Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)
Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936) is a painting by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. Dalí created the piece to represent the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, having painted it only six months before the conflict began. He subsequently claimed that he was aware the war was going to occur long before it began, and cited his work as evidence of "the prophetic power of his subconscious mind." However, some have speculated that Dalí may have changed the name of the painting after the war to emphasize his prophetic assertions, although it is not entirely certain.[1][2]
The art historian Robert Hughes commented on Dalí's painting in his biography of Goya, stating: "Salvador Dalí appropriated the horizontal thigh of Goya's crouching Saturn for the hybrid monster in the painting Soft Construction with Boiled Beans, ... which—rather than Picasso's Guernica—is the finest single work of visual art inspired by the Spanish Civil War."[3]
Description
The painting is oil on canvas and is located in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dalí painted it in 1936, but there are studies dating back to 1934.[4]
Salvador Dalí and the Spanish Civil War
Dalí and his wife, Gala, were trapped in the middle of a general strike and an armed uprising by Catalan separatists in Catalonia in 1934, an incident which may have influenced his Spanish Civil War motif.[5] Salvador and Gala escaped to Paris, where they were married.[6]
Dalí and Gala had hired an escort to take them safely to Paris, but the escort died on his return because of the stresses of the Spanish Civil War.[5] When Dalí finally returned home, his house in Port Lligat had been destroyed in the war.[6] He was also greatly affected because his friend, Federico García Lorca, was executed in the war and his sister Ana Maria was imprisoned and tortured.[6]
Meaning
This painting expresses the destruction during the Spanish Civil War. The monstrous creature in this painting is self-destructive just as a Civil War is.[1] This painting is not meant to depict choosing sides, although Dalí had many reasons to choose sides in the Spanish Civil War. His sister was tortured and imprisoned by communist soldiers fighting for the Republic and his good friend from art school, the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, was murdered by a fascist firing squad.[1] Dalí also made this painting look very realistic and yet continued to bring in surreal concepts.[5] Although humans do not have the potential to look like the creatures in this painting, it retains a realistic feel, reminding the viewer of the gravity of the ideas behind it. Dalí also brought ideas of tradition to this piece with a beautiful Catalan sky, creating a contrast to the idea of revolution.[6] There is a significant number of boiled beans in this painting. Dalí is quoted as saying the reason he included boiled beans was "one could not imagine swallowing all that unconscious meat without the presence of some mealy and melancholy vegetable."[6] By this he meant that there were many hardships in the war so the Spanish citizens had to do their best to deal with their problems.[6] He played with themes of love, eating, and the war and how they are all related.[6]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) | Educational Resources". philamuseum.org. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
- ^ "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans, 1936 by Salvador Dali". Salvador Dali Paintings, Biography, and Quotes. Archived from the original on 28 March 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
- ^ Hughes, Robert; Goya y Lucientes, Francisco José de (2004). Goya (3rd ed.). Knopf. p. 383. ISBN 9780394580289. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
- ^ "Study for Soft Construction with Boiled Beans, Museum of Contemporary Spanish Art. Patio Herreriano, Valladolid". Spain Is Culture. Ministry of Culture and Sport. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
- ^ a b c Moorhouse, Paul (1995). Dali. Leicester: Magna Books. ISBN 9781854221056. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g Wach, Kenneth (1996). Salvador Dalí: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Salvador Dalí Museum. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Fla. ISBN 9780810926936. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
External links
- Philadelphia Museum of Art: Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)
- Spanish Masterworks: Salvador Dalí's Construcción blanda con judías hervidas
- v
- t
- e
- List of works
- Landscape Near Figueras (1910)
- Vilabertran (1913)
- Cabaret Scene (1922)
- Portrait of My Father (1925)
- Young Woman at a Window (1925)
- The Basket of Bread (1926)
- Apparatus and Hand (1927)
- The Lugubrious Game (1929)
- The First Days of Spring (1929)
- The Accommodations of Desire (1929)
- The Great Masturbator (1929)
- The Invisible Man (1929–1932)
- The Persistence of Memory (1931)
- The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table (1934)
- Morphological Echo (1934–1936)
- A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano (1936)
- Couple with Their Heads Full of Clouds (1936, 1937)
- Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936)
- The Burning Giraffe (1937)
- Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937)
- Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937)
- Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach (1938)
- The Enigma of Hitler (1939)
- Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time (1939)
- The Face of War (1940)
- Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire (1940)
- Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man (1943)
- The Seven Lively Arts (1944)
- Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening (1944)
- Basket of Bread (1945)
- The Apotheosis of Homer (1945)
- The Temptation of St. Anthony (1946)
- The Elephants (1948)
- Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio (1949)
- Leda Atomica (1949)
- The Madonna of Port Lligat (1949)
- Christ of Saint John of the Cross (1951)
- Galatea of the Spheres (1952)
- The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952–1954)
- The Colossus of Rhodes (1954)
- Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) (1954)
- Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by the Horns of Her Own Chastity (1954)
- The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955)
- Living Still Life (1956)
- The Seven Lively Arts (1957)
- The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1958–59)
- The Ecumenical Council (1959–60)
- Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid (1963)
- La Gare de Perpignan (1965)
- Tuna Fishing (1966–67)
- The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1968–1970)
- La Toile Daligram (1972)
- Dalí Seen from the Back Painting Gala from the Back Eternalised by Six Virtual Corneas Provisionally Reflected by Six Real Mirrors (1972–1973)
- Lincoln in Dalivision (1977)
- The Swallow's Tail (1983)
- Lobster Telephone (1936)
- Lobster dress (1937)
- Mae West Lips Sofa (1937)
- Champagne Standard Lamps (1938)
- Rainy Taxi (1938)
- A Logician Devil (1951)
- Giraffes on Horseback Salad (1937)
- The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (1942)
- Dali's Mustache (1954) (with Philippe Halsman)
- Être Dieu (1985)
- Un Chien Andalou (1929)
- L'Age d'Or (1930)
- Spellbound (1945, dream sequence)
- Destino (1946, completed 2003)
and costumes
- Mariana Pineda (1927 production)
- Gala Dalí (wife)
- Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation
- Paranoiac-critical method
- Salvador Dalí and dance
- Chupa Chups
- Dalí Atomicus (1948 photograph)
- Salvador Dalí (1966 film)
- The Death of Salvador Dali (2005 film)
- Little Ashes (2008 film)
- Midnight in Paris (2011 film)
- Dalíland (2022 film)
- "Salvador Dalí" (song)
- 2919 Dali (asteroid)
- Dali crater
- Salvador Dalí Desert
- Dalí cross