ernst and not alan

max ernst 'une semaine de bonte': water (1933)

it's been a some time but for easter i visited my friend sara pape garcia in madrid. whilst there we undertook a trip to the fundacion mapfre for an exhibition of max ernst's series of collages 'une semaine de bonte' ('a week of kindness'). the attention to detail in these collages is amazing, often it is almost impossible to see where one image ends and the next begins. we left the exhibition in awe.

studies for 'tube shelter scene' and 'figure in a shelter' 1940-1941

maybe because of moore's relation to the surrealist movement ernst's collages reminded me of an exhibition i visited at the imperial war museum in 2007 of henry moore's drawings of people taking shelter in london underground stations and tunnels during the second world war and of coalminers. although the image above is the most representative i could find, there was a beautiful series of smaller drawings which worked as a sequential narrative. (as i recall the catalogue was so badly printed i decided not to buy it, maybe i should have.) if i unearth any images of these smaller drawings i'll put them up.