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Max Ernst Exhibition

Max Ernst, graphic work

Manuscript

Author

Author André Breton
People cited duc de Berry, Max Ernst

Description

Manuscript of a presentation by André Breton for an exhibition of Max Ernst at La Hune gallery, dated 5 January 1950.

In January 1950, Breton presented two exhibitions in quick succession: that of Kamrowsky and, from 20 January, that of his old friend Max Ernst at La Hune gallery: Max Ernst, Livres, illustrations, gravures, 1919-1949. Moreso than in his paintings themselves, it is his work as a book illustrator that Breton is interested in here, highlighting the way in which Ernst revived, almost physically, a tradition that had been dying out since the end of illuminated manuscript. His text was included in the definitive edition of Surréalisme et la peinture in 1965. [Atelier André Breton website, 2005]

Signed autograph manuscript, 5 January 1950.
- 1 page in-4° handwritten in ink titled, dated, and signed by André Breton, with erasures and corrections.
"Finally, Max Ernst arrived. From Fiat Modes (1919) to La Brebis galante (1949), thinking of Histoire naturelle (1926), La Femme 100 têtes (1929), Une Semaine de bonté (1934), 8 Poèmes visibles (1946) - just to mention a few points of his trajectory - his graphic work has been tending in the direction of an ever-greater emancipation of the eye.
"It was under Max Ernst's hands that the book awoke - physically awoke - from its age-old slumber: the pages that he no longer 'adorned' but truly enchanted are so many eyelids that began to flutter.” [Sale Catalogue, 2003]

Bibliography

André Breton (Édition publiée sous la direction d'Étienne-Alain Hubert avec la collaboration de Philippe Bernier et Marie-Claire Dumas), « Max Ernst, œuvre graphique », Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, Œuvres complètes, tome IV, Écrits sur l'art et autres textes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, Gallimard, 2008, p. 549-552, notes p. 1309-1310.

Exhibition place