Overview

Surrealist artist Marx Ernst defined collage as the ""alchemy of the visual image"". Students of his work have often dismissed this comment as simply a metaphor for the transformative power of using found images in a new context. Taking a wholly different perspective on Ernst and alchemy, however, the author persuasively demonstrates that the artist had a profound and abiding interest in alchemical philosophy and often used alchemical symbolism in works created throughout his career. A revival of interest in alchemy swept the artistic, psychoanalytic, historical, and scientific circles of th elate 19th and early 20th centuries, and the author sets Ernst's work squarely within this movement. Looking at both his art (many of the works she discusses are reproduced in the book) and his writings, she reveals how thoroughly alchemical philosophy and symbolism pervade his early Dadaist experiments, his foundational work images in surrealism, and his many collages and paintings of women and landscapes, whose images exemplify the alchemical fusing of opposites. This pioneering research adds an essential key to understanding the multilayered complexity of Ernst's works, as if affirms his standing as one of Germany's most significant artists of the 20th century.

Full Product Details

Author:   M. E. Warlick ,  Franklin Rosemont
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Imprint:   University of Texas Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780292791367

ISBN 10:   0292791364
Pages:   335
Publication Date:   01 March 2001
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Foreword by Franklin RosemontAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Myth of the Child2. Alchemy: Its History, Revival, and Symbolism3. Initiation4. The Occultation of Surrealism5. Collage as Alchemy6. The Alchemical Androgyne: Ernst and the Women in His Life7. As Above, So Below: The Alchemical LandscapesConclusionNotesAn Alchemical GlossarySelected BibliographyIndexFigures1.1. Opening lines, Some Data on the Youth of M. E., As Told by Himself 1.2. Max Ernst's horoscope1.3. Athanor and alchemical animals2.1. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Alchemist2.2. Two versions of St. Marcel ; Basil Valentine's Synthesis of the Work from the Twelve Keys3.1. Rebis, from Herbert Silberer, Probleme der Mystik und Ihrer Symbolik3.2. Max Ernst, Winter Landscape: Carburation of the Vulcanized Iron Bride for the Purpose of Producing the Necessary Warming of the Bed3.3. Koelner Lehrmittelkatalog, source for Winter Landscape3.4. Max Ernst, Dada Gauguin3.5. Petrus Bonus and Janus Lacinius, Pretiosa Margarita Novella3.6. Max Ernst, Untitled (Men Shall Never Know It)3.7. Max Ernst, The Scissors and Their Father4.1. Max Ernst, Rendezvous of Friends4.2. Housebook Master, The Children of Mercury 4.3. Martin van Heemskerck, The Children of Mercury4.4. Max Ernst, Men Shall Know Nothing of This4.5. Anonymous, General Theory of Eclipses4.6. Alchemical engraving from Herbert Silberer, Probleme der Mystik und ihrer Symbolik4.7. Max Ernst, Memory of God4.8. Anonymous, The Magical Head of the Zohar4.9. Max Ernst, Woman, Old Man, and Flower I4.10. Anonymous, Dissolving the Substance in the Water Bath4.11. Max Ernst, The Cold Throats4.12. Anonymous, Alchemical Vessels4.13. Max Ernst, Chemical Wedding4.14. Balthazar Schwan, The Seven Metals, the Four Elements, the Operations and Colors of the Work4.15. Max Ernst, Bird Marriage4.16. Comparisons to Animals, M. C. Poinsot, Encyclopedie des sciences occultes4.17. Photograph of Madame Sacco, Clairvoyant4.18. Man Ray, Once Again, Now I See Robert Desnos . . .4.19. Les Halles District4.20. Salamander/dragon detail, central portal of the Church of Saint Merri4.21. Max Ernst, Inside the Sight: The Egg4.22. Anonymous, Pelican-shaped Alchemical Vessel5.1. Max Ernst, Gray, Black, or Volcanic Blacksmiths Will Whirl in the Air over the Forges and . . .5.2. Max Ernst, Here All Together Are My Seven Sisters, Often Living on Liquid Dreams and Perfectly Resembling Sleeping Leaves5.3. Max Ernst, Tell Me Who Am I: Me or My Sister . . .5.4. Max Ernst, The Interior of Sight 85.5. Anonymous, The Sun and the Planets, Comparative Dimensions5.6. Anonymous, Action of a Current of Air on a Melted Alloy5.7. Anonymous, Luminous Specter5.8. Max Ernst, collage, The Lion of Belfort, Une Semaine de bonte5.9. Max Ernst, collage, The Lion of Belfort, Une Semaine de bonte5.10. Max Ernst, collage, The Laugh of the Cock, Une Semaine de bonte5.11. Max Ernst, Human Figure5.12. Anonymous, male and female mandrakes5.13. Max Ernst, Mysterious Egg6.1. Anonymous, The Hermetic Androgyne6.2. Max Ernst, Armada v. Duldgedalzen, la Rosa Bonheur des Dadas (Luise Straus-Ernst)6.3. Max Ernst, Dadafex minimus, le plus grand antiphilosophe du monde (Jimmy Ernst)6.4. Photograph of Gala Eluard, Max Ernst, Jimmy Ernst, Luise Straus Ernst, Paul Eluard, and Theodor Baargeld6.5. Max Ernst, Portrait of Gala6.6. Lee Miller, photograph of Marie-Berthe Aurenche and Max Ernst6.7. Marie-Berthe Aurenche, Loplop Paradise6.8. Lee Miller, photograph of E. L. T. Mesens, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, and Paul Eluard6.9. Max Ernst, collage illustration for Leonora Carrington, La Dame ovale6.10. Leonora Carrington, Portrait of Max Ernst6.11. Max Ernst, The Robing of the Bride6.12. Photograph of Peggy Guggenheim with The Antipope6.13. Max Ernst, The Antipope6.14. Lee Miller, photograph of Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst6.15. Dorothea Tanning, Max Ernst in a Blue Boat6.16. Max Ernst, Chemical Nuptials6.17. Max Ernst, Strange Hallucination7.1. Max Ernst painting near Bruhl7.2. Matthaus Merian, Analogy of the Alchemical Microcosm to the Macrocosm7.3. Anonymous, Total Eclipse of May 29, 19197.4. Max Ernst, The Great Forest7.5. Max Ernst, The Bride of the Wind7.6. Max Ernst, Mite-size Art 7.7. Max Ernst, The Garden of France7.8. Matthaus Merian, Putrefaction Glorified7.9. Max Ernst, Marriage of Heaven and Earth

Reviews

M. E. Warlick's book is a unique and highly significant contribution to the literature on modern art and modern culture in general. --Linda D. Henderson, Professor of Art History, University of Texas at Austin ... when M. E. Warlick discusses {Ernst's] early art and the Surrealist context, she is authoritative... Her own scrupulously researched chapters on the artist's formative years andpre-Surrealist paintings, together with her abbreviated history of alchemy, its literature and the occultation of Surrealism which began in the 1920s, are useful additions to the existingscholarship. --TLS, 21 September 2001

""M. E. Warlick's book is a unique and highly significant contribution to the literature on modern art and modern culture in general."" --Linda D. Henderson, Professor of Art History, University of Texas at Austin "" ... when M. E. Warlick discusses {Ernst's] early art and the Surrealist context, she is authoritative... Her own scrupulously researched chapters on the artist's formative years andpre-Surrealist paintings, together with her abbreviated history of alchemy, its literature and the""occultation of Surrealism"" which began in the 1920s, are useful additions to the existingscholarship.""--TLS, 21 September 2001

Author Information

M. E. Warlick is Professor of European Modern Art at the University of Denver.

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