The fragile areas (cuts made by the foundry, reworking, etc.) Figure 1: A detail of the neck taken with X-rays shows the structural underpinnings of the sculpture.
It has also encouraged academics to widen the breadth of the explanations about items in his compositions, more so than perhaps has been helpful. The king protects the queen with his right hand and at the same time prevents her from advancing, while he hides another chess piece in his left hand. represent risks for handling and transport. Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. Capricorn is the culmination of Max Ernst's sculptural work of the 1930s and 1940s, and the great monumental sculpture from his years in Sedona, Arizona. As early as 1934, Ernst executed a series of figural sculptures that he presented as Surrealist works “with a symbolic function.” Surrealist painters, sculptors and object artists endeavored to create pictures and objects based on a store of myths and visions. Er war Mitbegründer von Dada und Surrealismus und arbeitete in zahlreichen Kunstgattungen und Techniken, die von Film, Malerei und Collage bis zur Frottage reichten. French and American, born Germany. During the complicated casting process, the foundry first needed to take the sculpture apart and then reassemble it in its original form — a typical procedure in casting. Ernst’s hope was that his sculpture and his painting would share the element of chance in the development and definition of hybrid, fantastic characters that he had achieved through techniques like A publication on art, politics and the public sphereCollaboration with different agents and international political and cultural collectivesA network of artistic internationalism made up of six European museums That same inventiveness of materials can be seen in the sculptures, such as a pair of spoons forming the mouth of a tortoise, or the scallop shell bun of “Sculpture is more pure play than painting,” Ernst once said to filmmaker Peter Schamoni. The examinations conducted by the team of conservators provided important information about the sculpture’s construction and the interventions it was subject to over the years. One reason for this was the fragile plaster material, which already showed cracks and breakage. The foundry also used plaster to reconstruct the original areas that had been lost during dismantling.Figure 2: An enlarged cross-section of the paint layer shows that the original version featured two coats of blue paint. Ernst took the most important chess piece from the board and turned it into a chess player. The sculpture The King Playing with the Queen (1944) is one of Max Ernst's most important sculptural creations and is a highlight of the Fondation Beyeler's sculpture collection. Jahrhunderts. He became a naturalized citizen of both the United States (1948) and France (1958). Figure 3: In the background of this fashion photo from 1945 we see the sculpture in its original condition: a homogenous version without the present reconstructions at the neck, shoulders, elbows and hands. Enlargements of details on the X-ray photographs show that the original armature was cut in some places. An original cement and scrap-iron version from 1947 served as a guardian outside a tiny concrete house that Ernst and his wife, artist Dorothea Tanning, built in Sedona in 1946. He found sculpture to be fun and a truly experimental medium in which his creativity could be 100% unleashed. “With sculpture both hands play a role, just as it does when making love.”“Max Ernst Paramyths: Sculpture, 1934–1967” at Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York (installation view).Ernst’s love life is a tale unto itself: he married art dealer and collector His life-size limestone statue inspired by Tanning, titled Though “an extremely lucky coincidence,” according to Kasmin, the Ernst show coincides with the For his part, Kasmin isn’t surprised that Ernst and Picasso are both finally getting their due as sculptors: “The two of them are great in every medium they work in.”“Max Ernst Paramyths: Sculpture, 1934–1967” at Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York (installation view).©2020 Artnet Worldwide Corporation. It revealed threaded rods, nails and screws inside the sculpture that were not used by the artist (figure 1). The sculpture The King Playing with the Queen (1944) is one of Max Ernst's most important sculptural creations and is a highlight of the Fondation Beyeler's sculpture collection. Examination and comparison with recently found archival material pointed to major interventions on the sculpture by the foundry. He liked to make use of sturdy materials such as bronze, iron and stone. Reinforcements made from a variety of materials are clearly visible in the body of the plaster. Max Ernst was born in Brühl, near Cologne, the third of nine children of a middle-class Catholic family.
A fashion photograph taken in 1945 shows the plaster sculpture coated in a uniform color shortly after it had been put together, confirming these observations (figure 3).
He made molds and casts for the separate parts, reinforced them, and then assembled them. Examination and comparison with recently found archival material pointed to major interventions on the sculpture by the foundry. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2020 were plaster repairs effected by the foundry after the casting.