Early On

• Born April 2, 1891
• Max Ernst was one of nine children, a middle class family in Germany
• Informal introduction to the arts, learned painting from his father
• Obtained his college degree in Philosophy & Psychology 1914
• Followed by a 4 year service to the German army
• Moved back to Germany after WWI, but the horrors he had experienced stayed with him
• They influenced much of his work & he became a leader in the Dada Movement
• 1919 began his first fantastic collages

Ambiguous Figures, 1919

Family Excursions, 1919

Fruit of a Long Experience, 1919

Hat in Hand, Hat on Head 1919

 

A small preview, some of Max Ernst's earlier works:



Landscape with Sun, 1909

Untitled, 1909

Crucifixtion, 1913

Immortality, 1913

Towers, 1916

Fish Fight, 1917



What is Surrealism? 

a style of art and literature that developed early 20th-century, a movement that tried to represent the subconscious mind through fantastic imagery and unexpected juxtapositions seem to contradict each other

What is Abstract Expressionism?

a movement that flourished mid 20th century, post WWII in which the nonrepresentational painter would experiment with technique, drama, and unconscious emotion through personal expression, often leading to many abstractions

What is Dada, or Dadaism?

developed during the horrors of WWI, a movement that thrived on chaios and unacceptance using the visual arts to express anti-war emotions; writers and artists began testing what was - creating art that was not art

Dada had laid the foundation for Surrealism and took Abstraction and Expressionism to a revolutionary limit. Max Ernst was a leading pioneer in these movements.

Welcome :)



Max Ernst

April 2,1891 - April 1, 1976

painter, sculptor, poet

a twist of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism

"The task of the right eye is to peer into the telescope, while the left eye peers into the microscope."



Self Portrait, 1909 Oil on canvas