Jimmy
Ernst: Transcending the Surreal
A travelling
exhibition organized by the Springfield Art Museum,
Sprinfield, Missouri
EXHIBITION
ITINERARY
Springfield
Art Museum
1111
East Brookside Drive
Springfield, Missouri 65807
September 14 - November 10, 2002
The
Butler Institute of American Art
343 East State Street
Salem, Ohiao 44460
September 20 - October 25, 2003
Frederick
R. Weisman Museum of Art
Pepperdine
University Art Gallery
242 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, California 90263
January 10 - April 4, 2004
Additional
venues to follow.
"A participant in the heady milieu surrounding the key years of
the New York School, Jimmy Ernst (1920-1984) made significant contribution
during a career that spanned five decades. Many of these achievements
now warrant fresh assessments, particularly his innovative approaches
to line, space and subjective content.
He brought line, for example, through
a number of important phases. While the use of line as a creative element
free from the need to enclose or describe form would become an essential
thrust on New York’s pioneering artists by mid-century, Ernst
was already exploring its potential during the early forties in works
that allowed thin lines to represent the ephemeral and to suggest connections
between aspects of an otherworldly cosmos. In 1946 line became one of
the visual forces in his translations of jazz rhythm and movement to
canvas. He went on to use line in a way that was structural and expressive
at the same time, and many of his linear grids also serve to spread
intense light over the surface. Ultimately he made line an instrument
for inventing vibrating perceptual experiences."
From the catalogue essay by Phyllis Braff.
Collage in Black and White, 1951
