Max Ernst is a painter whose works straddle the boundary between Impressionism, Surrealism, and Fascism. In fact, he has been called one of the greatest living artists. His paintings are full of contrasting elements, but they all share a common thread: an interest in Fascism and the construction of modern memory.
Impressionism
Collages were an integral part of Max Ernst’s Impressionism. He explored autonomism, visions, and dreams through collage, and he incorporated lowbrow visual culture into his work. These collages revealed slits in time, space, and customs and beliefs. In his autobiography, Ernst wrote that collages were a manifestation of his visionary faculties.
One of the most striking features of Ernst’s work is its large, round shape. This composition was inspired by a photo Ernst had taken of a corn bin in the Sudan. He then refigured the image to resemble an elephant. The title of the work comes from a childish German rhyme: “Elephant from Celebes has sticky yellow bottom grease.”
Ernst was also fascinated by Native American culture. From 1946 to 1953, he lived in the Sedona Desert in Arizona, where he studied the rock paintings and engraved drawings that adorned the walls of desert caves. He later married a socialite, Peggy Guggenheim, who became his third wife.
Although Ernst was primarily self-taught, his work was influenced by the artists Vincent van Gogh and Giorgio de Chirico. In addition to using surrealism and dream iconography in his work, he also drew upon his childhood memories to create bizarre and absurd scenes. His rebellious streak remained strong throughout his career, and many of his works are quite provocative.
Surrealism
Max Ernst’s paintings incorporated the techniques of surrealism and collage. In his later works, Ernst used grattage and frottage to bring together various images, and he explored themes such as the forest and distant cities. In his autobiography, he described his collages as manifestations of his visionary faculties.
While in internment camps in France, he began to create art using the technique known as decalcomania. This technique involves pressing a piece of paper or glass onto a canvas and spreading paint on it. The resulting surfaces have varied textures and air bubbles. Ernst then manipulated found objects and structures to transform them into new works of art.
In addition to his art, Ernst’s life was shaped by a series of events. He was arrested during World War II and spent time in a prison camp with his compatriot Hans Bellmer. After his release, he moved to Paris, where he lived with a woman named Leonora Carrington. In order to clear his debts, she sold the house they lived in, but did not know if he would return.
Max Ernst painter’s surrealism often poked fun at religious themes. One of his best known paintings, “The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child”, depicts the Virgin Mary in a wrathful manner, spanking Jesus on the bottom. The red marks on Jesus’ body indicate that the Virgin Mary was angry at the child, who was supposedly suffering from a terrible disease. A few paintings of the surrealist movement depict other people, such as Paul Eluard and André Breton.
Fascism
Max Ernst was born in Bruhl, Germany, into a middle class Catholic family. In his early years, he studied art history, philosophy, literature, and psychiatry, but soon decided to focus on painting. He was influenced by his father, who was deaf and had an interest in academic art. In 1911, Ernst joined the group of artists known as Die Rheinischen Expressionisten. In the same year, he made his first solo exhibition at Galerie Feldman in Cologne.
One painting that embodies the ominous moods of the late 20th century is Ernst’s “Europe After the Rain,” which was begun in 1940 but left behind when he fled Nazi-occupied France. Despite his anti-fascist views, Nazis slammed “Europe after the rain” as “degenerate art.” But the critics were right, as his painting demonstrates the decaying psychic state of the culture.
The artist’s paintings were often inspired by a dream state and reflect his subjective experience of World War II. Though he survived the Nazi regime, his paintings are a testament to the depravities he witnessed. Norm Paris, an artist, curator, and professor, examines Ernst’s work and its relation to fascism.
After the war, Ernst returned to Cologne, where he helped found the Dada group. Later, he had a relationship with surrealist painter Leonora Carrington. The relationship ended when she was interned in French camps for enemy aliens. Ernst also married Peggy Guggenheim, who was his third wife. He was a prolific artist until his death in 1976.
