(Brühl 1891–1976 Paris)
Enseigne pour une École de Moustiques, 1961, signed max ernst, again signed, dated and titled on the stretcher max ernst (1961) enseigne pour une école de moustiques, oil on canvas, 54 x 65 cm, framed

Provenance:
Le Point Cardinal, Paris
Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia
European private collection

Literature:
Werner Spies (Ed.): Max Ernst – Oeuvre-Katalog, Werke 1954–1963, Houston/Cologne 1998, p. 271, no. 3572, ill.
John Russel: Max Ernst – Leben und Werk, Cologne 1966, no. 106

„Max Ernst was a painter, draughtsman, sculptor and inventor of new techniques for art. In his search for expressive possibilities, Surrealism’s demand for a ‚renunciation of the rule of logic, a dictate of thought without any control of reason‘ was particularly inspiring. He sought an interplay of thoughts similar to that of dreams and hallucinations.“

Max Ernst, Techniken, maxernstmuseum.lvr.de/de/max_ernst/techniken/techniken_1.html, 24.09.2021.

Ernst is thus one of the most versatile artists of the modern age. He learned to paint autodidactically. His early work is especially characterised by various styles, genres and epochs. In 1922 Ernst moved to Paris, and from 1933 his art was considered degenerate in National Socialist Germany. He fled to the United States of America in 1941 as France was also no longer safe for him due to the Second World War. He then returned to France in 1953.

The work to be auctioned, „Enseigne pour une école de moustiques“, dates from 1961 and thus belongs to Ernst‘s late work. The abstract painting is primarily dedicated to the exploration of texture. The varied surface structure creates an organic-looking space, the blue-white colour palette of the background is reminiscent of the media of water or air. The red colour accents form a line structure that interrupts the blue-white colour layers of the background and directs the viewer‘s gaze. Throughout his life, Max Ernst was on the lookout for new technical possibilities. In order to avoid the direct application of paint, the artist developed the technique of grattage, for example. In this technique, a canvas is painted with several layers of paint and then laid over a rough fabric or other object. A scraper is used to scrape the paint off again, revealing a pattern of the objects placed underneath.

The present painting is less about the content and more about the technique and the play of form and colour relationships. Neither the painting itself nor the title „Enseigne pour une école de moustiques“ – given by the artist – give us a specific interpretation. We can only speculate about the content of the picture on the basis of the title, and so the enigmatic work captivates us with its open and associative representation alone. Throughout his life, Max Ernst was constantly searching for new possibilities of expression.