Museum of Modern Art Visit

Max Ernst

Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale

1924

    In the creation “Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale” by Max Ernst we see a few unexpected objects that look almost glued onto flat painted surfaces. This piece was created in 1924 which is the year that Surrealism was founded. There is a small red house accompanied by an open red gate. Through the small gate the large blue sky is revealed and we can see two people. One is a female who looks like is running in the front yard of the house fending off the bird in the sky. The other person is a man carrying a baby on top of the house touching a large button or grabbing an oversized knob, which is one of the items like looks glued onto the picture. There is a lumped over image on the floor next to the girl running what could be another person. Ernst has said that the nightingale is a reference to the death of his sister in 1897 and also a reference e to a hallucination he experienced when suffering from a fever of the wood on a panel near his bed turning into a menacing nightingale. Apparently birds often appear in Ernst’s work. All of the people are black and white while the rest of the image is color which is interesting.  The house, gate and scenic sky and lawn all make sense to be a part of the same picture but the large knob attached to the frame of the picture is out of place.  Ernst created volume and depth by attaching the gate and knob to the flat image of the sky and sprawled out landscape.  Even though we can look at this piece and see that it is unrealistic, the way Ernst added just a few out of place items that are different dimensions give a different feel to the air. The image seems like it could be a dream or a memory that is being pieced together incorrectly.  Ernst was involved in the Dada movement and later became one of the forefathers of Surrealism.

Gino Severini

Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin

1912

In the painting “Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin” by Gino Severini we see Cubism exhibited. Severini draws a woman with brown curls and a white, blue and pink dress dancing to music in at Paris nightclub Bal Tabarin. The different images in the picture are references to the time period, around 1912. There is an Arab riding a camel which refers to the Turco-Italian War of 1911 and flags incorporated into the picture symbolize nationalism.  The cubist style makes our eyes jump around and have to work on piecing the images together but nonetheless Severini has captured movement.  There are many warm colors used in this oil painting and it is hard to tell through pictures but there are also sequins used to add texture. We see the word “polka” on the left side of the image which is a Central European dance and genre of dance music throughout Europe and America which originated in the middle of the 19th century. Also in the bottom right corner the word “valse” meaning waltz in French is visible. This image is similar to the Max Ernst image, even though different styles, both pictures look like collages.