.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
THERE IS A MYSTERIOUS GEOMETRY PRESENT IN DIMANCHE APRèS-MIDI SUR LES CHAMPS ELYSéES. IN THIS PICTURE, PAINTED IN 1958 BY THE VETERAN SURREALIST MAX ERNST, AN ALMOST CUBISTIC AGGLOMERATION OF ARCS AND ANGLES COALESCES, AND FROM THIS PRISMATIC HAZE EMERGE TWO TOTEMIC FIGURES. EACH OF THEM IS REMINISCENT OF THE SCULPTURES THAT ERNST HAD BEEN MAKING DURING HIS TIME IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A PERIOD WHICH HAD BEGUN SHORTLY AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. WITH THEIR DELIBERATELY SLAB-LIKE FACES, ARTICULATED BY ROUND EYES AND IN THE CASE OF THE LEFT-HAND FIGURE A CAVERNOUS MOUTH, ERNST HAS EVOKED HIS OWN SCULPTURES AS WELL AS THOSE OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS, WHOSE ART HE COLLECTED AND WHOSE CEREMONIAL DANCES AND OTHER RITUALS HE SO ENJOYED WITNESSING DURING HIS TIME LIVING IN SEDONA WITH HIS WIFE AND FELLOW ARTIST DOROTHEA TANNING. BY THE TIME DIMANCHE APRèS-MIDI SUR LES CHAMPS ELYSéES WAS PAINTED, ERNST WAS ONCE AGAIN LARGELY RESIDENT IN HIS ADOPTIVE HOME, FRANCE, AND INDEED WAS THAT YEAR GRANTED CITIZENSHIP THERE, MARKING HIS RETURN TO EUROPE. PERHAPS DIMANCHE APRèS-MIDI SUR LES CHAMPS ELYSéES VISUALLY REFERS TO THIS TRANSITION THROUGH ITS COMBINATION OF A PSEUDO-CUBISTIC PLANAR COMPOSITION WITH THE TRIBAL ART OF THE HOPI AND ZUNI PEOPLES HE SO ADMIRED.
DIMANCHE APRèS-MIDI SUR LES CHAMPS ELYSéES APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN CREATED USING THE AUTOMATIC DRAWING WITH WHICH ERNST SOMETIMES LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR HIS PAINTINGS, SUBSEQUENTLY BUILDING UP THE IMAGE IN OILS, DRIVING IT TOWARDS FIGURATION. AT THE SAME TIME, ONE WONDERS IF IN FACT HE USED THE CLEARLY GEOMETRIC FORMS THAT HAVE BEEN CREATED, THE OVALS AND TRIANGLES, AS VISUAL PROMPTS FOR HIS EXPLORATION OF HIS OWN SUBCONSCIOUS. THERE IS A VIVID CONTRAST BETWEEN THE ANGULARITY OF THE VARIOUS LINES, ALLEVIATED BY THE OCCASIONAL CURVED SEGMENTS AND REMINISCENT OF BLUEPRINTS, AND THE INCREDIBLE PAINTERLY CHARACTER OF THE BACKGROUND, WHICH SHOWS STREAKS OF DRAGGED PAINT AND VARIOUS TEXTURES, LIGHTENED BY FLASHES OF RICH BLUE AND RED. ERNST HAS GRANTED DIMANCHE APRèS-MIDI SUR LES CHAMPS ELYSéES AN INCREDIBLE LUMINOSITY THROUGH HIS USE OF THE YELLOW WHICH, LIKE AN AURA, APPEARS TO FILTER THROUGH THE CRYSTALLINE PRISMS OF THE TWO BODIES, AND WHICH IS LIKEWISE PRESENT IN THE NEBULOUS BACKGROUND.
IN DIMANCHE APRèS-MIDI SUR LES CHAMPS ELYSéES, THE COUPLE APPEAR ALMOST ROYAL, NOT LEAST THE LEFT-HAND ONE, AS DRAPED OVER ITS SHOULDER IT APPEARS TO HAVE A SCARLET CLOAK. MEANWHILE, THE OTHER FIGURE HAS AN INCREDIBLE BULK, REMINISCENT OF ERNST'S EARLIER PAINTING, THE CELEBRATED ELEPHANT CELEBES FROM 1921, NOW IN TATE, LONDON. HERE, THOUGH, THE BARREL-LIKE BODY IS SHOWN STANDING ON TWO FEET, WITH TWO PREHENSILE FIN-LIKE LIMBS, THE TRIANGULAR HEAD TILTING AS THOUGH IN INQUIRY, DIRECTLY ENGAGING THE VIEWER. PERHAPS THE TITLE IS A HINT AT THE APPARENT NORMALITY OF THESE CREATURES: IT IMPLIES THAT THEY ARE FLâNEURS ON PARIS' GREAT THOROUGHFARE.
DIMANCHE APRèS-MIDI SUR LES CHAMPS ELYSéES APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN CREATED USING THE AUTOMATIC DRAWING WITH WHICH ERNST SOMETIMES LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR HIS PAINTINGS, SUBSEQUENTLY BUILDING UP THE IMAGE IN OILS, DRIVING IT TOWARDS FIGURATION. AT THE SAME TIME, ONE WONDERS IF IN FACT HE USED THE CLEARLY GEOMETRIC FORMS THAT HAVE BEEN CREATED, THE OVALS AND TRIANGLES, AS VISUAL PROMPTS FOR HIS EXPLORATION OF HIS OWN SUBCONSCIOUS. THERE IS A VIVID CONTRAST BETWEEN THE ANGULARITY OF THE VARIOUS LINES, ALLEVIATED BY THE OCCASIONAL CURVED SEGMENTS AND REMINISCENT OF BLUEPRINTS, AND THE INCREDIBLE PAINTERLY CHARACTER OF THE BACKGROUND, WHICH SHOWS STREAKS OF DRAGGED PAINT AND VARIOUS TEXTURES, LIGHTENED BY FLASHES OF RICH BLUE AND RED. ERNST HAS GRANTED DIMANCHE APRèS-MIDI SUR LES CHAMPS ELYSéES AN INCREDIBLE LUMINOSITY THROUGH HIS USE OF THE YELLOW WHICH, LIKE AN AURA, APPEARS TO FILTER THROUGH THE CRYSTALLINE PRISMS OF THE TWO BODIES, AND WHICH IS LIKEWISE PRESENT IN THE NEBULOUS BACKGROUND.
IN DIMANCHE APRèS-MIDI SUR LES CHAMPS ELYSéES, THE COUPLE APPEAR ALMOST ROYAL, NOT LEAST THE LEFT-HAND ONE, AS DRAPED OVER ITS SHOULDER IT APPEARS TO HAVE A SCARLET CLOAK. MEANWHILE, THE OTHER FIGURE HAS AN INCREDIBLE BULK, REMINISCENT OF ERNST'S EARLIER PAINTING, THE CELEBRATED ELEPHANT CELEBES FROM 1921, NOW IN TATE, LONDON. HERE, THOUGH, THE BARREL-LIKE BODY IS SHOWN STANDING ON TWO FEET, WITH TWO PREHENSILE FIN-LIKE LIMBS, THE TRIANGULAR HEAD TILTING AS THOUGH IN INQUIRY, DIRECTLY ENGAGING THE VIEWER. PERHAPS THE TITLE IS A HINT AT THE APPARENT NORMALITY OF THESE CREATURES: IT IMPLIES THAT THEY ARE FLâNEURS ON PARIS' GREAT THOROUGHFARE.