Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 9

Jimmy Ernst
"Personal Equation" Jimmy Ernst, Abstract Surrealism, Black, Red, Blue, White

1950

About the Item

Jimmy Ernst Personal Equation, 1950 Signed and dated lower right Oil on canvas 41 x 39 1/2 inches Provenance: Laurel Gallery, New York Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York Collection of Dr. Benjamin Blackman, Chicago, Illinois Exhibited: Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, 1950. An important and influential artist and educator, Jimmy Ernst was associated with two of the twentieth century's major art movements—Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. The son of the Surrealist painter Max Ernst and the art historian Louise Straus, he was born Hans Ulrich Ernst in Cologne, Germany, on June 24, 1920. His parents divorced two years later, and his father moved to Paris, while Ernst stayed in Cologne with his mother. In 1930, Ernst traveled to Paris to visit his father, where he met many of the Surrealists including Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, Andre Masson, Jean Miró, and Man Ray. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, the Ernst apartment in Cologne was searched, and his mother began to fear for their safety. He was sent to live with his maternal grandfather, while his mother moved to Paris. Five years later, in 1938, Ernst immigrated to the United States. After settling in New York, he met other European exiles and members of the avant-garde. Ernst petitioned the Emergency Rescue Committee in 1941 to help his parents escape France. His father successfully fled Europe in 1941, arriving in America with Peggy Guggenheim. However, his attempt to rescue his mother was unsuccessful. In 1944 she was sent to Auschwitz, where she died. Ernst had his first solo exhibition at Norlyst Gallery in New York in 1941. On October 20, 1942, Guggenheim's legendary Art of this Century Gallery opened with Ernst as Director, a role that further associated him with the New York avant-garde. In 1950, he joined such eminent artists as Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko in the famous "Irascible Eighteen." The largely Abstract Expressionist group protested the perceived anti-abstractionist bias of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and drew much attention to the New York School. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Ernst exhibited in the Grace Borgenicht Gallery, Inc., New York, and in various other galleries across in the United States and abroad. Ernst married Edith Dallas Bauman in 1947. They had two children, Amy Louise (1953) and Eric Max (1956). In 1969 Ernst moved to East Hampton, New York where he lived off and on for the rest of his life. In 1982 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate by Southampton College of Long Island University. Shortly before his death, in 1983, Ernst was elected to the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters, both in New York. Ernst died suddenly of a stroke on February 6, 1984, in New York. His works are owned by numerous world-class public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
  • Creator:
    Jimmy Ernst (1920-1984, American, German)
  • Creation Year:
    1950
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 52 in (132.08 cm)Width: 49 in (124.46 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1841213537682
More From This SellerView All
  • "Aswan IV, " Enrico Donati, Surrealist Biomorphic Abstraction, Mid-Century
    By Enrico Donati
    Located in New York, NY
    Enrico Donati Aswan IV, 1984 Signed, dated and inscribed as titled on the reverse Oil and sand on canvas 36 x 42 inches Provenance: Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York Doyle, October 12, 2022 Enrico Donati, a surrealist and abstract expressionist painter, was born in Milan, Italy in 1909 and died in Manhattan on April 25, 2008. He was known for his association with the surrealist movement of the 1940's, but his artwork continued to transform itself through the many trends that have occurred during his long career. In Italy he attended the Universita degli Studi in Pavia where he studied economics. In 1934, he moved to the United States settling in New York where he studied at the New School for Social Research and the Art Students' League. Considered the surviving dean of the Surrealist Movement and a member of the New York School, Donati painted with Ernst, Matta and Tanguy in the thirties and forties, and in particular with Andre Breton, regarded by many to be the grand master of Surrealism. He helped organize the Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme in Paris in 1947 where he exhibited three of his pieces. The Surrealists were known to avoid presenting or representing reality, and put the emphasis on invention and creativity by uncovering the poetic aspect of life with its kaleidoscopic multidimensional images, using reality only to enhance imagination. Donati survived the decline of Surrealism in the late 1940's by adapting his style to current art trends as he worked with new materials and textures throughout the 1950's. One trend with which he became involved was Abstract Expressionism, which originated in the 1940s, and became popular in the 1950s. It was a movement in which artists typically applied paint, rapidly and with force, to large canvases, in an effort to show feelings and emotions. Paint might be applied with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even throwing it onto canvas. Abstract Expressionist work is characterized by a strong dependence on what appears to be accident and chance, although it is actually highly planned. Donati held a retrospective at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1961 and went on to exhibit at the Betty Parsons Gallery with other forerunners of American Abstract Expressionism: Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Jackson Pollock. It was at this time that Donati created some of his most inventive and extraordinary work, some of which was featured in a survey exhibition at the Alter & Gil Gallery, Beverly Hills, California, in January 2000. He has held many teaching positions and has been an active lecturer, while continuing to add to his artistic repertoire. From 1960 to 1962 he was a Visiting Lecturer at Yale University, and from 1962 to 1972 a Member of the Yale University Council for the Arts and Architecture. He has had seventy-five one-man shows, among them an exhibit of new paintings at the Maxwell Davidson Gallery (57th St., New York) in the fall of 1997. Donati's work is held in collections throughout the world, and his work has appeared in over 300 articles and publications, two hard cover books...
    Category

