Relying on spontaneity, juxtapositions of materials and imagery, and subjectivity - he collided two creative ideals that helped define Abstract Expressionism. And although his works are predominantly figurative, his techniques express abstractivity.
Emerging from the Dada movement, surrealism came to surface and Ernst become one of the movement's founding members. He stumbled across the technique of frottage (rubbing), laying paper on a textured surface and rubbing a pencil across to transfer the textured effects onto paper. The emphasis of the contact between materials and transforming everyday materials to arrive at an image that symbolised somewhat of a "collective consciousness", would become central to Surrealism's ideal of automatism. - The idea that the random and free interaction between artist and material produces an image of the artist's subconscious and inner state.
Ernst typically rejected the traditional style of painting, turning to his techniques of collage, frontage, grattage.
"Painting is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation."
On his collages: "I was surprised by the sudden intensification of my visionary capacities and by the hallucinatory succession of contradictory images superimposed, one upon the other, with the persistence and rapidity characteristic of amorous memories."
"The role of the painter... is to project that which sees itself in him."
Celebes, 1921
Oil paint on canvas
Ernst often reused found images, adding and/or removing elements in order to create new realities - all drawn from the known and real world we see. The central shape in this painting originates from a photograph found in a Sudanese corn-bin. Here it is transformed into some sort of a mechanical monster. The juxtapositions of such strange features around the elephant-like creature, including the headless figurine, suggest the visuals of a dream and the Freudian technique of free association.
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