The New St. Pete Dali Museum and politics

New Dali museum under construction

The new Dali Museum

The new Dali Museum being constructed right next to Mahaffey Theater looks exciting. I hadn’t driven down that way until just recently and what I saw took me by surprise. I’m not sure if this is the front or the back of the new museum–that fits with the nature of the art that’ll be inside, I guess–but I love the huge caterpillar of windows climbing up and over the wall.

For more on the new museum, which was begun in 2008, see FAQ. For more photos and a webcam, see Dream. You can stay informed of events at the museum by subscribing to the Zodiac Group newsletter.

Dali and Franco

Dali is not everyone’s cup of tea, some for artistic reasons, others for political reasons (he was a supporter of Franco; see articons). I more-or-less like the art, but I don’t like his politics at all.

That’s always a thorny problem. What do you do about, for instance, composers like Richard Wagner, who was easily both the most influential composer of the 19th Century and it’s most notorious bigot and anti-Semite (see Richard Wagner and Anti-Semitism); or Carl Orff and Richard Strauss, both officials in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi government?

An ethical dilemma

Do you boycott their works? That was the case in Israel until Zubin Mehta performed Wagner there as an encore! Here’s a quote from an article by Lili Eylon in the Jewish Virtual Library describing that event:

In 1981, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Zubin Mehta, offered an encore at the close of a subscription concert. Commotion broke out, with shouts from the audience aiming to silence the music. In introducing the piece from Tristan und Isolde, Mehta had made a short speech in which he spoke of Israel as a democracy in which all music should be played. But, he added, if this particular music offended the feelings of some of the listeners present, they were free to leave. (Two orchestra members had, at their request, been excused from playing the encore). Some older members of the audience quietly got up and went home. A few continued for a while to protest noisily, even running threateningly onto the stage, but the piece was played to the end.

A few years later a survey was conducted on the question – should the Philharmonic play Wagner’s music? Of those questioned, 50 percent were against playing Wagner, 25 percent for, and 25 percent had no firm convictions on the subject. In 1992, the Philharmonic conducted its own poll among its subscribers. The majority was in favour, 30 percent were against. In view of the large minority, it was decided to continue to refrain from playing Wagner, at least for the time being.

In July 2001, the prestigious Berlin Staatskapelle performed the “Tristan und Isolde” overture at the Israel Festival. While the orchestra’s conductor, Daniel Barenboim (himself a Jew), had promised to respect the ban on Wagner’s music, he surprised his audience by asking them if they wanted to hear Wagner as an encore following the scheduled performance. Most of the audience was in favor of the encore, which received a standing ovation from all but a few of the listeners. However, during a half-hour debate that preceded the performance of the overture, numerous Israelis protested and walked out of the theater, some shouting insults as they went.

The controversy over the foreign orchestra’s performance rekindled the debate over what course the Israeli orchestras should pursue. Yaakov Mishori, a leading Philharmonic musician, feels the orchestra should play Wagner. “After all,” he says, “Wagner died 50 years before Hitler came to power. Moreover, he was a kind of private anti-Semite, refusing to sign any public declarations against the Jews. He actually worked with many Jews. Wagner’s public relations man was a Jew named Neumann, Hermann Levi conducted Wagner’s works at the time, and a musician named Rubenstein finished the orchestration of some of his operas.”

“I am opposed to any ban on culture,” says Avi Chanani, director of the classical music division of Israel’s state radio. “Zubin Mehta risked playing Wagner in one fell swoop, but I believe in introducing him gradually, and that is what I have been doing. Wagner was a revolutionary in music. His work is central to the development of European music. Without Wagner it is difficult to understand the history of music. That is one important consideration for playing his music. But what I feel is cardinal in my decision to present Wagner on the radio is my belief that in a democracy, the public has a right to know; it must be exposed to all information.”

I highly recommend reading this entire article. It is extremely well written and very thoughtful.

One possible point of view

Each person must decide what’s best for themselves, of course. For me, with just a couple, rare exceptions, I don’t enjoy listening to Wagner anyway because I don’t enjoy extreme chromaticism in music. Same for Richard Strauss although I do enjoy more Strauss than I enjoy Wagner (Strauss can write better tunes). Orff’s music education theories and instruments are still in use in USA schools today. One of Orff’s pieces I do enjoy, but I am definitely offended by what his politics and political activities were, and it’s increasingly difficult for me to listen to Carmina Burana (my favorite piece of his and a good piece to vacuum to) without actually hearing his political views in the music itself (the neo-primitivism; Blut und Boden; Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer; and other rubbish), especially with the sad ascendency–again–of such political views in today’s world.

Unless the association with an art and an artist’s politics is too painful for an individual (and it will be for some), then I think it’s best to judge the art on its own terms but never forgetting the personal failings of the artist. Just because a person has their act together in one area of their life is no guarantee they will have it together in any other area of their life. The art can be good, but the person not. The history of the arts (and many other fields) proves this. So: accept the art, but not the artist.

I sort of like Dali’s art (although I think it relies too much on gimmicks). Myself, I am 100% a Picasso fan (both politically and artistically). But, Dali’s art is fun and he is historically important. So, I am glad that St. Pete is home to the Dali Museum. The new building looks fascinating!

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