Self-Constructed Little Machine

1914–1918

A soldier of the First World War: “died and resurrected”

Ernst was drafted and served on both the Western and the Eastern Fronts; the war devastated him, and in his autobiography he wrote that he died on 1 August 1914 and was resurrected on 11 November 1918. Several German Expressionists, among them August Macke and Franz Marc, died in action.

1919

The founding of the Cologne Dada group

In 1919 Ernst, the social activist Johannes Baargeld and several colleagues founded the Cologne Dada group; in 1919–20 they published short-lived magazines such as Der Strom and die Schammade and organised Dada exhibitions. The same year Ernst made his first collages, from mail-order catalogues and teaching-aid manuals, a technique that long dominated his work.

1919

Baargeld, Klee, de Chirico

In 1919 Ernst met Johannes Baargeld in Cologne and Paul Klee in Munich, and saw reproductions of Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical paintings in the magazine Valori Plastici; inspired by them he produced the portfolio of eight lithographs Fiat modes — pereat ars.

November 1919

A Dada exhibition and the confiscated posters

In November 1919 Ernst and Baargeld staged a Dada exhibition showing, besides their own work and that of their friend Otto Freundlich, works by amateur artists and inmates of psychiatric institutions. The posters and catalogues were confiscated by the British occupation authorities.

April 1920

“Dada Early Spring”: a scandal and a break with his father

In April 1920 the exhibition Dada Early Spring opened in the Winter beer hall (Hans Arp had joined Ernst and Baargeld): enraged visitors demanded that the objects offending public order be removed. The next day Ernst received a telegram from his father disowning him, a final break with the family: he never saw his father again.

late autumn 1921

Paul and Gala Éluard in Cologne

In late autumn 1921 Paul and Gala Éluard visited Ernst in Cologne: he and Éluard became firm friends and Gala posed for him. Éluard bought the artist’s most finished canvas, Celebes, and chose a dozen collages to illustrate his collection Répétitions.