Max Ernst. Dream and Revolution

Max Ernst was a hypermodern, adaptable artist. Like a vagabond he turned his life into one long journey – constantly renewing his artistic activity and himself. He was always on his way in and out of new modes of exspression, in search of development and change. He never came to a halt with any single style but continued to explore and experiment with art.

Dream and Revolution
According to Max Ernst an artist should never know what he wants to do, but should continue to investigate and transform his expression. That was why Ernst went on reflecting on the nature of art, and the results were pioneering. Like Picasso and Dalí, Max Ernst could do it ALL.

His visual world is based on unexpected combinations of elements, symbols and techniques. He attacked the traditional views of visual art and questioned everything that had been accepted and formulated before in art. Dream and imagination were given pride of place and brought to life in Max Ernst’s revolutionary, multi-faceted expression.

The exhibition offers a retrospective view of the most important artistic phases in Max Ernst’s work: the Dada years in Cologne, 1918-1922, when he developed the photomontage and collage techniques; his Surrealist period in France until 1941; his experimentation with the frottage technique and psychoanalytical symbolism; the period of exile in the USA in 1941-53, in which decalcomani and the ‘oscillation technique’ are central concerns; the artist’s return to Europe and his late oeuvre, typified by cosmic pictorial worlds and extensive production of prints.

The 200 works in the exhibition range through painting, collage, drawing and sculpture to the special Max Ernst techniques frottage and decalcomani.

The exhibition Max Ernst. Dream and Revolution has been created in collaboration between the Louisiana Museum and Moderna Museet in Stockholm. 

The curatorial team consists of the German
art historian and leading authority on Max Ernst, Werner Spies, curator Iris Müller-Westermann, Moderna Museet, and curator Kirsten Degel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

The staging of the exhibition has been designed by the team behind the drawing office chezweitz & roseapple from Berlin – Detlef Weitz (architect) and Rose Epple (graphic designer) with Hans Hagemeister and Wolfgang Schneider.