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Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)
Salvador Dalí, Spanish, 1904 - 1989
Geography:
Made in Spain, Europe
Date:
1936Medium:
Oil on canvasDimensions:
39 5/16 x 39 3/8 inches (99.9 x 100 cm)Copyright:
© Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCuratorial Department:
European Painting
1950-134-41Credit Line:
The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950
Made in Spain, Europe
Date:
1936Medium:
Oil on canvasDimensions:
39 5/16 x 39 3/8 inches (99.9 x 100 cm)Copyright:
© Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCuratorial Department:
European Painting
* Gallery 269, Modern and Contemporary Art, second floor
Accession Number:1950-134-41Credit Line:
The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950
Label:
Dalí combined dreamlike themes with a meticulous painting technique to generate compelling portrayals of the unconscious mind. This gruesome composition imagined an impending historical event: the bloody civil war that broke out in Spain, the artist’s native country, in July 1936.
The desecration of the human body was a preoccupation of the Surrealists, and of Dalí in particular. Here, a monstrous figure of uncertain gender grimaces as it tears itself apart.
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Provenance
With Julien Levy Gallery, New York, by 1937 (on consignment from Peter Watson?) [1]; purchased from the artist by Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles, November 4, 1937 [2]; sold to Louise and Walter C. Arensberg, Los Angeles, 1937; gift to PMA, 1950. 1. See 1937 exhibition loan label on reverse of painting. 2. Stendahl purchased the painting out of the Carnegie International exhibition (see Stendahl Gallery records, Archives of American Art, microfilm reel #2722, frame 130). See also the Arensbergs' provenance notes dated December 1, 1951 (PMA, Arensberg Archives).* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.