Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s

During the pivotal years between the world wars, European and American avant-garde artists responded to the rise of Hitler and the spread of Fascism by creating some of the most compelling images of the Surrealist movement. Monstros­ities in the real world bred monsters in paintings and sculpture, on film, and in the pages of journals and artists’ books. Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s is the first major exhibition to examine how 20th-century European and American artists used monsters and mythic figures to depict their experiences of war, violence, and exile. On view February 24–May 26, 2019, this groundbreaking exhbition includes 90 masterworks by Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, André Masson, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Dorothea Tanning, and others who were deeply affected by the political turmoil caused by the Spanish Civil War and World War II. 

This exhibition and related programs have been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by generous funding from Transamerica, The Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Exhibition Endowment Fund, and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.