Release Date: February 21, 2008

The Fantastical World of Max Ernst on Display March 2–September 6, 2008, at the National Gallery of Art

Washington, DC—The mysterious, species-bending creatures invented by German surrealist Max Ernst (1891–1976) during the 1920s and 1930s will be highlighted in the focus exhibition Max Ernst: Illustrated Books, on view at the National Gallery of Art from March 2 through September 6, 2008, in the West Building, Ground Floor, Gallery G21. Drawn from the Gallery’s rare book collection, the 19 works include pages from Ernst’s collage novels La Femme 100 têtes (1929), Rêve d’une petite fille qui voulut entrer au Carmel (1930), and Une Semaine de bonté (1934).

Ernst’s works on display were made from separate images which he combined to form imaginative and ambiguous narratives. The prints run the gamut from supernatural and whimsical to sinister and dramatic. Many of Ernst’s collages reference childhood experiences and Freudian psychoanalysis and challenge the established rules of Western academic art.

The exhibition will also feature works in Histoire naturelle (1926) that were created by rubbing a pencil over different textures and surfaces in order to produce surprising plant and animal-like forms. Ernst was fond of this technique, called frottage. Some of Ernst’s collaborations with other writers and artists such as Jean Arp, Leonora Carrington, and Paul Éluard are also on view.

Exhibition Curators

The curators are Neal Turtell, executive librarian, National Gallery of Art, and Jennie King, doctoral candidate in the department of art and archaeology, Princeton University.

Library and Rare Books Collections

The National Gallery of Art library contains more than 350,000 books and periodicals, including more than 8,000 volumes in the rare book collection, with an emphasis on Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. Founded in 1941 when the West Building opened to the public, the library moved to the East Building in 1979. The photographic archives and slide library contain more than 11 million black-and-white prints and 300,000 slides of painting, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative arts. Access to the library is by appointment only. Call (202) 842-6511 for more information.