Max Ernst and Alchemy : A Magician in Search of Myth (Surrealist
Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,History & Criticism
Max Ernst and Alchemy : A Magician in Search of Myth (Surrealist Details
Review "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) Read more Review "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) Read more About the Author M. E. Warlick is Professor of European Modern Art at the University of Denver. Read more
Reviews
This book interprets the art of German-born Max Ernst (1891-1976), one of the best and and most prolific of the Surrealist artists who amazed France and, later, the United States in the 1920s through 1940s, in terms of his interest in alchemy. The potential reader should be warned that it’s a book about art, not an art book: you’ll get a lot more out of it if you have a substantial book of Ernst’s work in color by your side, because the relatively few reproductions included here (along with some art from alchemical treatises) are small and in muddy black-and-white. The text is not excessively academic and gives a fairly detailed account of Ernst’s life, but it’s not primarily a biography.There’s no doubt that Ernst was interested in alchemy or that images also found in alchemical works appear in his art. He shared this fascination, and a wider one with occultism and ancient hermetic lore in general, with many of his fellow Surrealist artists and writers. However, in stressing similarities between motifs in Ernst’s art and those in alchemical lore, I think Warlick fails to keep in mind that many of these images, such as the zodiac and other symbols of astrology, the androgyne, and certainly the sexual and mystical union of male and female, have preoccupied numerous artists who have nothing to do with the alchemical tradition. Since Ernst did not usually explain his works, in most cases there is no way to know whether he was specifically thinking of their alchemical significance when he addressed these themes.I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the two subjects it addresses; it provides an interesting angle from which to view Ernst’s work. Other readers will likely find it too specialized.
