Max Ernst: Frottages by Werner Spies, 1969, First U.K. Edition, Surrealism

In this book, which was the first devoted to this important aspect of Ernst’s work, Werner Spies explores the ways Ernst used and developed his technique of frottage, alongside other related material. Frottage is a surrealist, automatic technique involving laying sheets of paper on textured surfaces and rubbing over it using a pencil or other materials. Ernst was inspired by an ‘ancient wooden floor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing’, the patterns in them ‘suggested strange images to him’. His frottages would result in mysterious forest landscapes populated with bird-like people, and in the words of author Werner Spies, ‘some of the most fascinating and disturbing expressions of the Surrealist vision - works that seem to open windows onto other worlds and unknown dimensions’. Containing plates mostly taken from two books illustrated by the artist, Histoire Naturelle (1926) and Mr Knife and Miss Fork (1927). With 64 plates, four in colour. London: Thames and Hudson, 1969. First U.K. Edition. Hardcover. 26pp + 51pp of illustrations. 64 plates. Original grey cloth with publishers emblem to cover, titles to spine, light wear and sunning to boards, foxing to top edge, front pastedown has previous owners inscription in ink which has been scribbled out, light wear to dust jacket which has small chips to spine, now in a protective cover, internally clean and bright. Very good.#maxernst#surrealism#art#automatism#occult#frottage#strange#unusual#rarebook#books#leonoracarrington#occult#magic