ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — At the end of his career, master surrealist Salvador Dalí was incredibly self-aware of his image, his talent and his marketability.
He was the Surrealist with the mustache and the melting clocks. His brilliant mind-bending work could contain serious, heavy themes — and yet he also could be whimsical and very funny.
He's the artist we see most of in "Reimagining Nature: Dalí's Floral Fantasies," a new exhibit opening at the Dalí Museum in downtown St. Petersburg this weekend.
Curated from works created at the end of his career — between 1968 and 1972 — this is a fantastical botanical garden of plenty, where the painted daisies come with bacon and eggs, and the lilies spin vinyl records.
"It's like Alice in Wonderland," said Peter Tush, the museum's curator of education. "It seems alien, but it's also inviting, like dreams being opened up."
And yes, some flowers grow from melted clocks — and some flowers have twirling mustaches.
The pieces in this show are being shown together for the first time in more than two decades.
The exhibit officially opens to the public on Saturday and is included with general museum admission.
For more information on the Dalí Museum, go here.
