Lou Strauss-Ernst
as "Rosa Bonheur of Dada".
Collage by Max Ernst, 1922
Jimmy Ernst:
"Dadafax minimus".
Collage by Max Ernst, 1922
Lou and
Jimmy, 1928; photo by August
Sander, part of the great photographer's
life project, a photo portrait of Germany
The" irascibles", New York, 1951.
Top row, left to right: William de Kooning, Adolf Gottlieb, Ad Reinhart,
Hedda Sterne. Middle row: Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jackson
Pollock, Clifford Still, Robert Motherwell, Bradley WalkerTomlin. Seated:
Theodoros Stamos, Jimmy Ernst, Barnett Newman, James Brooks, Mark Rothko.
At work on the Continental Bank mural,
Lincoln, Nebraska, 1961.
Jimmy with Dallas and children, Eric and Amy,
with CAPRICORN, Sedona, Arizona, 1961.
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1920
Born Hans-Ulrich
Ernst in Cologne, Germany, on June 24. His father is the prominent Dada/Surrealist
artist Max Ernst, his mother, Louise Straus-Ernst, a well-known
art historian and journalist.
1922
His parents
are divorced. Max travels to Paris and Louise stays in Cologne with
their son.
1930
Spends his spring school holiday in Paris with Max and his second
wife, Marie-Berthe Aurenche.
Meets many of the Surrealists, including Giacometti, Man Ray, Miro,
Andre Masson, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel.
1933
Adolph Hitler is installed as Chancellor of Germany on January 30.
On February 30, the SS searches the Ernst apartment - as a noted intellectual
and a Jew, Louise is doubly suspect by the new regime.
Jimmy is sent to live with Louise's father, while Louise moves to Paris
to find work.
1938
Sails for New York by way of Paris and Le Havre, on the S.S.. Manhattan,
arriving in New York on June 9.
1939
Allied powers declare war against the Axis powers on September 3.
In the winter, Jimmy begins to work in oils, makes prints from linoleum
tiles.
1940
Meets members of the New York avant-garde and European artists in
exile.
Petitions Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) to help Max and Lou escape
from France.
1941
ERC succeeds in securing Max's release from internment. Max arrives
in New York with Peggy Guggenheim on July 14.
1942
Guggenheim's
Art of This Century Gallery opens, October 20, with Jimmy as director.
German
troops occupy Vichy, France.
1943
Has first
one-person exhibition.
1944
Unknown to him, his mother is transported to Auschwitz concentration
camp on June 30 from Drancy, a detention camp near Paris.
She does not survive the war.
1945
Allied victory
in Europe declared on May 8.
Spends part of the summer in Amagansett with Max and other "Surrealists
in Exile".
1947
Marries Edith Dallas Bauman Brody, January 3.
1950
Joins so-called "IrascibleEighteen" in protesting the anti-abstractionist
bias of the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York.
1951
Instructor, Department of Design, Brooklyn College.
1952
Becomes U.S. citizen.
1953
Daughter, Amy Louise, born on April 26.
1956
Son, Eric Max, born on April 16.
1961
Awarded John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.
1969
Moves to
East Hampton, Long Island.
1980
Builds
a winter home and studio in NoKomis, Florida, and begins Sea of Grass
series oased on marshscapes.
1982
Awarded
an honorary Doctorate by Southampton College of Long Island University.
1983
Elected
to membership of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters,
New York.
1984
Publication
of his memoir, A Not-So-Still Life, dealing
with his youth and early years in America.
Dies in New York City on February 6.
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