Max Ernst: Surrealism, Art, and Cinema
Max Ernst: Surrealism, Art, and Cinema offers a unique journey through the life and career of the artist, showcasing works across various media: paintings, sculptures, collages, frottages, illustrated books, and photographs, all selected for their connections to the seventh art. This innovative and unprecedented approach highlights the work of the renowned German surrealist artist.
Max Ernst (1891–1976): painter, sculptor, draftsman, graphic artist, and poet. Or perhaps: Max Ernst the Dadaist, surrealist, romantic, pataphysician, and humanist. Today, his life and work appear kaleidoscopic—highly multifaceted yet unmistakable. For the first time, and through specific research, Max Ernst: Surrealism, Art, and Cinema explores the artist’s life and work in relation to the cinematic medium. Indeed, the “seventh art” represents a parallel and ever-present influence throughout his life and career.
In 1921, André Breton compared Max Ernst’s collages to cinema, describing the unique way his works transcended traditional, two-dimensional media (painting and drawing), which remained frozen in stillness. Breton also called Ernst a magician, “the man of these infinite possibilities,” and emphasized that “Ernst projects before our eyes the most captivating film in the world.”
Ernst’s relationship with cinema consistently accompanied his artistic activity. His work profoundly inspired surrealist cinema as well as subsequent filmmakers and artists up to the present day. Ernst himself acted in films, served on film juries, and even designed film awards. Moreover, his life has been the subject of numerous films and documentaries, revealing a continuous and reciprocal exchange between his artistic practice and cinema.
Film excerpts and immersive projections engage dynamically with the artwork, creating an exhibition design that immerses visitors in the adventurous and restless life of an artist who spanned much of the 20th century. The exhibition unveils connections to timelessly progressive themes, such as exile, cross-cultural issues, and environmental concerns.