Max Ernst – Gala Éluard (1924)
Max Ernst was born in Bruhl, a place near Cologne, in Germany on April 2, 1891. He was raised in a strict Catholic family, with both of his parents dedicated to training their children into God-fearing and talented individuals. Ernst’s father, who was also deaf, inspired Ernst as well as introduced him to painting from a young age. Ernst studied philosophy at the University of Bonn in 1914; however, he later dropped out due to his keen interest in the arts.
On Wednesday, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While looking through the various artworks in the Modern and Contemporary Art Department, one piece, in particular, caught my eye and that was Max Ernst’s Gala Éluard (1924) in gallery 901. I went through the whole department twice looking for a piece that called to me and on both occasions, Max Ernst’s piece made me do a double take. The eyes are what made me stop and stare due to the large brown eyes seemed to be following wherever I went which was pretty creepy. The longer I stared, the more I realized that there is no emotion given off from the eyes, the eyes seem dead, daydreaming, or staring off in a distance.
Gala Éluard is an oil on a canvas painting. The painting is a portrait of Gala Éluard, who was a lover to three members of the Surrealist movement: her two husbands, poet Paul Éluard and artist Salvador Dalí, and Max Ernst. The portrait was based on Man Ray’s photograph of Éluard’s eyes. “With curious forms rising from her unfurling forehead, Éluard becomes an imagined embodiment of Surrealism’s wide-eyed interest in art’s power to explore the mysterious territories of the unconscious mind” (“Gala Éluard”).
Modernism is a movement in the arts that strives to break with classical and traditional forms. Examples of this modernism are impressionism, expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Max Ernst is an example of a surrealist artist. Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the late 1910s, early 1920s which sought to release the imagination of the subconscious. This can be seen in Gala Éluard considering that in the painting, it’s as if her mind is being unfolded (her forehead is not shown).
Questions about the work:
What made Ernst paint Gala Éluard in such a way? The top half of the painting probably depicts what’s on Éluard’s mind so, why is there minimal activity? Shouldn’t the mind be filled with thoughts?
Sources:
“Gala Éluard.” The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/490182.
“Max Ernst, and His Paintings.” Ubu Imperator, 1923 – by Max Ernst, www.max-ernst.com/.
Voorhies, James. “Surrealism.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm (October 2004)
Giselle, Clearly, this is a captivating painting and definitely invites interpretation. Thanks for filling us in on some of the background. I can’t tell from the image – what are the round objects floating around in her “brain”? This reminds me of Freud and the idea of the unconscious. I agree that the painting makes us do a “double take.” I think that is one of the things about it that makes it so clearly Modernist – its strangeness! I also think that the fact that we don’t fully understand it is part of the Modernist or Surrealist agenda. There are things that are beyond simple comprehension.
Nice job!
JS