Ticketed Exhibitions

From February 24, 2019 — May 26, 2019

Nearly 90 Surrealist masterworks of the 1930s and 1940s by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, and André Masson are presented through a timely lens—that of war, violence, and exile.

Despite the political and personal turmoil brought on by the Spanish Civil War and World War II, avant-garde artists in Europe and those who sought refuge in the United States pushed themselves to create some of the most potent and striking 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, resulting in a period of extraordinary creativity.

Image caption: André Masson. There Is No Finished World. 1942. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Bequest of Saidie A. May, BMA 1951.333. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Join United States Marine Corps veteran Hans Palmer, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines and BMA Manager of Tour Experiences Suzy Wolffe for an informal gallery talk within the ticketed exhibition, Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s. The two will lead a conversation on the powerful ways in which Surrealist artists’ responses to the horrors of war in the 1930s and 1940s speak to veterans today.

Hans Palmer served in the United States Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007. He fought in Iraq twice; was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California; and was part of a Marine expeditionary unit that served in southeast Asia, where he helped train foreign military members. He currently works in the Veteran Services office at Frederick Community College.

Please note: Discussions of war may be graphic.

Image caption: André Masson. There Is No Finished World. 1942. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Bequest of Saidie A. May, BMA 1951.333. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris