Max Ernst

By George Latham
Max Ernst

Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist and poet who
mined his unconscious for dreamlike imagery that mocked social
conventions. Ernsts was a primary pioneer for both the Dada
movement and Surrealism where his work came through the
strongest. Some of his work with the unconscious, his social
commentary, and broad experimentation in both subject and
technique remain influential. Ernst was interested in the art of the
mentally ill as a way to access primal emotion and unfettered creativity
and even achieved so on his own becoming the subject of his collages
and paintings. This desire to paint from the sub-conscious was central
to his Surrealist works.

(The elephant Celebes 1921)

A look into the Dada Movement and (Europe adter the Rain II 1941)

Surrealism

Dada is an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th

century; developed in reaction to World War I, the Dada movement
consisted of artist who rejected the logic, reason, and aestheticism of
modern capitalist society and instead expressed nonsense, irrationality, and
anti-bourgeois protests.

Surrealism is a cultural movement beginning in the early 1920s and best

known for its visual artworks and writings. Artists painted unnerving illogical
scenes, created strange creatures from everyday objects, and developed
painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself. Its aim
was to resolve the previously contradicting conditions of dream and reality
into an absolute reality featuring elements of surprise, unexpected
juxtapositions and non sequitur. (The Eye of Silence 1943)
 Fireside Angel (1937)

How I feel?

Looking at the paintings made by Ernst I get the implications of demons and
undeath, for example when evaluating The Antipope the figure wearing the
red clothing looks quite demonic and could even go as far as saying she is
corrupted, tainted with this dark red clothing when comparing her to the
figure wearing pink clothing, which gives the idea of purity and that she has
been untouched. The red clothing also seems like flesh peeling or even rotting
off revealing something more human underneath unlike its original thought
appearance would imply.

When looking at Fireside Angel the title almost evokes a sense of chaos and
destruction something brought upon in the biblical world by demons and devils
and the use of the word angel can confuse someone at first due the abstract
and grotesque figure that the painting is depicting.

This idea is even further shown by the previously shown images in the other
slides such as the being that is painting a picture (the Eye of Silence 1943) and
the landscape painting with the two horrifying and grotesque looking beings
(Europe after the rain II 1941).

I look to implement this idea of a hellish landscape with these images in mind.
Maybe buildings of rotting flesh thats peeling off revealing something else on
the inside. However I would like to get some feedback on this approach and
see if this idea can go even further.
The Antipope (1942)