A Whirlwind Dadaist and Surrealist

The Dada movement in Cologne, Germany had its heyday between 1918 to 1922 and was headed up by Max Ernst, Theodor Baargeld and Hans Arp. The trio became a sensation in the city by stirring up all sorts of controversies, one of which was Die Schammade publication, and they held a string of exhibitions that were quickly squashed by the authorities.

 

When Ernst and Arp got together, they worked on a number of collages they dubbed Fatagaga, an abbreviation for “fabrication de tableaux garantis gazométriques” (manufacture of pictures guaranteed to be gasometric). One such example is “Physiomythologisches diluvialbild,” which they created using the photomontage technique.

 

This was a time when Ernst was particularly influenced by Giorgio de Chirico and began to dive into combining various collage techniques. In “1 Kupferblech 1 Zinkblech 1 Gummituch 2 Tastzirkel 1 Abflußfernrohr 1 röhrender Mens” (1 Copper Plate 1 Zinc Plate 1 Rubber Cloth 2 Calipers 1 Drainpipe Telescope 1 Pipe Man), Ernst cobbled together all sorts of intrigue like clippings of goggles, a retort and pipes, then finished off the artwork with drawing and watercolor.

 

Other artists who eventually joined in on the Dada fun in Köln included Franz-Wilhelm Seiwert, Angelika Hoerle and Anton Räderscheidt.

I found figural elements united there that stood so far apart from each other that the absurdity of this accumulation caused a sudden intensification of my visionary facilities and brought about a hallucinating succession of contradictory images.

WHERE ART AND PSYCHOLOGY COLLIDE

In the art world, automatism is the process of creating art by accessing the unconscious mind and completely bypassing conscious thought. Word has it that Ernst used hallucinogens and hypnotism to enter dream states that he then transferred onto canvas.

 

In psychology, it was Sigmund Freud who first used automatic drawing or writing to explore the unconscious realm of his patients. His ideas went on to influence André Breton when he began the surrealist movement in 1924 through the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism. In it, Breton defined surrealism as: “Pure psychic automatism … the dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason and outside all moral or aesthetic concerns.”

 

Leaving art up to chance was specifically explored by Max Ernst with his collages, which were assembled from magazine clippings, encyclopedias, catalogues and brochures.

 

SEX SELLS

Upon unearthing rare manuscripts by Marquis de Sade at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the poet and novelist Guillaume Apollinaire went on to publish a selection of his writings in 1909, where he introduced Sade as “the freest spirit that had ever lived.”

 

It was Apollinaire who first coined the term surrealism and the surrealists took note when the first Manifesto of Surrealism was published in 1924 and proclaimed that “Sade is surrealist in sadism.” While the surrealist movement was driven by expressing the unconscious, it was also all about drawing linkages between dreams, reality, sex and eroticism.

 

Desires abound in the subconscious and surrealistic art is about releasing, confronting and exercising sexual desires head-on. Much of their work was deemed obscene and lewd, but that was precisely the point – to challenge anything and everything.

 

They were anti-establishment libertarians pushing the boundaries and acting out libidinal themes on canvas. The explicit content of the time intentionally provoked and fascinated onlookers, whether voluntarily or begrudgingly. It was a sexual revolution in the form of art, and political correctness was a complete misnomer.

Pure psychic automatism … the dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason and outside all moral or aesthetic concerns.

LOPLOP, MAX ERNST’S ALTER EGO

It’s not every day that you can get up close and personal with an artist’s alter ego, especially when it’s Max Ernst and a mysterious birdlike figure named Loplop, or “the Bird Superior” that appears in many of his paintings.

 

Surrealist art is very much about how the artists view themselves and the world they live in. Their personal nature is exemplified through a persona, or a public mask of sorts. It is not a mask in the fake sense, but rather a way to unite their past life, experiences and personality through a unique combination of visual symbols and to access their truths and the creative workings of their minds.

 

Using Freud’s self discovery techniques, Ernst became more sensitized to his dreams, developed automatic feedback and free associations and was able to recollect events from his childhood. In looking at the symbols from his dreams and unconscious thoughts, he realized that birds held an important role for him on a personal and universal level.

 

Bird insignia for Ernst first took off with the establishment of the Dada movement in Cologne, Germany before 1920. Loplop made its debut in Ernst’s “La Femme 100 Têtes” and “Une Semaine de Bonté” in the role of a narrator and commentator.

Max Ernst

In one corner agile incest
Turns round the virginity of a little dress
In one corner sky released
leaves balls of white on the spines of storm.
In one corner bright with all the eyes
One awaits the fish of anguish.
In one corner the car of summer’s greenery
gloriously motionless forever.

 

In the glow of youth lamps lit too late.
The first one shows her breasts that kill

the insects that are red.

MAX ERNST’S ART TECHNIQUES

FROTTAGE
Frottage is the French word for rubbing, and Ernst developed this technique in 1925 when he noted interesting patterns on weathered wooden floors. He laid a piece of paper over the uneven wooden planks and rubbed over it softly with a pencil. To him, an otherworld emerged with dark forests and strange bird-like beings. These works were collectively published in 1926 and titled “Histoire Naturelle” (natural history).

 

GRATTAGE
Grattage means scraping and came about when Ernst began to experiment with scratching off paint using everyday objects. In Ernst’s “Forest and Dove,” the trees are seemingly brought to life by scraping over a fish backbone. This discovery approach was more spontaneous to him and evoked the unconscious creative process.

