Remembering Salvador Dalí
By Germán Bandrés - Founder of Sala Gaudí
In 1970, he frequented the Zodiac bar in Barcelona, located in the Plaza de la Villa de Madrid – C/ del Bot, a popular haunt for students from the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts, as well as a diverse clientele connected to theater, film, architecture, and poetry, all striving to make their mark in the art and culture world. He was also a regular at another historic café that still exists: El Ascensor, frequented by the painter Cardona Torrandell, the theater director Joan Maria Gual, the young architects Oriol Bohigas and Esteban Bonell, and the Guinean sculptor Leandro Mbomio, who later became his country's Minister of Culture.
At that time, I was developing two buildings in Barcelona, so I could say I had a solid professional foundation. I then remembered a story I'd read as a child about a boy who was given two coins: when asked what he'd done with them, he replied that with one he bought bread so he could live, and with the other, a flower to give him the will to live. So, in those bars and during after-dinner conversations, I began to develop the Sala Gaudí project as a comprehensive arts center where the visual arts would coexist with theater, film, music, and literature. A young public relations professional, Nuria Peiri, put me in touch with Enrique Sabater, an unknown photographer who worked for Radical Press and who had interviewed Dalí at his home in Port-Lligat in 1968. The idea matured and in October 1971 I decided to launch Sala Gaudí with Leandro Mbomio and Paco Rodón, literary critic for Noticiero Universal, advisor to the Catalan Encyclopedia and friend of Subirachs , Hernández Pijuán, Alcoy, Rovira-Brull , Vila Grau and so many other artists.
From left to right: Nuria Peiri, Germán Bandrés, Salvador Dalí and Enrique Sabater
at the opening of Sala Gaudí.
Since a grand opening was needed, we proposed that the presentation be given by Miguel Ángel Asturias, Nobel Laureate in Literature and Guatemalan diplomat. We also approached Enrique Sabater, who had grown much closer to Dalí after Captain Mur's departure as his personal secretary, to invite the Empordà genius to the inauguration. Due to illness, Miguel Ángel Asturias was ultimately replaced by Carlos Areán, director of the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid. Dalí, for his part, attended and was present throughout the entire opening ceremony, which generated considerable media attention .
Inauguration of the Gaudí Room with Salvador Dalí and Carlos Areán.
From that moment on, my friendship with Enrique Sabater deepened, leading to frequent visits to Dalí's house in Port Lligat, where Sabater was already acting as Dalí's secretary. The genius from Figueres, always in private, was affectionate and attentive, offering us cream puffs at teatime and Perelada rosé wine to compensate us for the help we provided while he signed the lithograph editions. Sometimes we received visits from Amanda Lear, his muse who lived with him since Gala had taken up residence at Púbol Castle. I remember one day in Port Lligat when Dalí took off his famous snakeskin jacket and placed it over my shoulders, an act immortalized in a photograph now in Sabater's archives. Dalí also gave me permission to use one of his works entitled “Homage to Gaudí” as a poster for Sala Gaudí , crossing out the Gallery logo that he did not like and adding, in his own handwriting, that it should be in “white roman letters”.
The work Homage to Gaudí, donated by Dalí, with the annotation "White Roman Letters" written by the artist regarding the modifications to the Gallery's logo.
Every year, Dalí began his journey from Port Lligat to the United States with a stop at the old Ritz Hotel in Barcelona, where Enrique Sabater attended to the numerous commissions given to the artist from Figueres, in addition to acting as his bodyguard, since the artist had received threats due to political statements he made regarding the Burgos Trials. I accompanied them almost every afternoon until they left for the Hotel Meurice in Paris, located on Rue de Rivoli, where they spent a few days before crossing the ocean, although we also crossed paths several times at the Geneva airport. In July 1980, Le Nouvel Observateur accused Enrique Sabater of exerting a dubious influence over Dalí. I responded to the French weekly during the master's convalescence at the Puigvert Clinic, room 409, where Sabater continued to manage all of Dalí's affairs, while also acting as his attentive nurse. From 1982 onwards, with the death of Gala, Dalí moved his residence to the Castle of Púbol, and although I maintained a discreet relationship with Sabater until 1984 - when Dalí was admitted to the Pilar Clinic for the burns he suffered in said castle - I was never again in the presence of such a brilliant man.
However, I obtained an unexpected testimony about Dalí from a humble, elderly artist I met during those years named Manuel Carmona . Besides being a close friend of Pablo Neruda and having known Buster Keaton, Salvador Allende, Rafael Alberti, and Federico García Lorca, Carmona witnessed the creation of Dalí's famous work, "The Invisible Man," in a small, inaccessible cove in Torremolinos where Gala bathed naked.
Manuel Carmona, Dalí, Gala and Manuel Prados
Carmona told me that he even praised a simple drawing he had made, and in return, the Empordà genius gave him another drawing that Carmona had lost in the war. This gesture didn't surprise me in that endearing and attentive man in private, a far cry from the eccentric figure he cultivated and which was disseminated by the media.
4 comments
Muchas gracias por este magnífico testimonio de primera mano, Rosa. Nos produce una sincera alegría tener la participación de la hija de Eduard Alcoy, un artista que tanto promocionamos, además de Leandro, que nunca llegamos a conocer, como aquella lejana Sala Gaudí que luego se mudó a Consejo de Ciento.
¡Esperamos seguir contando con su participación!
He leído con atención el artículo de Germán Bandrés sobre Dalí, muy interesante tanto su visión y relación con el artista como el relato de los hechos y situaciones que las envolvieron. Mi enhorabuena. Fue una época muy densa y atractiva y evocar-la provoca una cierta nostalgia.
Recuerdo que mi padre, Eduard Alcoy, me llevó en más de una ocasión a la monumental Sala Gaudí de la Avenida de Madrid. Era un lugar realmente impresionante tanto por las exposiciones que se realizaban como por sus dimensiones inhabituales.
De Leandro Mbomio también tengo un recuerdo vivo, que renueva una escultura en bronce que debió ser fruto de un intercambio con alguna obra mi padre, en la época en que ambos coincidieron en la Sala Gaudí . Sé que fueron muy amigos".
Muchas gracias por su amable comentario Montse. Nos halaga saber que una persona con que vivió aquella época se haya tomado el tiempo de expresar sus sentimientos y que el texto le permita revivirlos.
Esperamos actualizarlo pronto con nuevas fotos y añadir otros artículos donde se hable de García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, Cortázar, Alberti y tantas otras personalidades que pasaron por Sala Gaudí.
Un afectuoso saludo
Gracias infinitas, para mi un honor su ( documento histirico)
Me emociono ,en los años 70 habia visitado ligares que describi usted. Perfectamente nos situas en una epoca maravillosa.
Hracias.