Max Ernst’s frottage

Who in their earliest childhood did not trace an illustration on a sheet of paper on a bench in the light of a
window? Or, taking advantage of the interesting relief of a surface, they traced their motifs by sliding a
pencil with the same blank sheet of paper as the only barrier. What apparently could be a
mere entertainment for a child with a restless mind was a real revolution and marked the work
of one of the most sought-after surrealist artists at auction with an
annual global sales volume of millions of euros, with one work exhibited in renowned institutions such as the
Reina Sofia National Art Museum MAX ERSNT (Brüh, Germany. 1891 – Paris, France. 1976)
After taking his first steps into Dadaism back in the first quarter of the 20th century, he began to be
nourished by Surrealism once He came into contact with the Parisian scene, where he established his
permanent residence in 1922. It was at this stage, during a trip with his wife to
French Brittany, when he was absorbed by the ins and outs of the wood grain typical of the floor of any
accommodation . of the 1920s, he decided to throw himself on the floor, and placing random sheets of paper on them,
he began to rub with his lead pencil with enough force to capture the
hidden drawings with a fleetingness that Ernst himself compared to his loving memories. . This technique
was baptized as Frottage.

Why tracing is not a game

We cannot say that the technique was invented by Ernst, since it was nothing new, but
its use by the artist meant the recognition of frottage (or tracing) as a pictorial technique, in the same
way as thanks to the figure of Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, among others,
graffiti was recognized as a pictorial discipline as early as the 1980s. In 1926, a year after his
eventful first frottage, his first compilation was published in an album of thirty-four
pencil drawings with the title of Histoires naturelles.
He progressively began to include other materials, especially those of natural origin such as
leaves, pieces of hemp fabric, thread and other random elements. The result was a
harmonious and balanced painting in which sometimes the original material is unrecognizable, an authentic
reflection of its inner reality captured through the textures of nature as the only
extrasensory bridge. Ernst adapted frottage to oil painting by scraping the surface of the canvas
previously treated with pigments.
But it was not the only “exceptional” technique he used; Decalcomania, created by the
Canarian surrealist artist Óscar Domínguez (1906 – 1957), generates figures by compressing a
canvas or paper impregnated with fresh or semi-liquid paint, on itself or with the help of
external materials.

Why do we interpret it like this?

Apparently, the use of these techniques does not require great artistic skill, I insist,
apparently. The great weight of these works lies in the conceptual background that the artist intends
to convey to us. This is the main reason why Ernst becomes one of the most
counterfeited artists on the art market along with Modigliani . Although nothing could be further from the truth.

The search for the extraordinary, both in style and in the technique used, is often
one of the most powerful claims when it comes to the starting signal for an artist in
the art market. Many of these artists generate the typical comment typical of a room
specialized in contemporary art: “Even a child can do this,” as if an infant
had experienced on their skin the personal anguish and chaos due to the political situation of the moment that it
conveys. Pollock’s dripping, or on the contrary, the fantastic theme of our
protagonist’s frottage, fleeing from the cruelty of war events and seeking refuge in nature
. You already know our opinion on the matter in this post: “My six-year-old daughter paints the same way”, and the fact
is that the randomness of the aforementioned techniques does not detract from them; a child can splash a
canvas or trace a surface, but can he convey the same?. At Saisho we think not.