Book Description

Customer Reviews (7)

A book to inspire
My best friend interested me in this book in high school and before amazon.com it was hard to come buy in the small town that we lived where the only art that exists is 'impressionist' paintings of moored boats and whatever you can find at wal-mart in the home decor section.

This is the epitome of black and white, balance and the finest collection of surrealism I think that you can get into a book.Dover does it justice with clear prints and an excellent binding.I've had my copy for years and it's been everywhere with me through several moves and colleges.And the price is quite reasonble.Guaranteed to make you get some of Dovers clip art so you can experiment on your own.

Seven Deadly Elements!
This is an incredible piece of work, absolutely integral to any collection of anyone who has an interest in the Dadaists or Surrealists.Ernst's intuitive juxtapositions create an intirely seperate and complete logical (or illogical, depending) world of lurid mysticism and dread.Though not without a sense of humor.If you like this, also check out (if you've not already) the work of Joseph Cornell and the writings of Lautremont.

Probably the Best of Ernst's Collage Novels....
This is probably the best of Ernst's collage novels.Certainly it is a good bargan at this price; moreover, the others (The Hundred Headless Woman and A Young Woman Dreams of Taking the Veil) are virtually unavailable anyway.

Earnst's collage novels are now more of historical interest than anything: that is to say, they represent quite a remarkable event in cultural history as evidence of Modernism, Surrealism, Expressionism, etc.However--that said--they're not quite as spectacular as some other reviewers might otherwise lead you to believe.The collages are not really as shocking as they perhaps once were, and the Dadaist poetry is rather inane and trivial: the worst that could be said of any art--just consult Wilde!

The large oil canvases of R.-F.-G. Magritte are inestimably more significant, worthy, important, and great as original works of art, and as historical artifacts of Modernism and the Surreal.

A worthwhile surrealist object
It figures that a couple months after I hunt up a copy, this becomes readily available.

It's a fascinating book.The collages are made of illustrations from lurid French novels popular at the time.The edges of the different cut and pasted pictureslook seamless, and Ernst has a great design sensibility.The introduction is useful, if short.

The surrealist aesthetic toward women--that is, surrealist art (including that by women) constantly shows female figures, generally nudes, as victims or in suffering--is particularly visible here, probably helped by the source matter.It's significant that the major female artists involved in the movement, such as Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, and Dorthea Tanning, tended not to produce much until they had been seperated from the heart of the movement for years.It's the major flaw in the movement's thinking, but that doesn't stop this from being an intriguing book for occasional contemplation.

The original title pages are reproduced in facsimile and translated.

Une Semaine De BontE : A Surrealistic Novel in Collage
One of the best books I own. Inspirational, in a way -- like mind taffy.Something about the pictures and the little bit of text makes you want to make connections. Like life itself. Forster said: "Only connect." Absolutely fantastic. ... Read more

Book Description
A penetrating, intimate portrayal of the creative life of an individual artist and of the artistic life of the twentieth century.

Throughout his career, Max Ernst created fantastic worlds through images. But it is only when one sees his work in relation to the images of his personal life—his letters, photographs, poetry, and diaries, so brilliantly reproduced on these pages—that one begins to understand his world, a world spent at the epicenter of twentieth-century artistic life.

Max Ernst: Life and Work draws on an unprecedented collection of source material, much of it published here for the first time, to present a compelling portrait of the artist's life and an intellectual portrait of the period. Edited by Werner Spies, a close friend of Max Ernst and the leading authority on his extraordinarily rich, surreal world, it includes letters and notes by friends and contemporaries that provide insight into the reception of Ernst's oeuvre and shed light on his biography. The vast range of documents includes texts by Hans (Jean) Arp, André Breton, Louis Aragon, Paul éluard, Tristan Tzara, Man Ray, Benjamin Perêt, Lotte Lenya, Leonora Carrington, and many others.

Ernst's life and work were intimately interwoven, and the hundreds of documents here are interspersed with numerous reproductions of his work, all of which recall the variety and richness of the artist's discoveries and innovations. Ernst—dubbed "Dada Max"—played a vital role in the history of Dada and Surrealism in Cologne, Zurich, and Paris, and shaped the face of the New York art scene during his exile there. 615 illustrations, 154 in color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Max Ernst incomplete but brillantly presented book
Max Ernst Life and Times is a different kind of biography. After reading Calvin Tomkins'
Duchampand Off the Wall - a portrait of Robert Rauschenberg,I had come to believe the biography of artist were the same. Neil Baldwin's, Man Ray - American Artistfurther reinforced this notion.However, Werner Spies book is a path not often taken. I suspect that the background of the authors, journalistic versus artistic has much to do with this difference.
Firstly, the book is beautiful in its glossy white high weight paper. The color plates are stunning (something lacking in Tomkins' books - again background differences).What I found disconcerting was who the text presented M.E. in an `at arms length' perspective.
The text is mainly letters and notes, some M.E. autobiographical entries strangely done in the 3rd person. Tomkins amerces you in the artist life and you feel an identity with situations and people. Spies' transcribs letter after letter (for some reason all shown in the book) to and from M.E.End result is a fragmented picture (surreal?) and not wholly fulfilling.
Now if Spies' format and Tomkins journalism got together....
Would I purchase this book again? Yes, but for the format and brilliant graphics. I will have to look elsewhere to read about Max Ernst.
... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Image quality is perfectly acceptable
The reproductions in this book are every bit as good as those in a similarly-priced volume from Thames & Hudson (isbn 978-0500976586) in terms of color fidelity, and far superior terms of selection and size. Additionally, reproductions are much better than in cheaper volumes from Taschen (978-3822813881) and Phaidon (978-0714828664). Maybe the reproductions in the monumental Oeuvre Katalog are superior, but at $2500 most of us will never aspire to own a copy.

