Max Ernst

Lore & Background

Max Ernst was born in Brühl, south of Cologne, the third of nine children of a middle-class Catholic family. His father, a teacher of the deaf and an amateur painter, inspired in Max a penchant for defying authority and an interest in painting. In 1909, Ernst enrolled at the University of Bonn to read philosophy, art history, literature, psychology, and psychiatry; he began painting that year. He befriended August Macke in 1911 and joined the Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group. His early work adopted an ironic style juxtaposing grotesque elements with Cubist and Expressionist motifs. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, an experience that left him shocked and critical of the modern world.

After the war, Ernst returned to Cologne and co-founded the Cologne Dada group in 1919. He produced his first collages that year, inspired by Giorgio de Chirico and mail-order catalogues. In 1922, he entered France illegally and settled into a ménage à trois with poet Paul Éluard and his wife Gala. In 1925, Ernst invented frottage, a technique using pencil rubbings of textured objects, and later grattage, in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal imprints of objects beneath. He developed a fascination with birds, often incorporating his alter ego Loplop, a bird, into his work. During World War II, he was interned in France as an 'undesirable foreigner' and later escaped to the United States with help from Varian Fry and Peggy Guggenheim, whom he married in 1942.

Reader's Guide

Max Ernst's significance lies in his role as a founding figure of both Dada and surrealism, movements that challenged conventional artistic norms. His invention of frottage and grattage expanded the technical possibilities of art, allowing for the incorporation of chance and texture. His use of collage in novels and pamphlets further blurred boundaries between visual art and literature. Ernst's work often reflected his critical view of modern society, shaped by his traumatic experiences in World War I. His legacy endures through his influence on later generations of artists and his contributions to surrealist techniques. He achieved financial success in the 1950s and died in Paris on 1 April 1976.

Did You Know?

• Max Ernst invented frottage, a technique using pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces.
• He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, which left him shocked and critical of the modern world.
• Ernst's alter ego in paintings was a bird named Loplop.
• During World War II, he was designated an 'undesirable foreigner' while living in France.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German painter and sculptor who worked in the styles of Dadaism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. He frequently wrote about himself in the third person." — Max Ernst "What is a forest? A marvelous insect. A drawing-board, what do forests do? They never go to bed early. They are waiting for the tailor. What is the high season of the forests? It is the future.." — Max Ernst "But it is of the past, it seems to me. Perhaps..

.Man and the nightingales were in the most favourable situation for imagining: for them the forest was a perfect dream-conductor.." — Max Ernst "The 2nd of April (1891) at 9:45 a.m. Max Ernst had his first contact with the sensible world, when he came out of the egg which his mother had laid in an eagle's nest and which the bird had brooded for seven years." — Max Ernst