Max Ernst (/ɜːrnst/;[1]German:[ɛʁnst] 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker,graphic artist, and poet.[2] A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of theDada movement andsurrealism inEurope.[2] He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention offrottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—andgrattage, 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 ofcollages. He served as a soldier for four years duringWorld 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 1909 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 withcubist andexpressionist 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 1950s. He died in Paris on 1 April 1976.
Max Ernst was born inBrühl, south ofCologne, the third of nine children of a middle-classCatholic 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.[3]
In 1909, Max Ernst enrolled in theUniversity of Bonn, to read philosophy, art history, literature, psychology, and psychiatry.[4] He visitedasylums 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 1911, Max befriendedAugust Macke and joined hisDie Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists, deciding to become an artist.[4]
In 1912, Max Ernst visited the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, where works byPablo Picasso andpost-Impressionists such asVincent van Gogh andPaul 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 1913.[3] In his paintings of this period, Ernst adopted an ironic style that juxtaposed grotesque elements alongsideCubist andExpressionist motifs.[5]
In 1914, Ernst metHans 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 theWestern and theEastern 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 1914 M[ax].E[rnst]. died. He was resurrected on the eleventh of November 1918".[6] For a brief period on the Western Front, Ernst was assigned to chart maps, which allowed him to continue painting.[3] SeveralGerman Expressionist painters died in action during the war, among themAugust Macke andFranz Marc.
In 1918, Ernst was demobilised and returned to Cologne. He soon married art history studentLuise Straus, ofJewish ancestry, whom he had met in 1914. In 1919, he visitedPaul Klee inMunich and studied paintings byGiorgio de Chirico. In the same year, inspired by de Chirico and mail-order catalogues, teaching-aide manuals and similar sources, he produced his firstcollages (notablyFiat modes, a portfolio oflithographs), a technique which later dominated his artistic pursuits. Also in 1919, Ernst, social activistJohannes Theodor Baargeld and several colleagues founded the CologneDada group. In 1919–20, Ernst and Baargeld published various short-lived magazines such asDer Strom,die Schammade and organised Dada exhibitions.[3]
Ernst and Luise's sonUlrich 'Jimmy' Ernst was born on 24 June 1920; he later would also become a painter.[3] Ernst's marriage to Luise was short-lived. In 1921, he metPaul Éluard, who became a lifelong friend. Éluard bought two of Ernst's paintings (Celebes andOedipus Rex) and selected six collages to illustrate his poetry collectionRépétitions. A year later the two collaborated onLes malheurs des immortels and then withAndré Breton, whom Ernst met in 1921, on the magazineLittérature. In 1922, unable to secure the necessary papers, Ernst entered France illegally and settled into aménage à trois with Éluard and his wifeGala in the Paris suburb of Saint-Brice, leaving behind his wife and son.[3] During his first two years in Paris, Ernst took various odd jobs to make a living and continued to paint. In 1923, the Éluards moved to a new home inEaubonne north of Paris, where Ernst painted numerousmurals. The same year his works were exhibited atSalon des Indépendants.[3]
Although apparently accepting the ménage à trois, Éluard eventually became more concerned about the affair. In 1924, he abruptly left, first forMonaco and then forSaigon, Vietnam.[7] 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 galleryDas Junge Rheinland.[3] 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 ofsoutheast Asia. He returned to Paris in late 1924 and soon signed a contract with Jacques Viot which allowed him to paint full-time. In 1925, Ernst established a studio at 22, rue Tourlaque.[3]
In 1925, Ernst invented a graphic art technique calledfrottage (seesurrealist techniques), which uses pencil rubbings of objects as a source of images.[8] 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 paintingForest and Dove (as shown at the Tate Modern). The next year he collaborated withJoan Miró on designs forSergei Diaghilev. With Miró's help, Ernst developed grattage, in which he trowelled pigment from his canvases. He also explored with the technique ofdecalcomania, which involves pressing paint between two surfaces.[note 1] Ernst was also active, along with fellow surrealists, at theAtelier 17.[9]
Ernst developed a fascination with birds which was prevalent in his work. His alter ego in paintings, which he calledLoplop, was a bird. He suggested that this alter-ego was an extension of himself stemming from an early confusion of birds and humans.[10] 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 asLoplop presents André Breton. Ernst drew a great deal of controversy with his 1926 paintingThe Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter.[11] In 1927, he marriedMarie-Berthe Aurenche [de] and it is thought his relationship with her may have inspired the erotic subject matter ofThe Kiss and other works of that year.[12] He appeared in the 1930 filmL'Âge d'Or, directed by the surrealistLuis Buñuel. Ernst began to sculpt in 1934 and spent time withAlberto Giacometti. In 1938, the American heiress and artisticpatronPeggy Guggenheim acquired a number of Max Ernst's works, which she displayed in her new gallery in London. Ernst and Guggenheim were married from 1942 to 1946.