Don't let other reviewer's gripes about color fidelity dissuade you from owning this marvelous volume.

Good retrospective, and good image quality.
This book is the most comprehensive collection of Max Ernst work. Having read the other reviews, I was concerned the print quality would be less than stellar. I find the print quality and color reproduction to be fine. No art book ever captures the full impact of the actual art, and color correction is one of the more problematic aspects of printing. MOMA and the Yale University did a good job with this book. This is a good collection of work and I wouldn't hesitate buying it again.

Ditto on the quality of the reproductions
I just saw the retrospective a couple of weeks ago as well and agree with the other reviewers: the exhibition is great, but the quality of the plates in the catalog is miserable.

Poor print quality
Having just seen the exhibit today (June 6 2005), and having perused copies of the book available at the exhibit, I concur that the color reproduction negates the highly informative text of this book.

A Magnificent Exhibit, but a mediocre Book
The exhibit of Ernst's work, which is still running at the Metropolitan Museum is a stunning tribute to an artist whose styles have influenced so many others over the course of the twentieth century. His style shifted and evolved so much over time that it is hard to believe the same artist that painted "Saint Cecilia" also painted "The Kiss" and "The Robing of the Bride." Unfortunately, the poor quality of the prints in the museum's book makes it a big disappointment, especially at this price. The text is alright, but the colors in the prints are radically darker and different in tone and do no justice to the original works. ... Read more

Book Description

Surrealist artist Max 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, M. E. Warlick 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.

Customer Reviews (1)

The Interior Of Sight
Maybe it's because Max Ernst is alchemy personified that this analysis of his work and it's connection to alchemy is more or less a complete biography the man as a whole. It takes you through his psychological developement as a child to the developement of his sexual identity and ties it all in with his drive as an artist and as an alchemist. Unlike other books on his life or work, this one fuses all the elements together: psychology, alchemy, art, the occult and sex. It's uncanny how much ground "Max Ernst and Alchemy: A Magician in Search of Myth" covers. If you love Ernst this is the only book you'll ever need. It's superbly fleshed out. I was left both wanting more and comepletely satisfied! I guess since this is the only book of it's kind it takes the cake. Rarely does a study of this calibre see the light of day! It is truly the alchemy of the modern day alchemist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

good
I think this was an outstanding book.and the work was so original.I would like to reccomend this book to anyone of my age or any age.read the book. Dave is the bomb this was pretty cool Dave Tellez ... Read more

Book Description
Published in conjunction with an exhibition of Max Ernst's work in Turin, this book includes almost 150 reproductions of his sculptures and collages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Spectateur au hasard
Andre Breton s'interessait a la poesie creee au hasard. Ensuite son copain Max Ernst en faisait le meme dans l'art. Il representait, par des images creees au hasard, la super realite au-dela du quotidien. La dedans se melaient toutes les influences: de l'art dadaiste et expressioniste, des drogues, de l'hypnose, de la philosophie. Par son art - de collages, decalcomania, frottages, gouttages, grattages - il ouvrait la porte aux artistes de l'abstrait et du culture pop, de l'apres-guerre.

Viewer in the Dark
Surrealism founder Andre Breton wondered if random creating could work in art as it had in poetry. His friend Max Ernst made the effort by drawing on experimentation with hypnosis and mind-altering drugs, his own studies in philosophy, his years as an Expressionist and then Dada artist, and influences from fellow Surrealist Giorgio de Chirico. ERNST's collages, decalcomania, drippings, frottages, and grattages personalized images from the conscious and the unconscious into an eerily mysterious, unexpected super reality different from the waking world and not so easy to understand. He went on to influence post-war Abstract Expressionists and Pop artists, as seen by reading Carter Ratcliff's THE FATE OF A GESTURE and by viewing "Pollock." I used to think that the Dali dream sequence in the film "Spellbound" was the best glimpse of what Surrealism was about, but editor Jose Maria Faerna also gives a clear, compact view. This well-illustrated and organized book, along with his DE CHIRICO, shows what happened after William Vaughan's GERMAN ROMANTIC PAINTING. It also pigeonholes Ernst's place in Robert Motherwell's THE DADA PAINTERS AND POETS, Herbert Edward Read's A CONCISE HISTORY OF MODERN PAINTING, Peter Howard Selz's GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST PAINTING, and Patrick Waldberg's SURREALISM. ... Read more

