Max Ernst: Beyond Painting

This exhibition surveys the career of the preeminent Dada and Surrealist artist Max Ernst, with particular emphasis on his ceaseless experimentation. Ernst began his pursuit of radical new techniques to articulate the irrational and unexplainable in the wake of the First World War, continuing through the advent and aftermath of the Second World War. Featuring approximately 100 works drawn from the museum’s collection, the exhibition includes paintings that challenged material and compositional conventions; collages and overpaintings utilising found printed reproductions; frottages (rubbings); illustrated books and collage novels; sculptures of painted stone and bronze; and prints made using a range of techniques. Several major, multipart projects represent key moments in Ernst’s long career, ranging from early Dada and Surrealist portfolios of the late 1910s and ’20s to his late masterpiece, 65 Maximiliana, ou l’exercice illégal de l’astronomie (1964). Find out more about the Max Ernst exhibition from MoMA’s website.

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The Hat Makes the Man (C’est le chapeau qui fait l’homme) (1920), Max Ernst. The Museum of Modern Art, New York © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Woman, Old Man, and Flower (Weib, Greis und Blume) (1924), Max Ernst. The Museum of Modern Art, New York © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Rendezvous of Friends – The Friends Become Flowers (Le rendez-vous des amis – Les amis se changent en fleurs) (1928), Max Ernst. The Museum of Modern Art, New York © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris