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A reference to theOedipusstory in Une Semaine de Bonté (1933). © Isidore Ducasse Fine Arts. Photo: Peter Ertl © ADAGP, Paris 2009 |
An early perpetrator of the graphic novel, Max Ernst created his third, Une Semaine de Bonté, in 1933 during a three-week stay in Vigoleno, Italy. The original collages …
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A reference to the Oedipusstory in Une Semaine de Bonté (1933). © Isidore Ducasse Fine Arts. Photo: Peter Ertl © ADAGP, Paris 2009 |
An early perpetrator of the graphic novel, Max Ernst created his third, Une Semaine de Bonté, in 1933 during a three-week stay in Vigoleno, Italy. The original collages that made up this masterpiece are currently on show for the first time since 1936 in a gem of an exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay (through September 13).
Ernst may be better known as a pur et dur Dadaist and Surrealist painter and sculptor (and serial husband of artistic women) than as a graphic novelist, but his penchant for the dark side of the dream world and all that was monstrous are just as evident in these collages, which offer an added dose of charm and humor.
The text-free Une Semaine de Bonté covers seven days of the week, and was published in five pamphlets (with Thursday, Friday and Saturday grouped together in the last one) in Paris in 1934. Each day has its theme: mud, water, fire, blood, black, vision and the unknown. Ernst made the collages by cutting up popular late-19th-century French novels illustrated with wood-cut prints and seamlessly reassembling the images (some of the original sources are on display to show how he manipulated them) to create grotesque scenes that are rendered even more frightening by their precise, refined style, but can also make you laugh out loud with their political satire or weird juxtapositions.
Murder, mayhem and mystery abound in these delicious creations. Beasts in suits wear pompous medals pinned to their chests. Women languish in bed, blissfully unaware that they are about to be ravished by mounting indoor floods or bird-headed creatures. A dragon-winged lady peeks through a cracked-open door while a serpent lurks at her feet. Paintings on the walls of Victorian rooms depict a rock slide or the legs of a running horse instead of the usual portraits or still lifes.
There is no point in trying to make sense of these pieces or to try to find a narrative in them. Just give in to their mystery and marvel at them as you would at a weird, wonderful yet menacing dream.
Musée d’Orsay: 1, rue de la Légion d’Honneur, 75007 Paris. Métro: Solferino. RER: Musée d’Orsay. Tel.: 01 40 49 48 14. Admission: €8. Through September 13. www.musee-orsay.fr
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© 2009 Paris Update
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