Max Ernst

Max Ernst (April 2, 1891 – April 1, 1976) was a German artist.

Related Topics:
April 2 - 1891 - April 1 - 1976 - Artist

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Max Ernst was born in Brühl, Germany. In 1910, he enrolled in the University at Bonn to study philosophy but soon abandoned the courses to pursue his interest in art. In 1914 he met Guillaume Apollinaire and Robert Delaunay, and traveled to the Montparnasse Quarter in Paris where artists from around the world were gathering.

Related Topics:
Brühl - Germany - Bonn - Guillaume Apollinaire - Robert Delaunay - Montparnasse - Paris

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In 1918 he married the art historian Luise Straus — a stormy relationship that would not last. The next year he visited Paul Klee and created his first paintings, block prints and collages, and experimented with mixed media. During World War I he served in the German army and after the war, filled with new ideas, Max Ernst, Jean Arp and social activist Alfred Grünwald, formed the Cologne, Germany Dada group but two years later, in 1922, he returned to the artistic community at Montparnasse in Paris.

Related Topics:
Luise Straus - Paul Klee - World War I - Jean Arp - Alfred Grünwald - Cologne - Germany - Dada

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Constantly experimenting, in 1925 he invented frottage, a technique using pencil rubbings of objects. The next year he collaborated with Joan Miró on designs for Sergei Diaghilev. With Miró's help, Ernst pioneered grattage in which he troweled pigment from his canvases.

Related Topics:
Frottage - Joan Miró - Sergei Diaghilev - Grattage

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Ernst drew a great deal of controversy with his 1926 painting The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter.

Related Topics:
1926 - André Breton - Paul Éluard

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In Montparnasse he was important in the birth of Surrealism where artists used illogical images, and used the whims of their psyches the source of their subject matter. After a period with the Surrealists, Ernst left the movement due in part to Breton's desire to ostracize Ernst's friend Éluard.

Related Topics:
Surrealism - Breton's - Éluard

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Ernst began to sculpt in 1934, and spent time with Alberto Giacometti.

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In 1938, the American heiress and art collector, Peggy Guggenheim, acquired a number of Ernst's works which she displayed in her new museum in London.

Related Topics:
American - Peggy Guggenheim - London

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Ernst developed a fascination with birds that was prevelent in his work. His alter ego in paintings, that he called Loplop, was a bird that he suggested was an extension of himself stemming from an early confusion of birds and humans. He said his sister was born soon after his bird died. Loplop often appeared in collages of other artists work, such as collages like Loplop presents André Breton, and they usually had a bird foot-like object superimposed on another artist's piece. Birds continued to appear in Ernst's work, such as the post-World War II paintings Angel of Hearth and Home and Robing of the Bride.

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Following the onset of World War II, Ernst was detained as an enemy alien but with the assistance of the American journalist Varian Fry in Marseille, he managed to escape the country with Peggy Guggenheim. They arrived in the United States in 1941 and were married the following year. 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.

Related Topics:
World War II - Varian Fry - Marseille - United States - Marcel Duchamp - Marc Chagall - New York City - Abstract expressionism

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His marriage to Guggenheim did not last, and in Beverly Hills, California in October of 1946 in a double ceremony with Man Ray and Juliet Bowser he married Dorothea Tanning.

Related Topics:
Beverly Hills, California - Man Ray - Dorothea Tanning

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Ernst remained primarily in the United States, living in Sedona, Arizona, and in 1948 wrote the treatise Beyond Painting before visiting Europe in 1950. He returned to Paris permanently in 1953 and the following year he won the Venice Biennale. As a result of the publicity, he began to achieve financial success.

Related Topics:
Sedona, Arizona - Venice Biennale

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In 1963 he and Tanning moved to a small town in the south of France where he continued to work. He designed stage sets and a fountain for the city of Ambois. In 1975, a retrospective of his works was held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and the Galeries Nationales du Grand-Palais in Paris published a complete catalogue of his works.

Related Topics:
Ambois - Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

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Ernst died on April 1, 1976, in Paris, France and was interred there in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Related Topics:
April 1 - 1976 - Paris, France - Père Lachaise Cemetery

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