Courtesy of Lily Cannon | The Crow’s Nest
By Lily Cannon
Between the beaches and dog parks, local artists have made their home through murals, bringing dreamlike imagery to small businesses.
On Central Avenue, local creators huddle regularly at Black Crow Coffee Co. to share poetry or perform improv.
Further downtown, the Dalí Museum urges us to remember a pioneer of the original Surrealist movement, Salvador Dalí.
Last Saturday, the museum opened a new exhibit dedicated to the artist’s close friend and celebrated poet, Paul Éluard. Witness to both world wars, Éluard’s poem, “Liberty,” was dispersed across occupied France in World War II as an act of defiance, cementing his legacy as a political rebel and poet.
Éluard corresponded with other Surrealist greats as well, including Picasso, André Breton and of course, Dalí, who later captured his likeness in 1925.
The friendship between the painter and the poet is evident in the museum’s display of photographs, many of which are accompanied by depictions of their shared muse, Gala Dalí, who was Éluard’s wife before she met Salvador Dalí.
Exhibit curators took advantage of the dimensions of the Raymond James community room to depict Éluard’s life chronologically, from his diagnosis of tuberculosis to his contributions to the Allies in World War II. From the very entrance, visitors are transported through some of his greatest poems, lines of which are painted across the walls.
On the same day as the opening of the exhibition, a local bar in downtown St. Petersburg was covered in psychedelic paintings and comic book murals for a “Pop Surrealism Art Show.” Regular customers mingled with the artists, as the rest of the city’s nightlife buzzed outside.
The coinciding dates of the Dalí Museum and the show should remind residents of St. Petersburg that a new form of Surrealism is alive and well.
Éluard described Surrealism as a “state of mind that strives to reduce the differences between people.”
As the city is still in recovery from the global pandemic, it might be time for everyday people to join this community as a source of creative healing.
There are many ways for students to get involved.
University of South Florida students can currently visit the Éluard Exhibition for free, as a part of the museum’s joint program with the university.
Every Sunday, Black Crow Coffee Co. hosts an afternoon of poetry open-mic and meditation, hosted by the creator of Neptune Poetry Magazine.
Additionally, the Morean Art Center and The Factory regularly show the portfolios of their local artists, with the opportunity for local involvement in their weekly workshops.
There’s an art movement brewing in this city, dedicated in equal parts to remembering the original Surrealists, while fostering a new generation of artists and writers. All of it, however, is distinctly St. Petersburg.
