Redevelopment, culture add new life to St. Pete
Where to stay
Guy Harvey Outpost. A beach resort named for the marine wildlife artist and conservationist. 6000 Gulf Blvd., St. Pete Beach, Fla. 727-360-5551, tradewindsresort.com.
Where to eat
RumFish Grill. This new restaurant at Guy Harvey Outpost features more than fresh seafood. A 33,500-gallon aquarium takes up an entire wall. Guests are welcome to snorkel with marine life that includes a nurse shark and a moray eel. 6000 Gulf Blvd., St. Pete Beach, Fla. 727-329-1428, rumfishgrill.com.
Dali Museum. "Dali and Da Vinci: Minds Machines and Masterpieces" will be on exhibit March 8-July 26. 1 Dali Blvd., St. Petersburg, Fla. 727-823-3767, thedali.org.
Chihuly Collection presented by the Morean Arts Center. 400 Beach Dr., St. Petersburg, Fla. 727-822-7872, moreanartscenter.org.
Museum of Fine Arts. "Monet to Matisse — On the French Coast" is on exhibit through May 31. 255 Beach Dr. N.E., St. Petersburg, Fla. 727-896-2667. fine-arts.org.
At the Dali Museum here, home to the largest collection of Salvador Dali art outside of Europe, a visitor admires a large-scale painting of a nude woman pensively watching the sun rise over the Mediterranean Sea.
On closer inspection, the glowing sun becomes a birds-eye view of the crucifixion of Christ. The young, alluring woman surrounded by a scene of breathtaking natural beauty is simultaneously submerged in dark images of death, a reflection on the dual nature of the human condition.
The visitor is so captivated, she wants to photograph the work. (Museum rules allow photography with no flash.) She looks through the lens, then abruptly pulls the camera away from her eye and blinks, incredulous. An image of Abraham Lincoln has replaced the beautiful woman. It’s surreal, or more to the point, surrealism.
It’s a scene that museum docents see play out daily. No doubt they get a chuckle out of the bemusement of those unfamiliar with the Spanish painter’s oil and collage on canvas work originally exhibited in the Guggenheim Museum in New York as a tribute to the 1976 U.S. bicentennial.
The lengthy title, “Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea Which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln (Homage to Rothko)” says it all, but it’s easy to understand the bewilderment of those who view the painting through a camera before reading it. The lens sees the image of Lincoln even close up.
Gala was Dali’s wife, his lifelong muse. The subtitle, “Homage to Rothko,” is a reference to Russian-born Mark Rothko, a central figure in the abstract expressionist movement in American art in the 1950s and ’60s.
The work was inspired by an article in Scientific American about visual perception and the minimum number of pixels necessary to recognize a specific human face. Dali was already a master of optical illusion and double imagery, but the piece inspired him to take these concepts to a whole new level.
Another work that perennially draws Dali fans is “The Disintegration of Persistence of Memory” (1952-54), which depicts the artist’s iconic melting watches. In it, he revisits the theme of the passage of time from his 1931 masterpiece “Persistence of Memory.”
Even if you have no use for a megalomaniac surrealist and his crazy melting timepieces, the museum itself is a work of art, and it’s worth the trip to see the $36 million architectural marvel topped by a geodesic glass atrium nicknamed the “Glass Enigma,” which offers a sweeping view of Tampa Bay. Like Dali himself, the structure is outlandish, flamboyant, imposing and difficult to fathom.
A decade ago, the avant-garde building would have seemed as out of place in this Gulf Coast city as a snowsuit on the beach, but it’s been the museum’s home since 2011 and now seems as congruous to the cityscape as the palm trees.
That’s because, in recent years, St. Petersburg has shed its dowdy image as a haven for snowbirds and transformed into something bordering on hip. Urban redevelopment combined with a cultural renaissance has breathed new life into a city once known as a place where the elderly quietly rock away their golden years.
The population is getting younger. The shops and restaurants are getting trendier. The arts scene is getting broader.
The Dali Museum is just one of many arts attractions in St. Petersburg’s revitalized downtown. As you stroll along Beach Drive, stop in at the Chihuly Collection, which opened in 2010.
It’s the only space in the world devoted to a museum-like permanent installation of the works of Dale Chihuly, the world’s most celebrated glass artist. His brilliantly-hued glass installations are so dazzling they seem to belong in a Technicolor fairy tale. A highlight is “Mille Fiori,” a glowing garden that comprises hundreds of pieces of glass.
When you emerge from the dimly lit interior into the bright sun, you likely will be drawn to North Straub Park and the waterfront promenade across the street. Despite recent growth, the waterfront is protected from development by a city charter.
If the Florida sun gets to be a bit much, hop aboard a trolley to continue your artcentric tour.
It will take you to the Museum of Fine Arts, a city landmark that boasts a permanent collection spanning ancient to contemporary art. There’s nothing new about the museum — it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year — but fresh exhibits keep visitors returning time and again.
“Monet to Matisse — On the French Coast” opened Feb. 7, the date the museum opened to the public in 1965. The works of Monet, Renoir, Picasso and other luminaries are on loan from some of the country’s most renowned museums as well as private collections in the U.S. and Europe.
So, is St. Petersburg joining the ranks of New York, Paris and Florence as an arts destination? No, but, for a midsized city, its offerings are vast and impressive. And those other cities don’t have pristine beaches.
In some ways, St. Petersburg is like a Dali painting. At first glance, it may be difficult to comprehend, but the deeper you look and the more open-minded you are, the more you appreciate it.
