A Week of Goodness
Collages by Max Ernst at the Musée d'Orsay combine mythological allegories, fairy tales, legends and dreams with torture and violence.
The 184 original collages comprising “A Week of Goodness” by Max Ernst are one of the best-kept secrets of 20th century art.
Until now, only one exhibition —, in 1936 at the Museo Nacional de Arte Moderna in Madrid —, has been devoted to this work, which is one of the artist's key “collage-novels”.
The collages were produced during a three-week stay in Vigoleno, a town in northern Italy where the artist spent the summer of 1933. All the collages were made from woodcut engravings found in illustrated popular novels, natural science journals and 19th century sales catalogues.
Max Ernst freely interpreted the pictorial themes. By carefully assembling fascinating patterns, he carried the collage technique to an incomparable degree of perfection. His visionary images create worlds with an overwhelming persuasive force, defying our understanding as well as our sense of reality.
At the same time, the pictures and events that unfold before our eyes are in stark contrast to the title: “A Week of Goodness”. The dominant themes of this set of collages are in fact power, violence, torture, murder and catastrophe. Ernst mixes mythological allegories, allusions to the Book of Genesis, fairy tales, dreamscapes and virtual poetic worlds into his whirlwind of artistic visions. The last two sequences offer an interpretation totally detached from rational thought, reflecting the spontaneous, automatic inspiration inherent in Surrealism to represent love and freedom.
The arrangement of the original collages in the exhibition is directly inspired by the form of publication used for the graphic novel, a new genre that appeared in 1934, along with illustrated serial novels.
The walls of the exhibition are adorned with violet, green, red, blue and yellow tones, corresponding to the five volumes imagined by the artist, each one bearing a cover of a different colour.
Information and Related Activities
Hours : Every day except Mondays, from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays until 9:45 p.m.
Tickets : Museum entrance fee: full price: €8, reduced price: €5.5
Access : Front entrance, 1, rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007 Paris
Children's Workship
Ten weeks of beauty. July 7 to September 6 (for children age 5-7 and 8-12). Information: www.musee-orsay.fr
Exhibition Catalogue
Under the direction of Werner Spies. 320 pages. Fundacion MAPFRE / Gallimard, with the participation of the Musée d'Orsay.
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