Lot 43: Max Ernst

Max Ernst
Fiat modes pereat ars (Spies & Leppien 7)
the portfolio comprising seven lithographs, 1919, lacking one plate from the set of eight and the title page, one of only two known trial proof sets of this extremely rare portfolio, with the original red cardboard portfolio with the blue label of the ABC-Verlag, signed Max Ernst * in black ink on the label, the lithographs on brownish-yellow wove paper, each monogrammed m E in pencil on the reverse, the full sheets, plate I with a partially broken diagonal crease across the lower left corner, plate II with an old, skilfully repaired tear at the upper sheet edge, some other shorter tears and tiny paper losses to some of the plates, generally in very condition; the cardboard portfolio faded and worn, the label rubbed, with an old, inscribed paper wrapper (portfolio)
L., S. 438 x 320 mm. (each)

Jürgen Pech, 'Sein Wendekreis ist Blütenstaub', in: Werner Spies, Anja Müller-Alsbach, Im Garten der Nymphe Ancolie, exh. cat. Tinguely Museum, Basel, September 2007 - Januar 2008, p. 51 ff., ill. 2) (citing the present copy)

From the estate of the artist, thence by descent.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
One of the most original and important printed works of the early Dada-movement Fiat modes pereat ars('Let there be fashion, down with art') was conceived as an homage to Giorgio de Chirico, whose influence is evident in the exaggerated and tilted stage perspectives and the lifeless, mannequin-like figures. Signed Dadamax Ernst the prints display a pseudo-technical, blue-print style peppered with nonsensical plays on words ("DadaNoBis valuTamTam") and mock-serious declarations such as "finger weg von der hl. cunst" ('hands off the holy art').
Max Ernst had just begun his artistic career when, in August 1914, he was conscripted in the army as an artillery engineer and sent to serve in France and Poland. He was later to describe his time thus: "Max Ernst died on 1st August 1914. He returned to life on 11th November 1918, a young man who wanted to become a magician and find the central myth of his time."

His experience of conflict merely strengthened his determination to pursue his vocation. Shortly after returning to his native Cologne the art magazine Der Strom published an advertisement for a portfolio of eight hand-coloured lithographs by Ernst to be issued in an edition of 60 copies at the price of 30 marks. The publication was to be financed by the city government, which in February 1919 had created a fund for the support of unemployed artists, and to be overseen by a newly created artists' association (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bildender Künstler - Verlag A.B.K.).

The irony of a dadaist work of art, with all its anti-bourgeois mockery and sexual overtones, being commissioned by a government body, was not lost on the artist. The subversive and iconoclastic nature of the prints might also have lead to disagreements with the publisher who, it appears, withdrew from the project. Ernst tried to publish the lithographs himself under the name of the fictitious schlömilch -verlag, but this too came to nothing. The edition, although apparently printed, was never issued and most copies were subsequently destroyed by Ernst. Whilst copies of the portfolio are rare, the present example - the artist's own copy - is exceedingly so, being one of only two known trial proof sets, with the cover displaying the name of the original publisher.