Biography

Max Ernst, born in Brühl near Cologne in 1891, was one of the most important members of both the DADA movement and Surrealism. He initially studied philosophy, art history, literature and psychology at the University of Bonn (1909-1911), which means that his thinking was strongly influenced by the humanities. In 1914-1918 he served in the First World War, mainly as a cartographer, which allowed him to continue the painting he had already begun in 1906.

Soon after the end of the war, he produced his first collages and, together with his friend Johannes Theodor Baargeld, founded the Cologne Dada Group. In 1925, he discovered the frottage technique for himself. From 1934, he also made sculptures, mostly of imaginary creatures and his favorite phantoms. The Nazis denounced his art in the "Degenerate Art" exhibition of 1934. He was married to his second wife Peggy Guggenheim from 1942 to 1946, who had enabled him to escape the Gestapo in 1939 and reach the USA in 1941. In 1946 he married Dorothea Tanning, had financial success with his book "Beyond Painting" in 1948, became an American citizen, but moved to the south of France in 1953. He died in Paris in 1976.

Max Ernst's early mature works were abstract expressionist paintings with cubist strategies and also contained figurative elements, all in vivid colors. He then contributed much to the spontaneous, erratic, scandalous Dada art that mocked reason. He moved (illegally) to Paris in 1922 and became a surrealist. Werner Spies wrote: "Ernst dissected the insides of imagined beings, adventurously penetrating beneath the skin to mysterious and generalized parts of plants and animals. His most highly generalized biomorphic beings were arranged in settings ranging from elegant salons to exotic gardens." His imagery was always strongly symbolically charged, full of psychological tension in the figures and in the situation.

He was also influential in America, became internationally famous and was awarded the Grand Prize for Painting at the Venice Biennale in 1954. His pictorial programs changed, however, from visions of the end times to brighter, clearer visions. He wrote in his treatise "Beyond Painting": "I have seen with my own eyes the appearance of things receding, and I have felt a calm and fierce joy about it. Within my activity (passivity) I have contributed to the general upheaval that is taking place today in the relations of the most securely acquired and ingrained 'realities'." It seems obvious that, looking at Max Ernst's career, the problems of the Modern Masters are also decisive for contemporary art.

Innovation is no longer a measure of artistic success.What counts instead is a personal idiom or a certain way of responding to the challenging realities of a global society.Max Ernst explained what it means to be an artist in a world of constant change.

Museum and single exhibitions (selection)

2024    

Max Ernst, Museum für Fotografie Berlin, Germany

2020

Max Ernst - Sammlung Würth, Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, Pforzheim, Germany

2019

Max Ernst: Natural History, Museu Fundación Juan March, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Max Ernst: The Paris Years, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg Russia

2018

Der Flaneur, Kunstmuseum Bonn

Robert Altman: Verleger und Mäzen, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz (FL)

Max Ernst: The 100 year astronaut, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (NL)

2017

Passion de l'art, Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence (F)

Unter freiem Himmel, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

2016

(un)erwartet. Die Kunst des Zufalls, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart

Sonja Sekula, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock & Friends, Kunstmuseum Luzern (CH)

From Kandinsky to Pollock: The Art of the Guggenheim Collections, Palazzo Strozzi, Florenz (I)

Future Present: Emanuel Hoffmann-Stiftung - Zeigenössische Kunst von der Klassischen Moderne bis heute, Schaulager - Laurenz-Stiftung, Basel (CH)

2015

Ich bin eine Pflanze, Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Ravensburg

Europa. Die Zukunft der Geschichte, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich (CH)

hackordnung #5 - Formfreiheit, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Luwigshafen am Rhein

Europe 1900-1975: Selections from the Museum\'s Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

2014

The Surrealism & Duchamp, Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Der Max ist da! Rendezvous des amis, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen

Surréalisme & arts primitifs. Un air de famille, Fondation Pierre Arnaud Centre d\'Art, Lens/Montana

RuhrKunstSzene, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen

2014

Kunst und Alchemie - Das Geheimnis der Verwandlung, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Unter der Erde - Vom Kafka bis Kippenberger. Quadriennale Düsseldorf 2014, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf

Seine Augen trinken alles-Max Ernst und die Zeit um den ersten Weltkrieg, Max Ernst Museum, Brühl

Die Sammlung Gunter Sachs: Max Ernst, Jean Fautrier, Hans Hartung..., Kunsthalle Schweinfurt

Traum-Bilder: Ernst, Magritte, Dali, Picasso, Antes, Nay..., Pinakothek der Moderne, München

Joseph Cornell and Surrealism in New York: Dali, Duchamp, Ernst, Man Ray..., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

The Surrealism & Duchamp: Max Ernst, Meret Oppenheim, Francis Picabia..., Moderna Museet, Stockholm

2013

Max Ernst, Albertina, Wien

Entdeckungsfahrten zu Max Ernst. Die Sammlung Peter Schamoni, Max Ernst Museum Brühl

2012

Schwarze Romantik: Von Goya bis Max Ernst., Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Lorbeeren und Erdbeeren. Max Ernst - Das grafische Spätwerk 1949 - 1976, Sprengel Museum Hannover