    1980s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil

  • "Study for Ladders" Juanita Guccione, Abstract Surrealism, Female Artist
    Located in New York, NY
    Juanita Guccione (1904 - 1999) Study for Ladders, 1948 Gouache on paper 17 x 13 inches Signed lower left, dated, and inscribed “Study for Oil Painting...
    Category

    1940s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Paper, Gouache

  • "Blue Fossil" Gerome Kamrowski, Abstract Surrealist, Biomorphic Expressionism
    By Gerome Kamrowski
    Located in New York, NY
    Gerome Kamrowski Blue Fossil, 1960 Acrylic and styrofoam on board 17 x 46 inches Gerome Kamrowski was born in Warren, Minnesota, on January 19, 1914. In 1932 he enrolled in the Saint Paul School of Art (now Minnesota Museum of American Art - MMAA), where he studied with Leroy Turner...
    Category

    1960s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Foam, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Board

  • "Untitled, " Alan Fenton, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Color Field
    Located in New York, NY
    Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 88 x 82 1/2 inches Signed on the stretcher Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widely recognized for their demanding yet understated means of revealing a serious and sober essence. He identified greatly with Mark Rothko, a friend, as well as Adolph Gottlieb and Jack Tworkov, with whom he had studied privately. Fenton painted in New York City in the late 50's as the explosion of Abstract Expressionism turned into a rebellion against gestural, emotional painting. More concerned about his art than his posture, he expanded upon a tradition in painting with influences as diverse as Whistler and Turner as well as Ad Reinhardt and Joseph Albers. Alan Fenton was born in Cleveland in 1927, studied at the Cleveland School of Art, The Arts Students League, The New School, and at NYU, earning his BFA at Pratt Institute, where he later taught painting for many years. At seventeen, Fenton served in the Merchant Marines where he began a career as a professional boxer, a skill he had honed on the streets. He moved successfully through the graphic design business en route to becoming a painter in New York at the height of the art revolution of the fifties and sixties. Fenton enjoyed success with his subtle washes and pencil drawings as well as large abstract canvases...
    Category

    1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "Candelabra, " Edward Millman, Colorful Abstract Expressionist Still Life
    Located in New York, NY
    Edward Millman (1907 - 1964) Candelabra, 1962 Signed lower right; titled and dated on the reverse Oil on canvas 41 3/4 x 31 1/2 inches Provenance: The ...
    Category

    1960s Abstract Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "Pyroclastic Fever, " Nigel Cooke, Contemporary Painting, Lightning Skyscape
    By Nigel Cooke
    Located in New York, NY
    Nigel Cooke (Born 1973) Pyroclastic Fever, 2002 Oil on canvas 60 1/2 x 84 1/2 inches Signed, titled and dated "NIGEL COOKE 'PYROCLASTIC FEVER' 2002 Nigel C...
    Category

    Early 2000s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like
  • Wings of Fascism - Oil on Canvas - Contemporary Painting
    By Patrick Faure
    Located in New York, NY
    This painting is artwork of Patrick Faure, Creator of Faurism. The painting is unframed, oil on canvas. About the Artwork: Wings of Fascism is a perfect example of Faurism, a styl...
    Category

    2010s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Agnoiaphobia – The Collective Unconscious - Oil Painting on Canvas
    By Patrick Faure
    Located in New York, NY
    This 2019 painting is from Patrick Faure’s Agnoiaphobia series. The painting is unframed, oil on canvas. About the Artwork: According to the Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, kollektives Unbewusstes, or collective unconscious, refers to structures of the unconscious mind that are shared among beings of the same species. The human collective unconscious is populated by instincts and by universal symbols such as hell, water, the tree of life, or the concept of god. Jung states that the collective...
    Category

    2010s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Wings of Fascism - Oil on Canvas - Contemporary Painting
    By Patrick Faure
    Located in New York, NY
    This painting is artwork of Patrick Faure, Creator of Faurism. The painting is unframed, oil on canvas. About the Artwork: Wings of Fascism is a perfect example of Faurism, a styl...
    Category

    2010s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Agnoiaphobia: Per Sempre, Non C’E - Oil Painting on Canvas
    By Patrick Faure
    Located in New York, NY
    This 2019 painting is from Patrick Faure’s Agnoiaphobia series. The painting is unframed, oil on canvas. About the Artwork: “For ever and ever” is part of the doxology that falls...
    Category

    2010s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Dos Cuba Libres
    By Pamela Holmes
    Located in Cazadero, CA
    Dos Cuba Libres Never been here before? The busy rhythm, around every corner another bay, and resting will not come soon but still an elegant chaos
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Clay, Canvas, Charcoal, Oil

  • I Burnt My Hand on a Hot Cake
    By Pamela Holmes
    Located in Cazadero, CA
    I Burnt My hand On a Hot Cake Morning Light through the aging blinds of indecision, together, moving, catching up to the sounds of the opening day.
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Clay, Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All