Situated on sparkling Bayboro Harbor south of downtown St. Petersburg, the Salvador Dali Museum is home for the world's most comprehensive collection of works by the late Spanish surrealist artist.

A product of a dysfunctional family, Dali was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud, and used many Freudian symbols throughout his art. Most of it is a journey through Dali's wild flights of fancy and imagination.

The museum's collection of Dali oil paintings, drawings, sculptures, and other art objects is the largest and most important in America, and includes six of his 18 masterworks. There are also many rare and less frequently seen works, such as Dali's watercolors, jewelry, flatware, and commercial illustrations.

While Dali is considered one of the 20th century's great artists, he was also one of the most controversial. Although there are interesting explanations beside each piece in the galleries, visitors must join one of the guided tours to even begin to understand some of the artist's psychological implications.

There are often many hidden images in a painting, and you need to look at them from different angles before some become apparent. The docents often ask viewers, "Do you see it?" even after they have explained it. Some do, others aren't quite sure, and a few still seem mystified. Yet, some of the artist's works are straightforward and need little clarification.

When the museum first opened in 1982 it was just one huge gallery, with paintings around the perimeter. A major renovation in 1995 added interior walls that formed multiple gallery areas and more than doubled the display space.

The scope of the vast collection spans the Dali years from 1914 to 1980, and contains almost 100 original oil paintings, more than 100 watercolors and drawings, nearly 1,300 graphics, along with sculptures, photographs and other items. All are not on display at the same time.

At the back of the museum in the largest gallery are massive canvases that are among Dali's complex masterpieces. These have so many hidden meanings you have to be a Dali enthusiast to grasp and assimilate each painting, let alone all of them.

This permanent retrospective of Dali is a panorama of the artist's early Impressionist and Cubist styles, his transition to Surrealism, for which he is best known, his Classical period, and his later masterworks showing his preoccupation with religion and science — accomplished after he returned to Catholicism in the 1950s.

The art is rotated periodically and augmented by special exhibits, which change regularly. While dedicated exclusively to Dali, the museum occasionally displays other artists.

While Dali had many idiosyncrasies, he also had a sense of humor. According to a story attributed to Christine Argillet, daughter of the artist's longtime publisher, Pierre Argillet, Dali was holding court in a plush Paris hotel with a group of friends, clients, and assorted bohemians. A messenger arrived, telling Dali a woman was demanding to come up to the room. She had a petition she wanted him to sign.

He allowed the woman up, and she marched right up to the artist and said, "Monsieur Dali, I insist that you sign this petition against torture."

Dali looked around, not quite sure what to make of this. Then he leaned in and said loud enough for everyone to hear, "But madam, I am in favor of torture!"

Dali was commissioned by Walt Disney to work on the film "Fantasia," but his art and drawings were so bizarre they were not used. However, Disney still retains them.

The museum's priceless collection was assembled privately by longtime friends of Dali, Cleveland industrialist A. Reynolds Morse and his wife Eleanor. They purchased a Dali oil painting in 1943 to mark their first wedding anniversary. They then spent the next 40 years seeking out the artist's works, and putting together the largest private collection in the world.

The Morses originally displayed their Dali art in a wing of their office building in Beachwood (near Cleveland), Ohio. Because there was little interest locally for a permanent display of the art, the Morses began a nationwide search, with the stipulation the collection remain intact. They selected St. Petersburg in 1980. The present museum was opened and dedicated in March, 1982. Dali himself attended the ceremonies.

Only Dali's distinctive signature identifies the simple, low cube structure that contains the art that was donated "for the benefit of the people of Florida" by the Morses.

At the museum's entrance is a large reception area; commercial displays and merchandise to the left; information and ticketing straight ahead; and a gift shop to the right. You can purchase reproductions, browse through an extensive array of books and literature, and choose from a number of Dali-related gift items.

Born Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali i Domenech in Figueres, Spain, in 1904, the artist and his Russian-born wife, Gala, lived an international life of exaggeration. In his final years he returned to his roots, and died in the hospital in Figueres in 1989.

It's hard to breeze through the Salvador Dali Museum. The images the artist created intrigue, perplex, and puzzle most who encounter them. Some are so frustrating you merely shake your head and move on to the next one, which can be beautiful in its simplicity.

IF YOU GO

The Salvador Dali Museum is located on the waterfront at 1000 Third Street South, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701-4925. Call 800-442-3254 or visit online www.salvadordalimuseum.org.

Open seven days a week, the museum hours are 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday (with extended hours on Thursday), and noon-5:30 p.m. on Sunday. The museum is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas days.

Tom and Joanne O'Toole are freelance travel writers. To find out more about Tom and Joanne O'Toole and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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