Over the course of his long life, Max Ernst had a profound impact on the artistic communities in three different countries, a testament to his innovative practice and relentless curiosity. His immersion in Dada and Surrealism defined his work in Germany, France, and later America. Ernst’s motifs drew on his early interest in Gothic fantasy and German Romanticism, tending toward recognizable elements rather than the abstract. He produced landscapes that seemed familiar, and blended human forms with the avian, aquatic, and inanimate. These elements carried over from his collages and paintings into his sculptural work, begun in the mid-1930s. Chess Set can be seen as a precursor to this three-dimensional work.
This is the only complete surviving set from his 1929 design and was likely the artist’s own. The pieces, which Ernst modeled and formed himself, differ from his mature sculptures, which were chiefly cast from found objects or made from molds and then assembled. This intimate engagement with material reflects Ernst’s personal attachment to the game: like many of his friends, he was deeply attracted to its intellectual and strategic challenges, and the camaraderie it provided. The forms of the pawns, rooks, and knights, although they resemble their traditional counterparts, are simplified and slightly off-kilter, while the bishop, king, and queen echo the imaginative hybrid creatures of his paintings and collages. The bishop’s corkscrew-shaped body, large eyes, and pointed nose suggest an amphibian. The king has a narrow birdlike head that may be a reference to the artist’s alter ego Loplop, a part-fish, part-bird, part-man that Ernst invented in 1929. The queen, with her voluptuous figure and equally birdlike head, may recall Ernst’s wife at the time, Marie-Berthe Aurenche.
2024
