The Best Thing You Can Do Today: See Dalí’s world through Clyde Butcher’s eye

This is it — the first day of the final week of Clyde Butcher: Visions of Dalí’s Spain, which closes Friday at The Dalí Museum.

The pairing is inspired. The renowned nature photographer Clyde Butcher, often called “Florida’s Ansel Adams,” is known for his vivid, textured photographs of Florida in the wild. Salvador Dali was profoundly affected by the landscape in which he grew up, the rugged splendors of Spain’s Catalonian region. Seeing the potential to illuminate Dalí’s world via Butcher’s expert eye, the museum commissioned him to create a body of photos in Catalonia, including the village of Cadaques where the young Dalí spent his summers, the artist’s villa in Port Lligat and the rocky coastline of Cap de Creus – all prominently featured in Dalí’s works. The collection features 41 photos ranging from an intimate 2 feet to a panoramic 8 feet in width. 

Here’s the museum’s promotional video for the show.

Clyde Butcher: Visions of Dalí’s Spain runs through Friday, Nov. 23, with the exception of Thanksgiving (the museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day). Hours are 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. today-Wednesday and 10-6:30 p.m. Friday; the store will remain open until 7 p.m. on Friday. The Dali Museum, One Dali Blvd., St. Petersburg, 727-823-3767.