Preserving it surreal: my Dalí-inspired artwork journey to Catalonia | Catalonia holidays
I have been made in these rocks. Right here have I formed my character,” Salvador Dalí stated of the panorama round his house of Portlligat, plus neighbouring Cadaqués and Cap de Creus. Dalí lived on this village for many of his life, establishing house in a fishing hut from 1930. It was, for him, a spot of “geological peacefulness”.
This space of Catalonia – essentially the most easterly level of Spain – is the endpoint of my highway journey from Brighton through Chartres, Carcassonne and Languedoc. Dalí introduced me right here. His beguiling and surreal imagery fired my younger creativeness; his artwork was a gateway to the bizarre. Ever since discovering that the hallucinatory landscapes that body his work are each bit as unusual as Dalí portrayed them, I’ve wished to go to. I’m right here for Dalí and for the rocks. In my pocket a geological curio from Brighton seaside additionally makes this one thing of a pilgrimage.
My base is Cadaqués, a small, coastal city with a St Ives vibe and a equally bohemian fame and salty historical past. It’s a modern coastal city with a good patchwork of whitewashed homes, slate pathways, slender streets, gray pebbled seashores and a mess of locations to eat. What started as a easy fishing village gained its fame via artists and communities drawn to the sunshine, solitude and wonder.
Mick Jagger, Luis Buñuel, Marcel Duchamp and Albert Einstein – who’s stated to have performed his violin there – have all been famous guests, however Dalí put the city on the map. A statue of him – trying haughty – stands on the seafront, a path depicts photos of the city painted by him, and the privately owned Dalí Expo has a set of 300 prints from books he illustrated, together with Venus in Furs, Faust, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the Bible.
Cadaqués could be unpleasantly busy and sizzling in the summertime, which is why I’m right here in autumn. Temperatures are within the mid-20s and there’s room to roam. The sunshine is gorgeous, the ocean is heat and welcoming – however I need to do greater than swim and sunbathe.
The gathering within the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres will do little to transform those that discover Dalí’s artwork gimmicky and shallow. Its 4 flooring function primarily later-period artwork which, in contrast together with his best-known work, comes throughout as kitsch and overly ornate. An enormous Cadillac-cum-chained-goddess-cum-weeping-boat sculpture within the courtyard appears to be like just like the type of factor Banksy’s vacuous Mr Brainwash might need knocked up in Exit By the Present Store if funds was no problem.
The highlights are Dalí’s early work, the Mae West room and a flooring devoted to work of rocks, stone and lichen from his beloved shoreline. “Oh, look, he went via a pebble section,” I hear a younger American lady say. That’s a technique of placing it. Nevertheless, one of the best second of my journey is the geological wonderland that’s Cap de Creus pure park, a couple of miles west of Cadaqués.
The extent of safety awarded to this space is the very best potential for a park of its kind in Spain. The one highway in is closed to automobiles from June to October, and on some autumn weekends however the park could be reached by bike, on foot (two hours from Cadaqués) or, as I select, by bus from Portlligat.
“Deal with the panorama right here as a museum,” a ranger says. “Don’t veer from the trail, don’t take away something from the panorama.” Not solely have all invasive species been efficiently eradicated – restoring the stability of ecology – so have all traces of a Membership Med vacation resort that closed in 2003.
Alighting at Paratje de Tudela, which was certainly one of Dalí’s favorite locations to color, I discover myself in a prehistoric and hallucinatory panorama. The Pyrenees within the distance are a reminder that this panorama was fashioned by the mountains crashing down into the Mediterranean right here.
Succulents, samphire, shrubs, yellow lichen, juniper, wild rosemary and cacti add a vibrant distinction to the volcanic schist. I observe a path that descends near the ocean, often peppered with viewing posts suggesting shapes that may be seen within the rock formations: a camel, a rabbit, a supine determine. These vistas impressed Dalí’s double-image fashion of portray, seen in well-known works together with The Persistence of Reminiscence and The Nice Masturbator – which depicts a human face within the form of the rock formations.
The geology does play tips on the eyes. A cream blanket that has in some way ended up draped on a distant rock appears to be like for all of the world like a Dalí-esque statue of the Virgin Mary.