THE IMAGINARY, BEHIND THE APPARENT QUIET OF REALITY – Max Ernst, creative living on the borders of irrationality

MAX ERNST 1/4 – It is considered one of the greatest exponents of surrealism. All his life, he escapes to the conventions and rules, too restrictive for his unlimited brilliance. His works are densely symbolic repertoire of dream images, which made him famous all over the world. He gives a face to the unconscious and the irrational, observing a submerged moving, looking pictures where the mental balance tends to fade. He was born in 1909, near Cologne (Germany), and enrolled at the University of Bonn to study philosophy, but abandons this address, to devote himself to the art world.

MAX ERNST 2/4 – He became friends with August Macke and joined the Rheinische Expressionisten group, but also exhibited at the Galerie Feldman in Cologne. Visit Paris, where he met Guillaume Apollinaire and Robert Delaunay. It adheres to the movement of the “Blaue Reiter” of Monaco and began working with Hans Jean Arp (with whom he has lasting friendship). Knowledge of psychoanalysis, the experience in psychiatric hospitals and artistic meeting with Giorgio De Chirico, contributing to express his Dadaism in the collage.

MAX ERNST 3/3 – He exhibited for the first time in Paris in 1921, participating in the activities of the Surrealists. Starting in 1926, he abandoned the Dada current, experimenting with new painting techniques, and exploring the world of mystery. He travels in America, participating in the exhibition “Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism” (staged in 1936 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York). After the war, he continues his production of paintings and graphic works, inventing new techniques, such as frottage (placing the sheet on a rough surface, and pass the plate with a pencil to bring up the design of the underlying harshness).

MAX ERNST 4/4 – Its magnetic force, develops a language that goes towards unexplored territories. Decal and frottage (Technical universe child), are his instruments that investigate the surreal places of the mind. He settled in Paris (where he died), he continues to process particular compositions, in which the elements of surrealism are formed as expressions of poetic sentiment.

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