aixcentric

Max Ernst (1891–1976).

This summer exhibition which starts 4th May brings 120 works which illustrate his career.

They say: “A learned and prodigious experimental artist, Max Ernst lived through the century of avant-garde movements with an insatiable thirst for creation and left behind a complex and highly personal oeuvre. An artist associated with the Dada group and surrealism, he followed a personal path by distancing himself from the group’s style and produced visionary works imbued with lucidity… His work is nourished by philosophy, psychoanalysis, science, alchemy, art history, literature and poetry. The exhibition will focus on the major themes of the worlds created by Max Ernst ……..the four elements – water, air, earth and fire – which, according to ancient philosophical tradition and alchemy, make up all the matter in the natural world”.

The artist has local links as he spent time in the south of France early in WW2 when he was interned in the Camp des Milles. He was helped by brave American Varian Fry and his Marseille-based Emergency Rescue Committee. Read here: https://aixcentric.com/2011/11/29/varian-fry-american-who-saved-2000-people-in-marseille/

Piet‡ or Revolution by Night