Max Ernst. The World Is a Story (Mundus est Fabula). Paris 1959

Max Ernst The World Is a Story (Mundus est Fabula) Paris 1959

  • Not on view

According to Ernst, the title of this painting is a quotation from Réne Descartes, a seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist known for his rationalistic approach to metaphysics. The world pictured here, however, seems rife with irrational, inexplicable, and cataclysmic incident. Strange beings and beasties produced by Ernst’s manipulation of paint, at times with a screenprinting squeegee, populate an eerie, pulsating landscape filled with self-perpetuating energy. Ernst developed the technique of using squeegees to create quasiautomatic compositions in the early 1950s, when he was in exile in the United States.

Gallery label from Max Ernst: Beyond Painting, September 23, 2017-January 1, 2018.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
51 1/4 x 64" (130.1 x 162.5 cm)
Credit
Gift of the artist
Object number
116.1961
Copyright
© 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Department
Painting and Sculpture

Installation views

We have identified these works in the following photos from our exhibition history.
How we identified these works

In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

All requests to license audio or video footage produced by MoMA should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills or motion picture footage from films in MoMA’s Film Collection cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For licensing motion picture film footage it is advised to apply directly to the copyright holders. For access to motion picture film stills please contact the Film Study Center. More information is also available about the film collection and the Circulating Film and Video Library.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].