Peggy’s influence was not without results. Soon most of New
York had turned their backs on Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, reports
Jimmy Ernst: the art world, museums, galleries, and everyone else treated
the couple as "non-persons," which was particularly painful for Dorothea
Tanning. In desperation, the couple decided to leave New York and settle
in Sedona in Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona. Jimmy Ernst remembers: "He (Max
Ernst) was very concerned about Dorothea’s illness and depressed by a
growing hostility and studied indifference toward him in New York." Max
Ernst himself alternated between hope and despair: "The climate in Arizona
will be better for Dorothea’s health." And: "Maybe they will leave us in
peace there."
They moved in the spring
of 1946, and one year later Max and Dorothea were married in a double
ceremony with Man Ray and his partner Juliette in California. Shortly
thereafter, Max Ernst created his monumental sculpture Capricorn.
With this powerful group of figures, the artist drew on his body of work
up to that point. The individual figures, which could also be interpreted
as members of a small three-member family, were assembled, as with much of
Ernst’s work, to a large extent from randomly founds objects – in this way
the goat’s horn and the mermaid’s torso were made from automobile springs,
and the scepter that the goat-headed monarch holds in his hand was
fashioned from milk bottles assembled into a column. The group also
includes echoes of earlier works by Max Ernst: The design of the goat is
reminiscent of the 1944 sculpture The King Playing with the Queen;
the round face and the body of the mermaid had already appeared in
sculptures from the thirties such as Belle Allemande (1935) or the
figures of Saint Martin (1938).
In Jimmy Ernst’s autobiography is a
photo that was taken shortly after the completion of Capricorn. The photo
shows the beautiful young Dorothea Tanning in a short-sleeved blouse and a
wide skirt sitting on the lap of the goat and nestling close to him. Max
Ernst is standing behind, looking over Capricorn’s shoulder
directly into the camera.
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Original version of the Capricorne, 1948
Sedona/Arizona, with
Dorothea
Tanning and Max Ernst
In 1952, Max
and Dorothea left their refuge in Arizona and moved to France. In
preparation for the move, Max Ernst made plaster molds of the figures,
originally cast in concrete, in order to bring the individual pieces with
them to Europe. He assembled the pieces of the group ten years later and
in the process altered and simplified various details. This led to the
creation of the final model for the six bronze castings, which the artist
gave in commission. It is one of these castings that will be exhibited in
Brühl starting in April 2005. Two others can be found in the collections
of the
Centre Pompidou in Paris and the
New National Gallery in Berlin.
Ulrich Clewing
[1]
[2]
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