Artist 101

1.

An Introduction to Surrealism

Max Ernst was born in the German city of Brühl in 1891 into a middle-class Catholic family, where he was the third of nine children. His father was both a strict disciplinarian and artistically minded, and was a huge influence on his son’s life and career.

Ernst received no formal art training, enrolling instead at the University of Bonn in 1909 to read philosophy, art history, literature and psychology. During this period, he visited psychiatric hospitals and became fascinated with the art created by patients. Despite quitting university in 1911 to pursue art, Ernst's academic years left a lasting impression on his outlook, introducing him to important influences on the Surrealist world such as Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis.

1912 was a key year for Ernst's career as an artist. He attended the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne where he encountered the work of Cézanne, Munch, Picasso and van Gogh in person showing his own work a group show at Galerie Feldman. His career as an artist was launched.

Ernst met the artist and poet Hans Arp in 1914, who became a lifelong friend and collaborator. That summer marked the beginning of World War I and Ernst was drafted by the German army, marking a time of profound trauma for the artist. In his autobiography he tellingly wrote: 'On the first of August 1914 Max Ernst died. He was reborn on the first of November 1918 as a young man who aspired to find the myths of his time.'

2.

Early Art & Dadaism

Before the war, Ernst’s artistic practice followed the Expressionist style, but after his traumatic experience in the trenches his outlook on life changed: the modern world suddenly seemed profoundly absurd. Soon he grew closer to the nascent Dadaist movement, whose anti-aesthetic and anti-authoritarian ideals resonated with his existential disenchantment.

The Dada manifesto had been launched in 1916 by Hugo Ball in Zurich, with Tristan Tzara publishing a second manifesto in 1918. Their ideas and practices began to expand, with Dada groups and exhibitions disseminating across European cities and as far as New York by war émigrés.

In 1920, Ernst launched the Cologne Dada group with Arp and began calling himself “Dadamax Ernst”. He started experimenting with collages, in which he juxtaposed seemingly random images in irrational ways. Ernst often gave these works lengthy, nonsensical titles which only mystified viewers further. The works often dealt with the aggressive and destructive side of human nature, creating the ominous sense of discomfort that can be seen in his photomontage Here everything is still floating (1920). Although Ernst moved away from Dadaism, collage was a medium to which he would return again and again.

3.

Surrealism

Ernst encountered Surrealism in 1921, when he met Paul Éluard and André Breton. A year later Ernst moved to Paris and, encouraged by his close friendship with Éluard and Breton, developed his interest in psychoanalysis and the unconscious further, exploring human fantasies and how to represent them. He was inspired by his dreams and childhood memories, especially those featuring his father. The influence of Freud’s ideas can clearly be seen in one of his most important works, the 1922 painting Oedipus Rex. By 1924, Ernst was part of the group that launched the Surrealist manifesto spearheaded by Breton, which cemented his position within the movement.

Automatism, the process of relinquishing artistic control by yielding to unconscious states, was a key Surrealist methodology and proved crucial in Ernst’s evolving practice. In fact, his experimentation with various materials combined with his interest in free association led him to discover a number of new techniques. In 1925, for example, he developed the technique of 'frottage' by placing paper over a textured material like wood grain and rubbing it with pencil or crayon to create textural effects. Frottage became popular amongst the wider Surrealist group as it relied on chance rather than the conscious mind. Ernst himself described how he 'came to assist as a spectator at the birth of all [his] works'. In 1927, he adapted this technique into 'grattage', whereby he would scrape wet paint off canvas to create unexpected textures and shapes.

A fundamental element to Freud’s psychoanalytic thinking, Ernst and the wider Surrealist group shared a preoccupation with Greek mythology which echoes throughout Ernst’s oeuvre. In 1933, coinciding with the publication of the first issue of the seminal Surrealist journal titled Minotaure, Ernst painted Méduse circonflexe, an artwork that showcases the artist's key Surrealist interests, sold for £312,750 at Bonhams in March 2022. Its confounding title alludes to both the Greek myth of Medusa as well as a jellyfish; meanwhile the abstracted figure, created through subtle grattage textures that appear to pulse with life, does nothing to dispel this ambiguity. Viewers are invited to dream and free-associate.

4.

Life in Arizona

Ernst’s love life was colourful and intense, and he clearly craved finding a partner who could be his creative equal and with whom he could share a life devoted to art. After three failed marriages - with art historian, artist and writer Luise Straus, painter Marie-Berthe Aurenche, and art collector Peggy Guggenheim - as well as whirlwind romances with Paul Éluard, his first wife Gala, and the Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, he finally met the major Surrealist artist Dorothea Tanning. Married in 1946, they would remain together for the rest of his life.

Together they moved to Sedona, Arizona, where they stayed for seven years before returning to France. The mountainous desert landscapes of Arizona were a key influence on Ernst’s later works. They depict the area’s rugged and almost extra-terrestrial landscape in craggy, earthly colours. Ernst’s newfound obsession with landscapes, though, was of course anything but traditional; far from being realistic portrayals, his landscape works often teeter on the edge of Surrealism, with textural qualities that emphasise their abstraction.

During that period—and perhaps encouraged by the obsession with the Space Race that was seizing Western society—Ernst also developed a deep fascination with the starry skies of Sedona, seeking to capture them time and time again.

5.

Collecting Max Ernst

Rare to the market and of the utmost importance in the history of Modern art, Ernst’s original paintings and sculptures understandably command his highest prices. At Bonhams’ 2021 Surrealist Sale, his 1951 oil on canvas Comète sold for £250,250, while La Tourangelle fetched £162,750. In 2016, Bonhams also sold Tremblement de terre printanier for $1,147,500.

But Ernst was also a keen experimenter with printing techniques and produced a substantial number of works on paper that provide more accessible price points for budding collectors. For example, at a Bonhams sale in New York his 1949 collection of etchings La Brebis Galante sold for $2,040, while his six 1961 etchings La Rose est Nue changed hands for $1,530.

A selection of Max Ernst artworks will be on offer as part of La Révolution Surréaliste sale on 29 March 2023 in Paris, alongside masterpieces by other leading players of Surrealism such as Salvador Dalí, André Breton, Léon Tutundjian, Paul Delvaux, Jane Graverol, Victor Brauner and Man Ray. Browse the auction to find out more.