She guards her secret
(Elle garde son secret)
(c. 1925)
plate 10 from Histoire naturelle (Natural history), published 1926
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased NGV Foundation, 2023
© Max Ernst/ADAGP, Paris. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
- Gallery location
- Not on display
About this work
In the 1920s Surrealist artists and poets were exploring automatic processes to overturn reason and tap the unconscious realm. In the Natural History portfolio, thirty-four prints made by Max Ernst using the automatic technique of frottage are presented together with Hans Arp’s stream-of-consciousness text. By rubbing pencil or crayon on paper placed over varying textured surfaces such as leaves, woodgrain or string, Ernst introduced chance effects and imagery that emerged, he claimed, ‘without conscious mental guidance’. His sequence of images presents a surreal poetic vision describing the birth and evolution of life and reflects the artist’s interest in illustrated books on natural history.
Artwork Details
Purchased NGV Foundation, 2023
© Max Ernst/ADAGP, Paris. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia