Max Ernst was born in April 1891 just outside Cologne. His family life was dominated by the rule of his father - quick tempered and built like an outdoor toilet. Max was a strange child who suffered many emotional crises and who in his teen years identified himself with his pet Cockatoo, Loplop. He first got drunk aged 2 - after drinking the dregs from his fathers wine, he was found some time later, pointing at the trees in his garden saying "Look, they're going round".
Ernst began painting aged 5 - pictures of his family mainly. In that year (1895), Max ran away to escape his father, he was dressed in red and held a whip in his hand, he ran into a procession of pilgrims who declared him 'the Christ-Child'. When he returned home his father painted a version of the scene (replacing the whip with a cross). Instead of being grateful for this gesture, Max was insulted - although the picture was of him he felt it was 'about' his father, i.e his father is painting a picture of Christ therefore his father (and all artists for that matter) must see himself as 'God the father'.
In 1897 Max's sister died and he suffered from measels - causing severe hallucinations.
In 1898 his father painted a picture of their garden - but he left out a large branch from one of the trees because it would upset the balance of the picture. After finishing the work he went into the garden and cut off the offending branch so that there would be no difference between the picture and the reality. Although only 7 years old Max resolved to find a better description of the relationship between the subjective and the objective worlds (he was an irritatingly clever child).
In 1908 Ernst began a long standing relationship with the occult.
Ernst was involved in the War for nearly all of it's 4 years and emerged from it "a young man who wanted to be a magician and find the central myth of his age".
Ernst loined the Dada movement as a progression of Communism, for him Dada was Communism but with individuals who had the right to express themselves externally. He became friends with Arp and Johannes Baargeld, often creating pictures with them (taking it in turns to make brushstrokes) and leaving all names anonymous.
Ernst's work was heavily collage based to begin with, it was him who developed the frottage technique - which sounds rude but isn't, honest you've all done it. Frottage involves placing a piece of paper on a rough surface and rubbing over it with charcoal.
Ernst's main contributions to the Dada movement were twofold: First he was mainly responsible for the most notorious Dada exhibition - the 'Dada Spring Awakening' of 1920 (possibly named after the Wedekind play involving sex scenes and group masturbation). Entry to this exhibition was only possible via a public toilet, once inside you could see sexually explicit photo-montages, a fishtank full of blood with a head floating on top and an arm sticking out, a large sculpture by Ernst with an axe beside it and an invitation to smash up anything in the gallery and the exhibition's centre piece - a young girl in a communion dress recieting obscene verses.
His main contribution was not so specific however. Ernst (and to some extent Arp) was a bridge between Berlin and Paris, both geographically (Ernst was based in Cologne) and artistically - he had a sense of theatricality to his work (seen in the 'Spring Awakening') which identified him with Paris Dada but he was also enough of a political artist to earn him the respect of the Berlin Dadas.
Ernst pointed the way for Dada to develop - Surrealism was in embryo in Paris, but it was practically alive and pooing it's nappy in Cologne (although this wasn't recognised until 1922 when Ernst moved to Paris). Ernst's work was in tune with nature and the subconscious, he was already experementing with automatic writing and drawing and much of his art drew on the effect of his childhood trauma's on his subconscious.
Before 1924 Ernst's work was called Dada, after 1924 it was called Surrealism, but his work never actually changed. It always came from his 'natural' emotions and was always backed up by his political brain. After the Dada implosion of 1924 Ernst followed what was for him, a logical progression and joined the Surrealist group with Andre Breton, where he became one of the movements most prolific artists, as he was for Dada.