Artillery officer
Max Ernst’s military career began in 1914, when he enlisted in the Twenty-third Field Artillery Regiment in Koblenz. During the war, he served on the Western Front, near Laon and Soissons, and sustained minor injuries. He met fellow soldiers such as George Grosz and Arp while in the artillery. He was transferred to the Eastern Front in November 1916, where he was assigned to the Sixteenth Infantry Division in Belgium.
Ernst was inspired to create art after seeing the horrors of World War I. In his early work, many of his paintings were of childhood memories. While serving in the artillery, he developed an understanding of the human psyche and the human experience. After completing his service, he exhibited his works with the Dada group, which provoked ire among art lovers in Germany.
In May, Ernst travels to Dusseldorf to dedicate a sculpture in the city’s Bruhl park. He also exhibits his work in the Venice Biennale and the Kunsthalle Bern. He also meets artists including Samuel Beckett and Werner Spies, and begins to work on a catalogue raisonne.
While Ernst was serving as an artillery officer in France during World War I, he developed a disdain for authority, which contributed to his affinity for Surrealism. His paintings often include tiny inscriptions, which are often in French, and sometimes tell a story or explain a scene. Some of these inscriptions are cryptic and unreadable.
Poet
In “Cage, foret et soleil noir”, Max Ernst depicts a caged bird in a forest. This painting is a metaphor for apocalypse. It depicts a world in which humans have lost their humanity, but animals still exist and are alive. The figurative language of the painting is largely autobiographical. Nevertheless, Ernst’s vision of the future is both imaginative and witty.
Max Ernst was married three times. His first marriage was to Marie Berthe Aurenche, a troubled artist. He later married Leonora Carrington, a surrealist artist. In 1941, Ernst left Paris for the United States with the help of art collector Peggy Guggenheim. He later married Dorothea Tanning in Beverly Hills. After this marriage, he married Juliet P. Browner.
Max Ernst’s work is full of psychological and social themes. His paintings are full of repressed sexual urges. He also became fascinated by black magic. He believed that religion was the product of his neuroses and he was also fascinated by the occult. His work blurred the line between dynamic psychology and the occult.
Ernst was also active in the German Expressionist movement. He became friends with August Macke and became involved with the group “Die Rheinischen Expressionisten”. In 1912, he attended an exhibition at the Sonderbund in Cologne that included Pablo Picasso and the post-Impressionists Paul Gauguin and Johannes Baargeld. In his works, Ernst often used mechanically-produced fragments. For example, in “Here Everything is Still Floating”, he incorporated an exploded chemical bomb from a military plane.
Printmaker
Max Ernst, a prolific artist, was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He was a primary pioneer of the Surrealism and Dada movements in Europe. In his works, Ernst conveys a surreal and often humorous view of reality. His paintings and prints have been collected around the world.
In this painting, Ernst re-enacts 20th century European history. His subjects include the Spanish Civil War and the onset of World War II. The artist used a grattage technique to create shapes resembling ruins. It is one of his most famous paintings. The artist died in Paris at the age of 84.
Ernst was mostly self-taught, but influenced by the works of Vincent van Gogh and Giorgio de Chirico. These artists fueled Ernst’s interest in dream iconography and surrealism. He also drew from his military experience to create surreal scenarios. Throughout his life, Ernst maintained a rebellious streak.
Ernst’s work often depicts war, destruction, and chaos. He often used the concept of destruction to create an allegory for war. In his painting, a mangled battle standard and an armored bird-headed creature confront a female figure. It’s unclear whether Ernst intended to depict an elephant or a semi-mythical creature, but the image conveys the power of conflict.
During the Second World War, Ernst was incarcerated in internment camps. While in the camps, he developed a technique he called decalcomania. This method involves squashing paint between two pieces of paper and peeling the layers back to reveal the surface underneath. Ernst also created a painting called Les peupliers (1939) while in an internment camp, with Hans Bellmer.