Art - Max Ernst

Ernst was one of the surrealist painters. He was born in 1891 in Brühl (Germany). The artist was brought up in a Catholic family and some incidents which happened in his youth influenced his way of painting. Max Ernst loved birds, and after his favourite bird died he grieved over the loss. A bridlike creature, called 'Loplop', and other hybrid beings appear in his paintings from that moment.
Ernst studied filosofy at the university of Bonn from 1908 till 1914, he used several elements of his studies in several paintings. Although he was an autodidact, and not an educated painter, art was the central part of his life. Max met one of the members of 'Der Blaue Reiter' - a group of expressionists - in Münich, and their expressionism influenced him very much - as well as the metafysical art of De Chirico. He also became friends with Hans Arp in 1914, an event which brought him closer by the establishment of the surrealist group. Ernst served a year as a soldier in the First World War, but his talents were discoverd by a well-disposed officer, who saved him from dying in the war by transferring him. He lead a quiet life for a short time, but another officer transferred him again to the front. Ernst married directly after the war, this marriage ended in 1921. He left Germany in 1922, resolute to go to Paris. Ernst had to work in a factory to earn some money after his arrival in France. But things were going to change after the reunion with the poet Paul Eluard. They began to work together on projects which meant the beginning of the surrealist movement. But Ernst and Eluard didn't experience the birth of surrealism, because they were in Saigon at that time. Surrealism celebrated its first triumphs at the time they got back in France.
A period of further artistic development of Ernst's skills began in 1925, when he (re)invented the frottage*. An order from the Ballet Russes came the following year, Ernst designed the decor for 'Roméo et Juliette' together with Joan Miró. He also became friends with the artist Giacometti in 1929, a friendship which lasted lifelong. Meanwhile he was married for the second time with Marie-Berthe Aurenche. He also met Dalí and played a character in the surrealist film 'L'age d'or' ('The Golden Century') by Dalí and Buñuel. He left the surealist movement in 1938, because he didn't agree with Breton, the leader of the surealists.
Ernst's art became 'entartet' - or in other words forbidden by the nazis - during the war and he was detained for three times. He left France together with Peggy Guggenheim in 1941, because the situatin in Europe had become too dangerous. He arrived in the United States, after short stays in Madrid and Lissabon. He married Peggy Guggenheim and tried to establish his name in the American artscene. He divorced from Peggy Guggenheim and married Dorethea Tanning in 1943, something which caused a great scandal.
Ernst returned to Europe four years after the Second World War and his work was to be seen on several exhibitions. He also won the Grand Prix in Venice in 1954, and Ersnt moved back to France where he lived permanently for the rest of his life. Ernst died in Paris in 1976.