Max Ernst, Composition (Monod 2619; Spies/Leppien A19/C), Dent Prompte, 1969

Description

Lithograph on vélin d’Arches paper. Inscription: unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the folio, Dent Prompte, Dix … more Lithograph on vélin d’Arches paper. Inscription: unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the folio, Dent Prompte, Dix poèmes inédits illustrés par Max Ernst, de dix lithographies originales, 1969. Published Galerie Lucie Weill, Paris, Au Pont des Arts, Paris, Leon Amiel, New York; printed by Mourlot Frères, Paris, September 15, 1969. Excerpted from the folio (translated from French), It was shot on vélin d'Arches CCXL examples, numbered in Arabic, and L examples, numbered in roman numerals, reserved for the author, the artist and collaborators. All examples are signed by the author and artist. Max Ernst has signed LXXX suites of lithographs drawn at large margins on Japon, each board being numbered and justified. A suite is attached to the examples I a LXX, X suites are reserved for employees. The lithographs were printed from Fernand Mourlot's presses. The typography, in Baskerville Corps 30, was composed by hand by Fequet and Baudier. This folio, completed and printed on September 15, 1969, was designed and produced by Pierre-André Weill.

MAX ERNST (1891-1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, and this experience left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world. During World War II he was designated an "undesirable foreigner" while living in France. Ernst was in the milieu of Picasso, Dali, and Miro. less