Landscape with Sun

This painting by Max Ernst is quite captivating to the eyes and at the same time very engaging because of the dream-like fiery landscape that he created in 1952 while vining in th small town of Sedona, Arizona.

This was during the time Max was crowned as the pioneer of Surrealism and Dada movement styles of painting. The painting features a significant shift from of the subject matter from what Max typically dwelled on, which was primarily inspired by his relocation. The subject matter in the painting was the foreboding landscapes that he was able to creatively bring out with the brighter palettes.

The abstract quality of this painting is majorly attributed to his exercise in the different mediums of painting, printmaking and collage in his earlier years in the career. The art piece is a clear depiction of the use of his groundbreaking style of painting, frottage. This technique is where Max rubbed paper over different textured materials that enabled him achieve the natural scene of the landscapes with some element of unforeseen visual effects. Furthermore, he was able to balance the painting’s accidental abstraction and detailed naturalism in the painting through grattage.

As a result, the painting was uniquely depicted its natural surroundings on the perceptible surface by grattage and the effect was a very unique abstract interpretation of the landscape and the sun in the most naturalistic way that was basically defined by the interwoven and interpretative colours as they collide on the painting’s surface. His ability to treat the sun, clouds, the sea and the entire landscape with such palpable complexity is to be awed. This among other techniques were instrumental in enabling contribute significantly to the Surrealist movement and it is typically a reminiscent of his 1920s painting of Forest and Sun.

As a pioneering figure in art movements like Dada and Surrealism, Max Ernst was able to inspire and influence a great deal of artists throughout his lifetime even posthumously. Today, he remains a strong pillar of reference especially for custodians of art industry’s history and scholars. Some of the great names he was able to influence included Sigmar Polke, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning among other great painters. His works were mostly influenced by artists like Marcel Duchamp, Vincent van Gogh and Caspar David Friedrich.