Max ernst surrealism art
Max Ernst
German artist (–)
Max Ernst | |
|---|---|
Max Ernst in | |
| Born | Maximilian Maria Ernst ()2 April Brühl, German Empire |
| Died | 1 April () (aged&#;84) Paris, France |
| Nationality | German-American-French |
| Known&#;for | Painting, sculpture, poetry |
| Notable work | A Week of Kindness () |
| Movement | Dada, Surrealism |
| Spouses | Luise Straus &#; (m.&#;&#x;&#;&#x;)&#;Marie-Berthe Aurenche &#; &#; (m.&#;&#x;&#;&#x;)&#;Peggy Guggenheim &#; &#; (m.&#;&#x;&#;&#x;)&#;Dorothea Tanning &#; &#; (m.&#;&#x;&#;&#x;)&#; |
Max Ernst (2 April – 1 April ) was a German (naturalised American in and French in ) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet.[1] A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe.[1] He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath.
Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, and this experience left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world. During World War II he was designated an "undesirable foreigner" while living in France.
Ernst was born in Brühl. He began painting in while studying at the University of Bonn, and later joined the Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists. Ernst's work often featured ironic juxtapositions of grotesque elements with cubist and expressionist motifs. He had a fascination with birds, often including his alter ego, Loplop, a bird, in his work.
He eventually settled in France and achieved financial success in the s. He died in Paris on 1 April
Early life
Max Ernst was born in Brühl south of Cologne, Germany, the third of nine children of a middle-class Catholic family.
His father Philipp was a teacher of the deaf and an amateur painter, a devout Christian and a strict disciplinarian. He inspired in Max a penchant for defying authority, while his interest in painting and sketching in nature influenced Max to take up painting.
In , Max Ernst enrolled in the University of Bonn in Bonn northwest of Koblenz, Germany to read philosophy, art history, literature, psychology, and psychiatry.[3] He visited asylums and became fascinated with the art work of the mentally ill patients; he also began painting that year, producing sketches in the garden of the Brühl castle, and portraits of his sister and himself.
In , Max befriended August Macke and joined his Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists, deciding to become an artist.[3]
In , Max Ernst visited the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, where works by Pablo Picasso and post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin profoundly influenced him.
His work was exhibited that year together with that of the Das Junge Rheinland group, at Galerie Feldman in Cologne, and then in several group exhibitions in In his paintings of this period, Ernst adopted an ironic style that juxtaposed grotesque elements alongside Cubist and Expressionist motifs.
In , Ernst met Hans Arp in Cologne.
The two became friends and their relationship lasted for fifty years. After Ernst completed his studies in the summer, his life was interrupted by World War I. Ernst was drafted and served both on the Western and the Eastern Fronts. The effect of the war on Ernst was devastating; in his autobiography, he wrote of his time in the army thus: "On the first of August M[ax].E[rnst].
died. He was resurrected on the eleventh of November ". For a brief period on the Western Front, Ernst was assigned to chart maps, which allowed him to continue painting. Several German Expressionist painters died in action during the war, among them August Macke and Franz Marc.
Dada and surrealism
In , Ernst was demobilised and returned to Cologne.
He soon married art history student Luise Straus, of Jewish ancestry, whom he had met in In , he visited Paul Klee in Munich and studied paintings by Giorgio de Chirico. In the same year, inspired by de Chirico and mail-order catalogues, teaching-aide manuals and similar sources, he produced his first collages (notably Fiat modes, a portfolio of lithographs), a technique which later dominated his artistic pursuits.
Also in , Ernst, social activist Johannes Theodor Baargeld and several colleagues founded the Cologne Dada group. In –20, Ernst and Baargeld published various short-lived magazines such as Der Strom, die Schammade and organised Dada exhibitions.
Ernst and Luise's son Ulrich 'Jimmy' Ernst was born on 24 June ; he later would also become a painter.
Ernst's marriage to Luise was short-lived. In , he met Paul Éluard, who became a lifelong friend. Éluard bought two of Ernst's paintings (Celebes and Oedipus Rex) and selected six collages to illustrate his poetry collection Répétitions. A year later the two collaborated on Les malheurs des immortels and then with André Breton, whom Ernst met in , on the magazine Littérature.
In , unable to secure the necessary papers, Ernst entered France illegally and settled into a ménage à trois with Éluard and his wife Gala in the Paris suburb of Saint-Brice, leaving behind his wife and son. During his first two years in Paris, Ernst took various odd jobs to make a living and continued to paint.
Man ray: Max Ernst (2 April – 1 April ) was a German (naturalised American in and French in ) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. [1] A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. [ 1 ].
In , the Éluards moved to a new home in Eaubonne north of Paris, where Ernst painted numerous murals. The same year his works were exhibited at Salon des Indépendants.