Book Description
David Hopkins analyses the extensive network of shared concerns and images in the work of Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst, the greatest names associated with Dada and Surrealist art. This book covers a broad periodfrom c.1912 to the mid-1940s, during which the emergence of Dada and Surrealism in Europe and the United States challenged earlier movements such as Cubism and Expressionism, creating scope for the expression of the unconscious fears and desires of artists acutely sensitive to the troubled nature of their times. Examining Duchamp's and Ernst's subversion and manipulation of religious and hermetic beliefs such as Catholicism, Rosicrucianism and Masonry, David Hopkins demonstrates the ways in which these esoteric concerns intersect with themes of peculiarly contemporary relevance, including the social construction of gender and notions of ordering and taxonomy. This detailed comparison of components of Duchamp's and Ernst's work reveals fascinating structural patterns, enabling the reader to discover an entirely new way of understanding the mechanisms underlying Dada and Surrealist iconography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst
If you are looking for individual research involving either artist, look else where.Nonetheless, this book gives a good gleamce into two revolutionary artists lives as they relate to one another. The"true" father of modern art, Marcel Duchamp, and hismad-photographer, Max Ernst as their lives mingle between negative, photo,and glass. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Max Ernst Pioneer of Surrealism
For all those who want to learn about the position of Max Ernst within Surrealism this is an essential book. Scholarly essays by Werner Spies (arguably the foremost authority on Max Ernst) and William Camfield, who writes in fascinating detail about the transition period when the artist moved from Dada into Surrealism. The period comes alive with rare photographs and anecdotes about the struggles of Max Ernst to survive in Germany after the first world war and his efforts to reach Paris, the promised land. Max Ernst, a true pioneer of many of the art techniques taught nowadays in artschools, such as frottage and collage, is celebrated in this book with not only almost 200 colour plates of many of his masterpieces, but also many lesser known works which show how he constructed his collages. Added to this are inumerable black and white illustrations of the sources for many of his most famous paintings. As Max Ernst never wrote an autobiography,a book such as this is a must for all those who desire to know something more about the artist who is quoted on page 28 as saying "A painter is lost when he finds himself." An artist difficult to know, but this book goes a long way in bridging that gap. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

THE ETERNAL RETURN
Study Max Ernst & you'll see the process behind the product. You'll see the alchemy behind the artistry. Max was a master, & has much to show us, particularly in this period. Wonder at the eididic patterns & at all that is eluded to, yet never expressed. Observe the black sun in "The Union of the Heavens & the Earth"--- here was a guy who knew a thing or two about a thing or two! This is not just an art book, it's a manual, pure & simple.

the lesser known Dali
In his text, Ulrich Bischoff proposes that Max Ernst had earned the right to be known as the leading exponant of Surrealist art of the 1940's and 50's, but since Salvador Dali knew how to present himself in society to greater effect, he inherited the title. Whatever one thnks of Dali's skill as a publicist, his work is different to Ernst's in one sense - Ernst's most potent paintings were done before he came to the U.S. It's interesting to theorise that it was because Ernst was harassed by the Nazis when they invaded France where the German Ernst lived, that he created the decalcomonia technique which decorates what I think are his greatest works - Joy of Life, The Robing of the Bride, Marlene, Europe after the Rain, Day and Night, The Eye of Silence and The Temptation of St. Anthony. This technique of applying the paint to the canvas by pressing it against a flat surface, gives the result a mossy, furry or marshy appearance. This coupled with Ernst's penchance for grotesque mythological figures would have aligned him with Jewish and other non-naturalistic artists considered decadent and perverse by the Third Reich's aesthetic. What makes Bischoff's collection of Ernst's paintings interesting is the evolution of Ernst's style, which would lead him to the decalcomania. As early as 1919 in Family Excursion one sees Ernst's sombre air. I also like The Master's Bedroom, It is worth spending a night in of 1920, done in his Dada period, with the symbolism of the animals, as evidence of Ernst's interest in Freud; the grattage works Vision Induced by the Nocturnal Aspect of the Porte St Denis 1927 and The Horde 1927; and the alien-like Human Form 1931. Even his most celebrated (and personally I think overrated) work, the biblical The Entire City 1935/36 is a prelude to the later beauty, wit and eroticism. Ernst's post- decalcomanic work seems to present him as more restful, perhaps not the best state for an artist. The images are pretty but the soul is at peace. Of note is the 1942 Surrealism and Painting, where he used what Jackson Pollock would later call "dripping". ... Read more