Max Ernst (1891-1976)

The story of Max Ernst is the story of european fantasy (John Russell)

About Max Ernst's Art < STRONG>

When asked as a child what his favorite activity was, Max Ernst retorted: 'seeing'. When writing on Max Ernst, the history of Dada and the overwhelming history of Surrealism must also be explained, as well as the development of new art movements in the USA.

The Dada-Max became one of the leading representatives of Surrealism (like Dalí, Matta, Tanguy and Picabia). Anyone searching for in-depth information should read John Russel's famous monograph, a well-read classic. 'Le parquet se soulève' (The Parquet Rises Up) from 1939 gives the cue, and at the same time addresses the double-sided, tense political situation. The future of Europe had not worried Ernst since the Spanish Civil War, on which he based his falling airplane paintings, or the series of collages from 1934 for 'Une semaine de Bonté' which had become famous, the 147 illustrations of 'Femme à 100 têtes' from 1929 or 'Rêve d'une petite fille qui voulut entrer au Carmel' from 1930 all provide quite enough testimony. As an outsider, Max Ernst had preserved, not without wit or black humor, a substantial freedom of expression, which would not make his life any easier. This also held true for artistic endeavors. When Breton personally attacked Eluard, Ernst had backed the poet, proclaiming himself in solidarity with him, and had distanced himself from the Surrealist circle by 1938. When Ernst was arrested in France in 1938 as a 'foreign enemy', it was Eluard who defended him. The way out lead, as for many others in 1941, through Spain and Portugal to the USA. Before departure, the artists inevitably met again, and it was in Marseille, as if ready to jump off the edge of a cliff: Max Ernst, André Breton, René Char, Benjamin Péret, Wilfredo Lam, Oscar Domínguez, Jacque Hérold and Marcel Duchamp. Max Ernst reached New York through Spain, together with Peggy Guggenheim.

Max Ernst was bound in life-long friendship with Paul Eluard - as well as with Arp - through a 'harmony of feeling and thought'. There are wonderful documents of later encounters. Max Ernst held that there was a stockpile of unused painting material in his subconscious, a hidden chain of irrational knowledge, poetic objectivity (hence the 'peinture automatique' which had so fascinated him), as a fountain of direct expression. Here the concepts of Joan Miró and Max Ernst came together, and here also began, as we know, Abstract Expressionism. All of this makes the creative thinking of Max Ernst important in the 20th century.

Surrealism as well as Dadaism, whose principal representative remained Max Ernst, brought about lasting friendships. In 1949, he still created etchings for Tristan Tzara's 'Monsieur AA l'Antiphilosophe' and a year later a lithograph of his was published for Joe Bousquet and Michel Tapié, writers who had commented on Max Ernst's works early on. His friendships with contemporary poets, even in the 50's and 60's, inspired breathtaking prints in answer to their poetry and texts, as if it were their first encounter. And the self-renewing bird motif accompanied him to the end. A funny story comes to mind at the acceptance of an honorary doctorate in the 70's (cassette recording, Jean Arp Archives). Enraptured, Max Ernst speaks of birds, in particular of a type of magpie which is famous because of its habit of gathering only blue objects and laying them out somewhere as if on exhibit, in order to attract the attention of the female. His grin upon discovery of this fact of nature was surely meant for the similarity with art. ek

On his prints

Available from Grafos Verlag are four color lithographs by Max Ernst, prints which form part of the legacy of art history. To this we can add six lithographs accompanying poetry in the form of a book, published by the Brunidor Publishing House, Vaduz/Paris. One need only open one of the many catalogues and monographs on the work of Max Ernst to see these works in context. With these top-quality graphic prints, an exciting window is opened, a retrospective view of modern art. It is not surprising that in this small selection, birds are the protagonists. Max Ernst had a special relationship with birds. He created his own personal ornithology. Under the title 'Loplop stellt vor' (Loplop presents), he made many paintings and collage series early on. Loplop is a bird-like creature with which Max Ernst identified, his alter-ego. 'This creature of Surrealism and painting embodies the instinct which blindly but surely stands behind automatic painting', remarked John Russell in his well-known writings, which stem from year after year of close collaboration with Max Ernst, and is thus the text of an insider. That painting is created through the effects of a concealed ego, an ego that is much more rare than we would generally suppose, was clear for Max Ernst. Thus the egg corresponds to the eyeball and the bird the images captured by the eye. This artist is the master of the eye. He is the master of the bird as well. The bird is the epitome of the 'powers of imagination'.

Also in the title 'Le Parquet se soulève' (The Parquet Rises Up), several phenomenon are concealed. During a sojourn in Bretagne, on a rainy summer day in Saint Paul Roux in the early 20's, while gazing at the floorboards of an old hallway, Max Ernst was struck with the idea of rubbing the wooden boards on paper, so as to let himself be inspired by the grain. Already in childhood he had been fascinated by the mahogany paneling. And so the technique of frottage was introduced into modern art. Max Ernst writes about this in 'Jenseits der Malerei' (Au-delà de la peinture / Beyond Painting), a book that he published in 1937. From then on, this rubbing technique, frottage, would most decisively characterize his style, along with collage, grattage (a scratching technique), empreinte and décalcomanie (a sort of copying or tracing technique), as well as expressive paint-dripping (essential for later Action Painting). The grain (of both organic and mineral structures) appears under the Surreal eye and becomes the false floor of the imaginary. ek