Although apparently accepting the ménage à trois, Éluard eventually became more concerned about the affair. In , he abruptly left, first for Monaco and then for Saigon, Vietnam.
He soon asked his wife and Max Ernst to join him; both had to sell paintings to finance the trip. Ernst went to Düsseldorf and sold a large number of his works to a long-time friend, Johanna Ey, owner of gallery Das Junge Rheinland. After a brief time together in Saigon, the trio decided that Gala would remain with Paul. The Éluards returned to Eaubonne in early September, while Ernst followed them some months later, after exploring more of southeast Asia.
He returned to Paris in late and soon signed a contract with Jacques Viot which allowed him to paint full-time. In , Ernst established a studio at 22, rue Tourlaque.
In , Ernst invented a graphic art technique called frottage (see surrealist techniques), which uses pencil rubbings of objects as a source of images. He also created the 'grattage' technique, in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath.
He used this technique in his famous painting Forest and Dove (as shown at the Tate Modern). The next year he collaborated with Joan Miró on designs for Sergei Diaghilev.
With Miró's help, Ernst developed grattage, in which he trowelled pigment from his canvases. He also explored with the technique of decalcomania, which involves pressing paint between two surfaces.[note 1] Ernst was also active, along with fellow surrealists, at the Atelier [8]
Ernst developed a fascination with birds which was prevalent in his work.
His alter ego in paintings, which he called Loplop, was a bird. He suggested that this alter-ego was an extension of himself stemming from an early confusion of birds and humans. He said that one night when he was young, he woke up and found that his beloved bird had died; a few minutes later, his father announced that his sister was born.
Loplop often appeared in collages of other artists' work, such as Loplop presents André Breton. Ernst drew a great deal of controversy with his painting The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter.[10] In , he married Marie-Berthe Aurenche&#;[de] and it is thought his relationship with her may have inspired the erotic subject matter of The Kiss and other works of that year.[11] He appeared in the film L'Âge d'Or, directed by the surrealist Luis Buñuel.
Ernst began to sculpt in and spent time with Alberto Giacometti. In , the American heiress and artistic patronPeggy Guggenheim acquired a number of Max Ernst's works, which she displayed in her new gallery in London. Ernst and Guggenheim were married from to
World War II and later life
In September , the outbreak of World War II caused Ernst, being German, to be interned as an "undesirable foreigner" in Camp des Milles, near Aix-en-Provence, along with fellow surrealist, Hans Bellmer, who had recently emigrated to Paris.
He had been living with his lover and fellow surrealist painter, Leonora Carrington who, not knowing whether he would return, saw no option but to sell their house to repay their debts and leave for Spain. Thanks to the intercession of Paul Éluard and other friends, including the journalist Varian Fry, he was released a few weeks later. Soon after the German occupation of France, he was arrested again, this time by the Gestapo, but managed to escape to America with the help of Fry and Peggy Guggenheim, a member of a wealthy American art collecting family.[12] Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim arrived in the United States in and were married at the end of the year.[13] Along with other artists and friends (Marcel Duchamp and Marc Chagall) who had fled from the war and lived in New York City, Ernst helped inspire the development of abstract expressionism.[14][15]
His marriage to Guggenheim did not last.
In October he married American surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning in a double ceremony with Man Ray and Juliet P. Browner in Beverly Hills, California.[16] The couple made their home in Sedona, Arizona from to , where the high desert landscapes inspired them and recalled Ernst's earlier imagery.[17] Although Sedona was remote and populated by fewer than ranchers, orchard workers, merchants and small Native American communities, their presence helped begin what would become an American artists' colony.
Among the monumental red rocks, Ernst built a small cottage with his own hands on Brewer Road and he and Tanning hosted intellectuals and European artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Yves Tanguy. Sedona proved an inspiration for the artists and for Ernst, who compiled his book Beyond Painting and completed his sculptural masterpiece Capricorn while living in Sedona.
As a result of the book and its publicity, Ernst began to achieve financial success. From the s he lived mainly in France. In he was awarded the Grand Prize for painting at the Venice Biennale.[18] He died at the age of 84 on 1 April in Paris and was interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery.[12]
Legacy
Ernst's son Jimmy Ernst, a well-known German/American abstract expressionist painter, who lived on the south shore of Long Island, New York died in [19] His memoirs, A Not-So-Still Life, were published shortly before his death.[19] Max Ernst's grandson Eric and his granddaughter Amy are both artists and writers.[citation needed]
Max Ernst's life and career are examined in Peter Schamoni's documentary Max Ernst.
Dedicated to the art historian Werner Spies, it was assembled from interviews with Ernst, stills of his paintings and sculptures, and the memoirs of his wife Dorothea Tanning and son Jimmy.
