at waist level, is a spigot: place your hand under it and out pours water from “The Fountain of Youth.” Nearby, a plaque reads: “Under this ground are pooled the legendary waters of St. Petersburg’s Fountain of Youth. Ponce de Leon searched for these waters in the 16th century as the Old World looked to the New World for replenishment. Inspired by this legend, St. Petersburg’s great benefactor, Edwin H. Tomlinson, tapped into this sulfurous spring in 1900.” Similarly, Salvador Dalí tried to replenish the world of art as he thought art had lost its vitality. Considering himself an explorer and a savior of modern art, he sought to restore art’s vigor through his use of dreamlike images and realistic representation.
The Avant-garden was encouraged by former treasurer of The Dalí Museum, William Hough, and individual donors. It was expanded with the help of Michael Van Valkenberg, landscape architects Graham-Booth and Yann Weymouth and The Dalí staff. Thanks to the green thumbs of Security Director Dave Portilia, Gustavo Vargas and Nicole Matwijczyk, the Garden has come into its beautiful fullness.