| | | |  | | | Max Ernst
The Wheel of Light / la roue de la lumière
in: Histoire Naturelle, 1926
Collotype of a frottage
32,5 x 50 cm
Sammlung Würth
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024 | | | | | FOTOGAGA. Max Ernst and Photography | | | | A Visit from the Würth Collection | | | | | | | 18 October 2024 – 27 April 2025 | | | | Opening: Thursday, 17 October, 7pm | | |  | | | | | | | | | |  | | | Emila Medková
Black / Černoch, 1949
Silver gelatin paper
17,7 x 23 cm
Sammlung Dietmar Siegert
© Eva Kosakova Medkova
Repro: Christian Schmieder | | | | | | | Max Ernst holds a prominent position within Dada and Surrealist Art. His name stands for genre-bending works that combine dream and reality. The exhibition "FOTOGAGA: Max Ernst and Photography. A Visit from the Würth Collection" is the first to search for points of intersection between his work and photography. Commemorating Surrealism’s centenary, the Museum für Fotografie (Museum of Photography) is showing a representative overview of Max Ernst’s artworks from the Würth Collection. These are complemented by works from the Kunstbibliothek, Kupferstichkabinett, Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and other exceptional loans from museums and private collections in France and Germany. | | | | | |  | | | Max Ernst
The Chinese Nightingale / Le rossignol chinois, 1920
Collage and ink on paper
15,5 x 9 cm
Musée de Grenoble
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024 | | | | | | The art of Max Ernst (1891–1976) was created at a time characterised by a new, creative approach to photography. Snapshots, scientific photographs and images of war machinery inspired him and served as working materials, especially for his collages. Technical and artistic developments in the medium of photography significantly influenced his work. He used photographic reproduction techniques to increase the visual impact of his works: enlargements allowed his small-format collages to hold their own alongside paintings in exhibitions; the production of photo postcards of the collages ensured that the works could be distributed quickly and easily; and the inversion of the tonal values in a photogram enhanced the effect of his frottages.
Max Ernst himself never used a camera for his art, but he liked to pose for the camera, whether for images taken by well-known photographers or made in photo booths. At times serious, at times a little "gaga", the portraits illustrate not just the artist’s love for playfulness but also an occasionally strategic use of photography to promote his artistic agenda. The title of the exhibition ‒ "FOTOGAGA" ‒ is derived from a group of works by Hans Arp and Max Ernst, which they called "FATAGAGA": the "FAbrication de TAbleaux GAsométriques Garantis (Fabrication of Guaranteed Gasometric Images)". One of these photocollages, in which the two artists address their relationship as friends, can be seen in the exhibition. | | | | | |  | | | Jean Painlevé
Lobster Claw / Pince d´homard, Port-Blanc, Bretagne, 1929
Silver gelatin paper
23 x 16,7 cm
Sammlung Dietmar Siegert
© Archives Jean Painlevé/Les Documents cinématographiques, Paris
Repro: Christian Schmieder | | | | | | Some 270 works will be exhibited, primarily works on paper but also paintings by Max Ernst and photographs, photograms, collages, and illustrated books by his Surrealist contemporaries. Although these artists were explicitly not dealing with mundane reality but instead with what lies beneath, behind and in-between, the still relatively new medium of photography was of great importance for many. Last but not least, they also used it to make visible what remains hidden to the naked eye without technical means: the distant, the tiny, the moving.
Max Ernst’s works are framed within the context of both contemporary and historical references. There are numerous and surprising parallels to photographs by other artists. An avid delight in experimentation and a creative game played with chance characterise the works selected for the exhibition. Their originators reflected on forgotten photographic processes from the 19th century and developed new techniques using light-sensitive materials. Semi-automatic methods, working with found objects, unusual combinations, and the blurring of traces have equally shaped the work of Max Ernst and the photographic oeuvres of many of his contemporaries and other artists that followed. Even a century after André Breton published the first Surrealist Manifesto on 15 October 1924, they have not lost any of their fascination. | | | | | |  | | | Jean Aurenche, Marie-Berthe Aurenche, Max Ernst
Photomaton, ca.1929
Silver gelatin paper
20,9 x 3,7 cm, Detail
Sammlung Würth
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024 | | | | | | The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin look back on a longstanding cooperation with the Würth Collection. FOTOGAGA: Max Ernst and Photography is the fourth exhibition in a series that began in 2019‒20 with Anthony Caro: The Last Judgement Sculpture from the Würth Collection at the Gemäldegalerie. It was followed in 2021‒22 by Illustrious Guests: Treasures from the Kunstkammer Würth in the Kunstgewerbemuseum and David Hockney – Landscapes in Dialogue. "The Four Seasons" from the Würth Collection in 2022, also shown at the Gemäldegalerie. The exhibition at the Museum für Fotografie draws on the Würth Collection’s extensive holdings, especially of Max Ernst’s graphic works, which are now being shown in Berlin for the first time.
An extensive programme of tours and workshops invites visitors to discover the exhibition through discussion and exchange, as well as to try out Surrealist techniques themselves. A series of lectures beginning in February 2025 examines individual issues raised in the exhibition from different perspectives.
A richly illustrated catalogue in German and English is being published (Wienand Verlag) with essays by Katja Böhlau, Ludger Derenthal, Michael Lailach and Jürgen Pech.
The exhibition is curated by Katja Böhlau and Ludger Derenthal, Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. | | | | | | unsubscribe here
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