Max ernst artwork Max Ernst was a German artist largely known for his contribution to the avant-garde movements of Dadaism and Surrealism. His unusual techniques and strange combinations of images have left their mark on the world of abstract art for generations of artists after him. Born into a large Catholic family in , Max Ernst was influenced by the world of art very early in his life. His father was a self-taught painter and a teacher. In , he began his collegiate studies at the University of Bonn, studying a variety of subjects.The minute German film was released on DVD with English subtitles by Image Entertainment.
The Max Ernst Museum opened in in his home town Brühl, Germany. It is housed in a late-classicist building integrated with a modern glass pavilion. The historic ballroom was once a popular social venue visited by Ernst in his youth. The collection spans 70 years of his career including paintings, drawings, frottages, collages, nearly the entire lithographic works, over 70 bronze sculptures.
and more than documents and photographs by Man Ray, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lee Miller, and others. The core of the collection dates back to with works donated to the City of Brühl by the artist. Thirty-six paintings, gifts from the artist to his fourth wife Dorothea Tanning, are on permanent loan from the Kreissparkasse Köln. Some noteworthy works include the sculptures The King playing with the Queen () and Teaching Staff for a School of Murderers ().
The museum also host temporary exhibitions by other artist.[20]
The Menil Collection, in Houston houses a significant collection of surrealist art including well over pieces by Max Ernst. Notable paintings include In Praise of Freedom (), Loplop Presents Loplop (), Day and Night (–), Surrealism and Painting (), Euclid (), A Swarm of Bees in the Palais de Justice (), The Marriage of Heaven and Earth ().
Ernst's work in the Menil Collection is typically exhibited a few pieces at a time along with other surrealist art in the collection on a rotating basis.[21]
Exhibitions, retrospectives, and honors
- Venice Biennale, Venice (), received Grand Prize for Painting
- Musée National d'Art Moderne Paris (), awarded the Grand Prix national des arts
- Museum of Modern Art, New York ()
- Tate Gallery, London ()
- Kunsthaus Zürich ()
- Moderna Museet, Stockholm ()
- A retrospective of works spanning the years –, drawn entirely from the Menil Collection, toured Europe from to (Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kestnergesellschaft, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Academy of Arts, Berlin, Kunsthalle, Cologne, Musée de l'Orangerie, Musée Cantini, Maison de la Culture de Grenoble, Ancienne Douane (Strasbourg), Musée d'Arts de Nantes) and later the US (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Fogg Art Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum) The opening of the exhibition in Paris was augmented with 44 pieces from various collations and opened on 2 April , Max Ernst's 80th birthday.[22]
- In , "Max Ernst: A Retrospective" opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and included works like Celebes (), Ubu Imperator (), and Fireside Angel (), which is one of Ernst's few definitively political pieces and is sub-titled The Triumph of Surrealism depicting a raging bird-like creature that symbolises the wave of fascism that enveloped Europe.
The exhibition also includes Ernst's works that experiment with free association writing and the techniques of frottage, created from a rubbing from a textured surface; grattage, involving scratching at the surface of a painting; and decalcomania, which involves altering a wet painting by pressing a second surface against it and taking it away.[23]
- Dada is Dada retrospective group exhibition at Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden, running from 17 November to 20 May [24]
Documentary images
Opening of the Max Ernst exhibition at the gallery Au Sans Pareil, May 2, Left to right: René Hilsum, Benjamin Péret, Serge Charchoune, Philippe Soupault (top of the ladder), Jacques Rigaut (upside down), André Breton and Simone Kahn-Breton
Cover of Répétitions () by Paul Éluard, with illustrations by Max Ernst
"Les Fusains": 22, rue Tourlaque, 18th arrondissement of Paris where Max Ernst established a studio in
Three bronze sculptures: left to right: Large Frog (), Turtle (), and The Spirit of the Bastille (), Lenbachhaus, Munich
Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, Germany (photo )
Selected works
Early work, Germany (–)
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First French period (–)
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American period (–)
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Second French period (–)
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Prints, collages, and illustrations
- Illustrations for books by Paul Éluard: Répétitions (), Les malheurs des immortels (), Au défaut du silence ()
- Histoire Naturelle (ca.
–), a set of 34 collotypes after frottages
- La femme têtes (, graphic novel)
- Rêve d'une petite fille qui voulut entrer au carmel (, graphic novel)
- Une Semaine de Bonté (, graphic novel)
- Illustrations for editions of works by Lewis Carroll: Symbolic Logic (, under the title Logique sans peine), The Hunting of the Snark (), and Lewis Carrols Wunderhorn (, an anthology of texts)
- Deux Oiseaux (, lithograph in colors)
- Aux petits agneaux (, lithographs)
- Paysage marin avec capucin (, illustrated book with essays by various authors)
- Maximiliana: the illegal practice of astronomy&#;: hommage à Dorothea Tanning (, art book)
- Oiseaux en péril (, etchings with aquatint in colours; published posthumously)
See also
Notes
- ^Max Ernst working in decalcomania is shown in the documentary on the Dada and Surrealist art movement, Europe After the Rain.[citation needed]
References
- ^ ab"MAX ERNST".
