Oiseau. Bird. 1950 by Max Ernst, 1891-1976

Max Ernst, 1891-1976
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Oiseau. Bird. 1950

Original aquatint with etching and mixed techniques in black ink. 1949/50. Signed in pencil. Numbered in pencil from the edition of 30 (30/30). Etched and printed at the studio of Visat 1950. Issued by Marcel Zerbib, Paris 1950. Very rare.
Ref: Spiess-Leppien - Ernst Graphisches Werk no 39.

Superb impression with rich contrasty inking. On pale cream wove BFK Rives paper. Excellent condition; the faintest suggestion of old tape marks in the extreme outer corners
of the margins from old mounting. Full margins. Sheet: 12 7/8 x 9 7/8ins. Plate: 9 1/4 x 6 7/8ins (234x177mm)

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This is one of the greatest masterworks from the key period in Ernst?s printmaking at the very beginning of the 1950?s. Impressions are extremely rarely seen on the market.

Ernst had made his first etchings at the height of the Surrealist movement before the war, much encouraged by Stanley Hayter who had joined André Breton?s circle in the 1930?s both as a painter but above all as an inspired printmaker. During the War years when had Hayter moved to New York, along with so many of the Surrealist artists, Ernst continued to become more and more involved with etching inspired by Hayter?s brilliant teaching there at his relocated Atelier 17. When he returned to Paris in 1948 after the end of the War he started to work at George Visat?s studio. Visat had an extraordinary understanding for ways in which the medium of etching could be developed; Ernst was inspired by his technical creativity to create totally new types of representation in which textures and forms created through revolutionary forms of biting, as well as transfers from other media such as ?rubbings?, were combined to create images which are the essence of his concept of communication with the subconscious.

One of the central ideas of surrealism was the concept of visual form evoking the emotions and sensations of the subconscious. Random strokes, a graphic line which stemmed from hallucinatory ?automatic writing?, the use of quasi figurative forms which stem from the world of dreams, were central to the Surrealist idea that the role of art was to express the inner intuitive consciousness, the inner emotion. In etching at the end of the 1940?s and in the early 50?s Ernst found new ways of communicating this idea. The shapes, textures and extraordinarily inventive strokes of works like show this concept at its most creative and inspired.