Prehistoric Future: Max Ernst and the Return of Painting between the Wars
Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,History & Criticism
Prehistoric Future: Max Ernst and the Return of Painting between the Wars Details
Review “Ubl’s book presents a fresh approach and a very thoughtful analysis of the early and most innovative work of this complex artist. Ubl’s rigorous study of Ernst’s unorthodox, ‘anti-metaphysical’ image-production is particularly welcome as his work still deserves better understanding and broader exposure in America.” (Josef Helfenstein, Director, Menil Collection)"Prehistoric Future is an ambitious and mature scholarly achievement. No one has ever before plumbed this issue of the non-synchronous character of Ernst’s images with such depth, and certainly not with the rigor or probing visual and analytical acuity that Ralph Ubl brings to the task. Rich, illuminating, and brilliant, this book will not only contribute substantially to the discourse on Max Ernst and surrealism, but it is an inspiring and timely demonstration of the insights that can be gained by a probing, tireless, and theoretically informed eye.” (Charles W. Haxthausen, Williams College) “Ralph Ubl’s brilliant book on Max Ernst in relation to Dada, surrealism, and—above all—what he calls the return of painting is a revelation. Rigorously historical, it offers a highly original and, to my mind, wholly persuasive series of readings both of individual works and of the larger issues at stake during the post–World War I decades. All scholars dealing with this fascinating material from here on out will have to take their bearings from Ubl’s ambitious study.” (Michael Fried, Johns Hopkins University)“Learned and articulate (signifying the quality of the translation from German), this volume takes a chrono-critical approach…. It contributes significantly to a reassessment of the sequential modernization of art and to the study of the artist and Dada…. [I]t will enlighten practitioners and a readership interested in 20th-century art and cultural history. Recommended.” (Choice)“[B]rilliant. . . . Ubl’s nuanced and persuasive readings address a number of Ernst’s most important works. . . . An ambitious and substantially new account of the continued claims of [painting] in a period often presented as the age and wake of its undoing, this study has far-reaching implications not only for the highly active field of surrealism studies but also for the broader history and theory of modernism and the avant-garde.” (Molly Warnock Critical Inquiry) Read more About the Author Ralph Ubl is professor of art history at the University of Basel in Switzerland. Elizabeth Tucker translates German with a specialization in the history and theory of art and architecture. Her recent books include Las Vegas in the Rearview Mirror and Cindy Sherman: The Early Works, 1975–1977: Catalogue Raisonné. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. Read more
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