It was painted as a response to the looming Spanish Civil War
by the Master Surrealist; Salvador Dali. It rivals and is a foil to another
artist’s statement on the same destructive force; Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. Dali’s
miracle; “Soft Construction with Boiled Beans Premonition of Civil War” Is
amazingly on point. Dali’s depiction of an entity/creature painfully and
horrifically in the process of destroying itself is both alarming and
seductive.
Dali’s creation is also in many ways cause for celebration.
His colors are rich; his technique, his drafting skills are brilliant and the
genius of his imagination is phenomenal. Rarely has any artist taken such an
ugly truth as civil war and transformed that truth into something beautiful;
something to study and treasure. Premonition of Civil War is a true masterpiece
of priceless magnitude and monumental in stature.
In light of the recent election of Donald J. Trump this
nation finds itself at tremendous odds. Protests that have taking place; largely
in cities across the nation, demonstrate a bitterness and unparalleled divisiveness
on many levels. Individuals are being attacked and bullied in schools while
others walk out of their own schools in response and protest. This is a time of civil
disobedience that I haven’t personally seen since the Nineteen Sixties. Actor
Robert Di Nero said Trump’s election felt emotionally something like those he
felt on "Nine Eleven," 2001. Decidedly one of the worst days in American History.
I have to agree with Mr. Di Nero. Something of my own feelings of that time
hauntingly returned to me.
A house divided
against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure,
permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be
dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease
to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.
Abraham Lincoln
