The King Playing with the Queen
The impressive group of figures called "Capricorn" is not merely one of the
masterpieces of the Surrealist Max Ernst. The work, on long-term loan from
Deutsche Bank and to be exhibited beginning in April 2005 at the new Max
Ernst Museum in Brühl, also tells a very special story that includes
chapters on love and jealousy, revenge and flight, seclusion, and finally
happiness.
The new Max Ernst Museum in Brühl, view from the south
Photo: Rainer Mader, 2004
On April 23 2005, the
new Max Ernst Museum will
finally open its doors near to Schloss Augustusburg in the former
Benediktusheim in Brühl, the city where the co-founder of Surrealism,
Max Ernst, was born. The Benediktusheim, which was designated an
historical landmark in 1984, was originally built in 1844 as a day resort,
expanded afterwards into a hotel, and turned into a nursing home in 1918.
The Cologne architecture firm Van
den Valentyn handled the remodeling of the horseshoe-shaped classicist
building for its new life as a museum, in which the goal was to combine
the castle-like old building with elements of modern glass architecture
without detracting from the substance of the historical three-wing
structure.
Max Ernst: Masques, undated, Deutsche Bank Collection
One of the museum’s focal points is the Schneppenheim Collection, amassed by
Dr. Peter Schneppenheim, like Ernst also born in Brühl. It contains nearly
all of the print works of the great Surrealist (1891-1976). The museum’s
collection also includes around 500 photographs by famous photographers
and fellow artists such as Man Ray
, Lee Miller, and
Berenice Abbott, which help provide insights into Max Ernst’s life.
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The museum’s major attraction are the 60 sculptures
acquired directly from the artist’s widow, the painter
Dorothea Tanning, who lives in New York. The absolute highlight, however,
is the group of figures Capricorn, which will be exhibited in Brühl
on long-term loan from Deutsche Bank. The group of figures with its
intriguing aura was created in the seclusion of Arizona in 1948. It was
first acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1982 for its branch office on
Königsallee in Düsseldorf and is widely considered to be one of the
artist’s major works.
Max Ernst Museum, newly opened
Photo: Rainer Mader, 2004
During the time he
created the group of sculptures, Max Ernst, who had been forced to flee
from Paris to the USA in 1941 to escape persecution by the National
Socialists, found himself in a serious life crisis. Two years before, in
1946, he had made the final break with
Peggy Guggenheim, his powerful patroness and short-time wife, and had
begun an affair with the artist Dorothea Tanning. Peggy was consumed by
anger and jealousy. When she received an offer from the Daily Press to
write a series of articles about her artist friends, she saw an
opportunity to get her revenge.
Max Ernsts Capricorne (1948-64) in the courtyard of the Deutsche Bank in
Düsseldorf
In his 1984 memoir "A
Not-So-Still Life," Max’ only son from his first marriage,
Jimmy Ernst, remarked: "I was appalled by its devastating pettiness and I
could not believe that she could let such vindictiveness stand. Barely
avoiding vulgarity, it seemed almost an act of self-flagellation in its
frequent failure of rational thinking. It was tailor-made for the scandal
press and it would hurt her almost as much as the intended subject of
destruction, my father."
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