The exhibition

The first retrospective in Italy devoted to Max Ernst (1891–1976), a German painter, sculptor, poet and art theoretician who became a naturalized American and Frenchman, opens in Milan on 4 October.

The exhibition, promoted and produced by Comune di Milano–Cultura and Palazzo Reale with Electa, in collaboration with Madeinart, is curated by Martina Mazzotta and Jürgen Pech.

The over 400 works on display, comprising paintings, sculptures, drawings, collages, photographs, jewellery and illustrated books are from museums, foundations and private collections in Italy and abroad. These include: the GAM in Turin, Peggy Guggenheim Collection and Museo di Ca’ Pesaro in Venice, Tate Gallery in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Musée Cantini in Marseille, State Museums and Arp Foundation in Berlin, and Museo Nazionale Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.

The lengthy research and investigation undertaken by the curators has enabled us to feature among the loans, which include around eighty paintings, works and documents that have not been on public display for several decades.

On the main floor of Palazzo Reale, visitors can immerse themselves in a riveting show that traces the artist’s adventurous creative trajectory, marked by landmark historical events of the 20th century and studded with great love affairs as well as illustrious friendships. The exhibition illustrates four important periods in Ernst’s life, which are explored in nine thematic rooms that also reveal his interdisciplinary approaches to art.

The illustrated volumes, textbooks, photographs, objects and documents comprising the artist’s wide-ranging ideal library, can be consulted by visitors throughout the exhibition, enabling them  to play with references and correspondences between the sources of inspiration and the works.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Electa, a guide and a new edition, also by Electa, of two formerly unavailable volumes on the Surrealist movement by Paola Dècina Lombardi: Surrealismo 1919-1969. Ribellione e immaginazione and La donna, la libertà, l’amore. Un’antologia sul surrealismo.