Stone forests, chimera animals, embodied masks and anthropomorphic birds... The Hôtel de Caumont revisits the permanent metamorphoses of Max Ernst in a succession of contradictory and delirious images. From dada Germany to the surrealist Paris of André Breton, from the eccentric America of his third wife Peggy Guggenheim to the bohemian Arizona shared with Dorothea Tanning, this great intellectual and genius experimenter – alas less known than his comrades Magritte and Dalí – freely crosses the century of the avant-gardes thanks to his plastic explorations. Ernst multiplied the techniques and anticipated his time by using in particular painting by oscillation (a process that Jackson Pollock will remember!). Steeped in literature and philosophy, the exhibition immerses us here in the extravagance of its magical and liberated worlds, described as a “disturbing strangeness” by Sigmund Freud. From metaphysical compositions inspired by Giorgio De Chirico to the most haunting erotico-fantastic illusions, the exhibition probes the myths, stories and legends of the symbolic compositions of the German painter and sculptor before definitively rehabilitating the name of Max Ernst in the History of 'art.

HÔTEL DE CAUMONT - ART CENTER
Until October 8, 2023 - 3 rue Joseph
Cabassol, 13100 Aix-en-Provence