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Fischer (Ernst O.E.) Collection of Max Ernst Prints
P900001
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Title: Ernst O. E. Fischer collection of Max Ernst prints
Date (inclusive): 1912-1974
Number: P900001
Creator/Collector:
Fischer, Ernst O. E.
Physical Description:
164 Sheets
(4 boxes, 30 flat file folders)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: A collection of prints by leading Dada
and Surrealist artist, Max Ernst, assembled by Ernst O.E. Fischer and comprising 164 sheets.
Approximately 66 additional pieces in bound books are now part of the Library's core
collection. It constitutes a comprehensive selection of the artist's graphic oeuvre and
includes a number of unique examples.
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Language: Collection material is in
English
Max Ernst, a leading Dada and Surrealist artist, was born in Brühl, Germany on April 2,
1891. He co-founded the Cologne branch of the Dada movement in 1919 with Johannes Baargeld
("Johnny Money" née Alfred Grünewald) and mounted the first Dada exhibition in Cologne that
same year. His interest in technical and technological experimentation in all mediums is
perhaps most evident in his graphic work. Ernst had little formal instruction in the arts,
other than from his father, a self-taught amateur artist. Ernst chose instead to study
philosophy and art history at the University of Bonn, beginning in 1910 until his enlistment
in the army in August, 1914. In his graphic work, following a small series of linoleum cuts
from 1912 and a recently discovered (1985) woodcut from 1917, he entirely abandoned
traditional relief printing, the preferred medium of the Expressionists, in favor of
intaglio and planographic methods. These methods enabled him to employ collage elements
through the use of transfer and photographic technologies in combination with the more
traditional techniques.
Ernst's collages differed in several respects from those of the Cubists, whose aims were
tied to a formalist aesthetic, as well as from the more politically charged work of Berlin
Dada artists such as John Heartfield and Richard Huelsenbeck. Ernst sought to conceal the
collage origins of his images by reproducing them photomechanically. He used black-and-white
wood engravings reproduced in magazine and catalog illustrations, carefully trimming each
image to produce a tightly integrated overall effect. This method emphasized the primary
importance of the contradictory qualities of the juxtaposed images over formal
considerations, in keeping with the basic tenets of Surrealism spelled out by its foremost
apologist, Andre Breton.
In 1941 Ernst arrived in the United States. In 1946 he married Dorothea Tanning in a double
marriage ceremony with Juliet and Man Ray in Beverly Hills. He became a citizen of the U.S.
in 1948. He returned permanently to live in Europe in 1953 and became a citizen of France in
1958. The overwhelming majority of Ernst's prints date to the last twenty-five years of his
life, when he associated with a small number of master printers, primarily in Paris. He died
there on April 1, 1976.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
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Library Rights and Reproductions .
Ernst O. E. Fischer collection of Max Ernst prints, 1912-1974, Getty Research Institute,
Research Library, Accession no. P900001.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifap900001
Acquired in 1990.
The processing and cataloguing of this collection was completed by Brian Parshall, June
1997. Books from the collection, many containing original prints by Ernst, were transferred
to the Getty Research Institute Library. The dealer's inventory contains a complete list of
the books and prints in the collection. One print listed on the dealer's inventory (item
#229, "Geheimnis der Leibe" 1971) was not found when the collection was processed.
Scope and Content of Collection
Max Ernst has been recognized as one of the most significant of the artists associated with
the Dada and Surrealist movements of the first half of the 20th century. In his graphic
work, Ernst continued the innovative approach that characterized his drawing and painting;
his invention of
frottage (literally "rubbing," from frotter,
"to rub") in 1925 appeared in his printmaking as well. While Expressionist artists were
reviving the woodcut for its aesthetic properties, the overwhelming majority of Ernst's
prints were achieved by intaglio and planographic processes, often incorporating
photographic methods.
Separate sheets, frontispieces to books, and illustrations for books written by Ernst and
others bring Ernst's total print production to over 500 works. The present collection,
assembled by Ernst O. E. Fischer, is comprised of 164 separate sheets. The collection is
therefore far from complete, but constitutes a comprehensive selection of the artist's
graphic oeuvre and includes a number of unique examples. Approximately 66 additional
examples exist in bound books acquired with the collection and transferred to the
Library.
Arranged chronologically in consecutively numbered folders.
Ernst, Max, 1891-1976
Dadaism
Assemblage (Art)
Prints -- 20th century
Ernst, Max,
1891-1976
Fischer, Ernst O. E.
See the Note on Cataloging (above) for references cited in the entries.
Ernst's interest in technical experimentation presents a number of problems in cataloguing
his graphic work, since he continually blurs the lines of separation between the graphic
arts, drawing, and painting. These problems are perhaps best spelled out by Werner Spies in
his essay, "On the Graphic Work," in Spies and Helmut R. Leppien,
Max
Ernst Oeuvre Katalog: Das Graphische Werk
(Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg and
the Menil Foundation, Houston, Texas, 1975) IX-X. The separation of individual prints from
book plates has been problematic as well; that established by Spies/Leppien ("S/L") and
Spies/Metken ("S/M") [Spies and Sigrid and Günther Metken,
Max Ernst
Oeuvre Katalog II: Werke 1906-1925
(1975);
III: Werke
1925-1929
(1976);
IV: Werke 1929-1938 (1979);
V: Werke 1938-1953 (1979), (Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg and
the Menil Foundation, Houston, Texas, 1975-79)] has been maintained here.