Max Ernst. Monsieur Aa l'antiphilosophe: Volume I from L'Antitête. 1947–49, published 1949

Max Ernst Monsieur Aa l'antiphilosophe: Volume I from L'Antitête 1947–49, published 1949

  • Not on view

The Anti-Head is a three-volume anthology of poems by Tristan Tzara, the Romanian poet whom Ernst had first befriended through the Dada movement. Ernst’s etchings for the book’s first volume signal a shift in his approach to printmaking after World War II, when he began using sinuous lines to generate biomorphic faces, figures, and bird- and fish-like forms. Tzara had created the titular “Mr. Aa the Anti-Philosopher” early in his career as a mocking, self-referential embodiment of Dada’s antiestablishment ideals.

Gallery label from Max Ernst: Beyond Painting, September 23, 2017-January 1, 2018.
Author
Tristan Tzara
Medium
Volume I from a three volume illustrated book
Dimensions
page (each approx.): 5 1/2 × 4 5/16" (14 × 11 cm); overall (closed): 6 3/16 × 5 1/8 × 1 5/16" (15.7 × 13 × 3.3 cm)
Publisher
Bordas, Paris
Printer
Lacourière, Paris
Edition
200
Credit
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund
Object number
374.1951.A
Copyright
© 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Illustrated book
L'Antitête
Department
Drawings and Prints

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