One of two versions ofL'Ange du Foyer orThe Angel of Hearth and Home (1937) oil on canvas, 112.5 x 144 cm., private collection
In September 1939, the outbreak ofWorld War II caused Ernst, being German, to be interned as an "undesirable foreigner" inCamp des Milles, nearAix-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 inSaint-Martin-d'Ardèche to repay their debts and leave for Spain. Thanks to the intercession ofPaul Éluard and other friends, including the journalistVarian Fry, he was released a few weeks later. Soon after theGerman occupation of France, he was arrested again, this time by theGestapo, but managed to escape to America with the help of Fry andPeggy Guggenheim, a member of a wealthy American art collecting family.[13] Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim arrived in the United States in 1941 and were married at the end of the year.[14] Along with other artists and friends (Marcel Duchamp andMarc Chagall) who had fled from the war and lived in New York City, Ernst helped inspire the development ofabstract expressionism.[15][16]
His marriage to Guggenheim did not last. In October 1946 he married Americansurrealist painterDorothea Tanning in a double ceremony withMan Ray and Juliet P. Browner inBeverly Hills, California.[17] The couple made their home inSedona, Arizona from 1946 to 1953, where the high desert landscapes inspired them and recalled Ernst's earlier imagery.[18] Although Sedona was remote and populated by fewer than 400 ranchers, orchard workers, merchants and small Native American communities, their presence helped begin what would become an Americanartists' 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 asHenri Cartier-Bresson andYves Tanguy. Sedona proved an inspiration for the artists and for Ernst, who compiled his bookBeyond Painting and completed his sculptural masterpieceCapricorn while living in Sedona. As a result of the book and its publicity, Ernst began to achieve financial success. From the 1950s he lived mainly in France. In 1954 he was awarded the Grand Prize for painting at theVenice Biennale.[19] He died at the age of 84 on 1 April 1976 in Paris and was interred atPère Lachaise Cemetery.[13]
Ernst's sonJimmy Ernst, a well-known German/Americanabstract expressionist painter, who lived on the south shore ofLong Island, New York died in 1984.[20] His memoirs,A Not-So-Still Life, were published shortly before his death.[20] Max Ernst's grandson Eric and his granddaughter Amy are both artists and writers.[citation needed]
Max Ernst's life and career are examined inPeter Schamoni's 1991 documentaryMax Ernst. Dedicated to the art historianWerner 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. The 101-minute German film was released on DVD with English subtitles by Image Entertainment.
TheMax Ernst Museum opened in 2005 in his home town Brühl, Germany. It is housed in a late-classicist 1844 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 700 documents and photographs byMan Ray,Henri Cartier-Bresson,Lee Miller, and others. The core of the collection dates back to 1969 with works donated to the City of Brühl by the artist. Thirty-six paintings, gifts from the artist to his fourth wifeDorothea Tanning, are on permanent loan from the Kreissparkasse Köln. Some noteworthy works include the sculpturesThe King playing with the Queen (1944) andTeaching Staff for a School of Murderers (1967). The museum also host temporary exhibitions by other artist.[21]
TheMenil Collection, inHouston houses a significant collection of surrealist art including well over 100 pieces by Max Ernst. Notable paintings includeIn Praise of Freedom (1926),Loplop Presents Loplop (1930),Day and Night (1941–1942),Surrealism and Painting (1942),Euclid (1945),A Swarm of Bees in the Palais de Justice (1960),The Marriage of Heaven and Earth (1964). 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.[22]
In 2005, "Max Ernst: A Retrospective" opened at theMetropolitan Museum of Art and included works likeCelebes (1921),Ubu Imperator (1923), andFireside Angel (1937), which is one of Ernst's few definitively political pieces and is sub-titledThe 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 offrottage, created from a rubbing from a textured surface;grattage, involving scratching at the surface of a painting; anddecalcomania, which involves altering a wet painting by pressing a second surface against it and taking it away.[24]
Illustrations for editions of works byLewis Carroll:Symbolic Logic (1966, under the titleLogique sans peine),The Hunting of the Snark (1968), andLewis Carrols Wunderhorn (1970, an anthology of texts)
Deux Oiseaux (1970, lithograph in colors)
Aux petits agneaux (1971, lithographs)
Paysage marin avec capucin (1972, illustrated book with essays by various authors)
Maximiliana: the illegal practice of astronomy : hommage à Dorothea Tanning (1974, art book)
Oiseaux en péril (1975, etchings with aquatint in colours; published posthumously)