Kasmin Gallery. Retrieved 13 December
- ^ ab"The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation". The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. Retrieved 13 December
- ^"Atelier Europe and the Early Years". Swann Galleries News.
10 October Retrieved 20 February
- ^Image: The Blessed Virgin Chastises the Infant Jesus Before Three Witnesses: A.B., P.E. and the Artist
- ^Flint, Lucy. "The Kiss (Le Baiser)". Guggenheim Collection.
Max ernst paintings
German-born Max Ernst was a provocateur, a shocking and innovative artist who mined his unconscious for dreamlike imagery that mocked social conventions. A soldier in World War I, Ernst emerged deeply traumatized and highly critical of western culture. These charged sentiments directly fed into his vision of the modern world as irrational, an idea that became the basis of his artwork. Ernst's artistic vision, along with his humor and verve come through strongly in his Dada and Surrealists works; Ernst was a pioneer of both movements. Spending the majority of his life in France, during WWII Ernst was categorized as an "enemy alien"; the United States government affixed the same label when Ernst arrived as a refugee.Archived from the original on 6 July
- ^ abOlga's Gallery. "Max Ernst biography".
- ^Iyengar, Rishi (6 April ). "New Google Doodle Honors Surrealist Painter Leonora Carrington". Time. Retrieved 6 April
- ^"Max Ernst: German Painter and Sculptor".
theartstory.
- ^"Max Ernst". Ordovasart.
- ^Flint, Peter B. (21 January ). "Juliet Man Ray, 79, The Artist's Model And Muse, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 December
- ^Waldman , p.&#;[page&#;needed].
- ^"Max Ernst –".
Tate Etc.
- ^ ab"Jimmy Ernst's Biography". . Retrieved 31 October
- ^Max Ernst Museum, Brühl, Germany (accessed 11 February )
- ^The Menil Collection: Surrealism (accessed 11 February )
- ^Hofmann, Schmied & Spies , p.&#;[page&#;needed].
- ^"A Max Ernst Retrospective Opens Today in NY".
Art+Auction. 7 April Retrieved 23 April
- ^"DADA IS DADA". Bildmuseet. Archived from the original on 24 December
- ^(15 March ).Biography of max ernst Max Ernst, a visionary artist of the 20th century, defied artistic conventions with his surreal and avant-garde creations. Max Ernst is the artist of Dada art movement. And the lifespan of this artist is 2 April 1 April The nationality of this artist is German-American-French, but the paintings of this art style are associated with other art movements such as- Art nouveau, Arabesque, and Rococo. This artist is counted as an important contributor.
Max Ernst. A beautiful day, (). . Retrieved 7 October
Works cited
- Ernst, Max; Metken, Sigrid; Schneede, Uwe M.; von Maur, Karin; Wilson, Sarah (). Spies, Werner (ed.). Max Ernst: A Retrospective. Prestel. ISBN&#;.
- Hofmann, Werner; Schmied, Wieland; Spies, Werner ().
Max Ernst: Inside the Sight. University of Texas Press. ISBN&#;.
- Spies, Werner; Derenthal, Ludger; Gaehtgens, Thomas; Storr, Robert; Karmel, Pepe; Heroy, Catherine (). Spies, Werner; Rewald, Sabine (eds.).Max ernst poems Max Ernst 2 April — 1 April was a German naturalised American in and French in painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist , and poet. Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I , and this experience left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world. He began painting in while studying at the University of Bonn, and later joined the Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists. Ernst's work often featured ironic juxtapositions of grotesque elements with cubist and expressionist motifs.
Max Ernst: A Retrospective. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN&#;.
- Waldman, Diane (). Max Ernst: A Retrospective. New York: Guggenheim Museum (NY).
- Warlick, M. E. (15 March ). Max Ernst and Alchemy: A Magician in Search of Myth. University of Texas Press.
ISBN&#;.
Further reading
- John Russell; Max Ernst: life and work (New York, H.N. Abrams, ) OCLC&#;
- Bodley Gallery (New York, N.Y.) Max Ernst&#;: paintings, collages, drawings, sculpture&#;: 30 October – 25 November &#;: Bodley Gallery, East 60, New York (exhibition catalogue and commentary; published by the gallery, ) OCLC&#;
- Max Ernst Books and Graphic Works.
Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen,
- Legge, Elizabeth M. (). Max Ernst: The Psychoanalytic Sources. UMI Research Press. ISBN&#;.Max Ernst&#;: the psychoanalytic sources
- David Hopkins; Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst: The Bride Shared (Oxford, )
- William Camfield; Max Ernst Dada and the Dawn of Surrealism (MoMA, )