Salvador Dali's political positions continued to fluctuate as the years went on. Right before the start of the Spanish Civil War, he painted "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)." The work's gruesome imagery featured a figure ripping itself apart, and the painting was taken by many to be an anti-war statement (via Smithsonian Magazine). But when the war broke out, Dali expressed his support for General Francisco Franco and his Nationalist movement, which was aided by two fascist countries, Italy and Germany.
Dali stepped away from Europe during the next major military conflict, World War II. He and his wife, Gala, moved to the United States in 1940 where they stayed for the duration of the war. During this time, Dali penned his autobiography and declared that "I'm totally apolitical!" (via Art Pulse magazine). In 1948, he returned to Spain, then ruled by General Franco, and cultivated a relationship with this widely despised dictator. Dali painted a portrait of Franco's niece, María del Carmen Martínez de Bordíu Franco, which he gave to the Spanish ruler in 1972. But his connection to Franco seemed to come from a personal rather than a political agenda. In 1956, Dali got Franco's approval to build his own museum in his hometown. The artist designed the structure himself, which still stands to this day.
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