Experience one of the most powerful paintings of Salvador Dalí’s career, ninety years after its creation. On loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (1936) offers visitors a rare opportunity to experience a defining work of his Surrealist period, presented in the James Family Wing alongside the Museum’s renowned collection.
Painted in Paris just months before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the work depicts a contorted body gripping and tearing at its own limbs, a chilling vision of a country at war with itself. Its meticulously rendered details and unsettling imagery reveal Dalí’s extraordinary ability to make the impossible feel real.
Featuring dramatic historical imagery and commentary, this special presentation invites visitors to look closely, discover connections to Spanish artists Francisco Goya and Pablo Picasso and explore the painting’s enduring questions about political division and self-destruction.