 

DRIP PAINTINGS
Drip painting was introduced in the first half of the 20th century and was popularized by Ernst who created Lissajous figures by swinging a punctured paint bucket over a horizontal canvas. Paint could also be poured or splashed onto a canvas and allowed to drip and trickle down the surface to create all sorts of textures and motifs.

 

SURREALIST COLLAGE
To create his collages, or a “culture of systemic displacement,” as he dubbed it, Max Ernst brought together fragmented realities from a number of sources. He pieced together clippings from teaching workbooks, fashion style books, catalogs and scientific encyclopaedias covering botany, zoology and mechanics.

 

Explaining his findings, he said, “I found figural elements united there that stood so far apart from each other that the absurdity of this accumulation caused a sudden intensification of my visionary facilities and brought about a hallucinating succession of contradictory images.” The edges of each illustration in Ernst’s collages were applied in a way that made the transitions well hidden and created the illusion of one complete image.

DIE SCHAMMADE MAGAZINE

When the Cologne Dada group was excluded from exhibitions decades ago, Max Ernst and Johannes T. Baargeld took angrily to Bulletin D and Die Schammade journal, single-issue publications which they both co-edited.

 

Ernst and Baargeld filled the pages with Dada artworks, vexed commentaries on the contemporary art community of the time, as well as no-holds-barred texts and witty wordplays.

 

The cover of Die Schammade features Arp’s abstract woodcut with Ernst’s “Dadameter,” which is a roster of names connecting the Cologne Dada movement to leaders of the group in Zurich and Paris.

A WORK-LIFE TAP DANCE

Ernst had an eclectic and turbulent love life, to say the least, hopping from flings to marriages and marriages to flings and was hitched a total of four times. His third wife, Peggy Guggenheim, was a socialite art collector and the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim who passed away with the Titanic’s sinking.

When Guggenheim inherited $2.5 million in 1919, equivalent to US$36.9 million in 2019, she went on to open her first gallery called Guggenheim Jeune. During her marriage to her first husband, Guggenheim frequented Marcel Duchamp’s circles and he introduced her to contemporary art and came up with several of the exhibitions held at Guggenheim Jeune.

Her first gallery enjoyed its peak until 1939, when she closed its doors and decided to ship off to Europe and establish a museum of modern art in London together with the English art historian and art critic Herbert Read. The outbreak of World War II quickly changed her plans and she decided to vehemently collect abstract and surrealist art. When finished, she had acquired 10 Picassos, 40 Ernsts, eight Mirós, four Magrittes, four Ferrens, three Man Rays, three Dalís, one Klee, one Wolfgang Paalen and one Chagall, amongst others.

By the time 1941 rolled around, she was already sailing back to America with Max Ernst, leaving war-torn Europe and her plans for a museum behind her.

A TURBULENT MARIAGE À TROIS

The surrealists were known for their hedonistic lifestyle and laissez faire attitude. This knack for life didn’t fall short of their brightly bespeckled love triangles, one of which was the infamous ménage à trois between poet Paul Éluard, his wife Gala Éluard and Max Ernst.

It may well have been influenced by an article titled “Lâchez Tout” written by André Breton, in which he encouraged his colleagues to turn their backs on the humdrum of daily life, quit their jobs, leave their wives and family and hit the road.

The trio first met at a 1921 exhibition organized by Breton for Max Ernst. Both Éluard and his wife were in attendance and the three hit it off and became practically inseparable ever since. Éluard and Ernst began collaborating on books and the affair with Gala soon took off.

The Éluard-Gala-Ernst love triangle lasted for 3 years although speculations mounted that Éluard reached a tipping point and abandoned the duo, shipping out from Marseille en route to Rimbaud and Conrad territory in Southeast Asia.

Ernst and Gala eventually caught up with him two months later, traveling through the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean to finally reunite in Saigon. They stayed for two weeks with Éluard and Gala returning together to France, with Ernst following them a few days later. After that, the three-way affair came to a screeching halt.

Éluard eventually cobbled together his last book titled “Mourir de ne pas Mourir” (Dying of Not Dying). Éluard remained a lifelong supporter of Ernst and they continued their collaborations. As for Gala, she left Éluard and married Salvador Dalí in 1934.

A poem on Max Ernst penned by Éluard remains.

 

Max Ernst

In one corner agile incest
Turns round the virginity of a little dress
In one corner sky released
leaves balls of white on the spines of storm.
In one corner bright with all the eyes
One awaits the fish of anguish.
In one corner the car of summer’s greenery
gloriously motionless forever.

In the glow of youth lamps lit too late.
The first one shows her breasts that kill the insects that are red.

-
X
ALL CURIOSITIES EXHIBITIONS LUMINARIES RESOURCES SCHMUCKMUSEUM COLLECTIONS PAST EXHIBITIONS SHOP ABOUT
SHORT VIEW   FULL VIEW

M

Visit Museum

Tuesday to Sunday
10 am to 5 am
Jahnstraße 42, 75173 Pforzheim

info@schmuckmuseum.com
+49 (0) 7231 39 2126
Social Media

Instagram
Pinterest


Imprint
Press
-
CURIOSITIES EXHIBITIONS LUMINARIES RESOURCES SCHMUCKMUSEUM COLLECTIONS PAST EXHIBITIONS SHOP ABOUT
X