Story 3 Final

Once again a legend comes to St. Petersburg with the “Dali and da Vinci: Minds, Machines, and Masterpieces” exhibit at the Salvador Dali Museum.

The “Picasso/Dali Dali/Picasso” and “Andy Warhol: Art. Fame. Mortality., exhibits in 2014 increased attendance by 40 percent according to The Dali’s Marketing Director Kathy Greif.

Ten original works by Dali are featured in this exhibit including “The First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper’s Brain,” but there are no original da Vinci’s. The Dali acquired many da Vinci pieces from local da Vinci exhibits at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and the Bradenton Auditorium. With these loans and some recreations by the Dali museum, the exhibit took only six months to put together according to curator Peter Tush.

“The show focuses on how da Vinci’s ideas transformed Dali’s understanding of himself as an artist following his break from Surrealism, enabling him to explore the world of science and math in relation to his art,” Tush said, “By strategically showcasing specific Dali paintings in conjunction with key da Vinci reproductions and recreated inventions the complexity of Dali’s ambitions becomes clearer.”

According to the Dali’s press release, the exhibit features more than 75 pieces including reproductions of da Vinci books and paintings and original and reproduced Dali manuscripts, prints, paintings and sculpture.

The exhibit is composed of five themes that da Vinci and Dali shared in their works: Science, Masterworks, Psychology, Mathematics, and Invention.

In the 1950s Dali responded to many of da Vinci’s works, particularly “The Last Supper.” Dali’s version and mathematical breakdown of the pieces are a large part of this exhibit.

Another response shown in the exhibit is Dali’s self-portrait of himself as “The Mona Lisa.”

Da Vinci will be at the Dali museum until July 26, 2015.

USFSP students receive free admission to the Dali museum.