{"id":1829,"date":"2010-11-05T10:21:32","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T14:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1829"},"modified":"2010-11-05T10:21:32","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T14:21:32","slug":"max-ernst-fractal-arts-imaginary-link","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1829","title":{"rendered":"Max Ernst: Fractal Art’s Imaginary Link"},"content":{"rendered":"

~ Click on any image to view a larger version on the original site ~<\/em><\/p>\n

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Sahelanthropus tchadensis by Didier Descouens CC-SA<\/p><\/div>\n

Although the works of Max Ernst<\/a> (1891-1976) might exhibit a pronounced frontal brow on their foreheads, closer examination reveals startling similarities between them and the contemporary fractal art that now inhabits the same landscapes they once did.<\/p>\n

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Europe After the Rain by Max Ernst 1942<\/p><\/div>\n

Ernest employed a technique of squished paint.\u00a0 Touched-up obviously and with some additional hand-painted elements, but what a fine way to represent the airborne decay of the European urban landscape in the early days of WW2.\u00a0 The abstract, unrealistic imagery of paint squishing (decalcomania<\/a>) has real similarities to the algorithmic renderings produced by aerial bombardment.\u00a0 Ernst’s image is a better expression of that because it works even worse thoughts in our imagination.\u00a0 It also, perhaps, served as inspiration of Ernst himself to produce the work he did.\u00a0 The same imaginary effects that work on the artist are felt by the audience too.<\/p>\n

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The Entire City by Max Ernst, 1936<\/p><\/div>\n

If you will forget for a moment the central theme of Ernst’s work here, you will undoubtedly recognize a proto<\/em>-mandelbox in this image.\u00a0 Seriously, Ernst is portraying a single, monolithic image of a “lump” as an iconic image for a city.\u00a0 But wait, what came first?\u00a0 Was it Ernst’s idea to portray a city this way, or was it Ernst’s creation of an interesting “lump” that triggered the concept of The Entire City in his<\/em> imagination?<\/p>\n

Again, the imaginary workings of Ernst’s imagery conjure up a twilight zone where abstraction and realism meet.<\/p>\n

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Fishbone Forest by Max Ernst, 1927<\/p><\/div>\n

Did he make that circular Sun-like object in the sky by pressing a pop bottle into the canvas?\u00a0 Artists like Ernst are sometimes shockingly creative.\u00a0 Of all the skulls we’ve unearthed here, this one displays the fractalopithecus<\/a> family characteristics the best:\u00a0 Abstract imagery used to imagine an alternate but legible reality.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s an example of what fractals can sometimes do because fractals are primarily abstract but can sometimes be found in naturally occuring formations where they suddenly suggest<\/em> realistic themes.\u00a0 I call this neither abstract nor realism but instead: imaginary<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s already cropping up here and there because fractal artists sense something of interest in their imaginary scenes but they fumble with the terms for it because the currently used terms don’t apply to this artificial “realism”.<\/p>\n

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Fleurs sur Fond Jaune by Max Ernst, 19-something<\/p><\/div>\n

Unfortunately I can’t find a larger version of this image (or the year it was made).\u00a0 Perhaps it is perennially new because every viewer interprets it differently.\u00a0 It’s more than just a study of popcorn; the flowers have transcended their real forms and become vivid imaginations of what they once were.\u00a0 We will not see flowers like this anywhere in the world, and yet we will recognize them when we do.\u00a0 The same imagination is present in both graphical experiences, real and imaginary.<\/p>\n

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Hommage a Rimbaud by Max Ernst, 1961<\/p><\/div>\n

The Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery<\/a> site says this about the above image by Ernst:<\/p>\n

The most inventive prints by the surrealist Max Ernst were arguably produced after the Second World War in collaboration with the master etcher George Visat. This is from a series, developed in the early 1960s, on the theme of the ovoid or egg shape. This most essential of natural forms is here conceived as a constant spiral, half-submerged in a web of textural irregularities. In this ‘hidden’ vision, Ernst appropriately pays homage to the symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Inventive \/ <\/em>theme of the ovoid or egg shape \/ hidden vision \/ symbolist”<\/em> I’m not the only one to see modern things in this pre-fractal artifact.<\/p>\n

Imaginary art opens it’s mouth but it doesn’t speak –it sings.\u00a0 The title can be part of the work and not merely some stuck-on<\/em> thing; an iconic utterance as ancient as Adam naming the animals.\u00a0 It doesn’t stick; it protrudes from the image.<\/p>\n

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The Forest by Max Ernst, 1928<\/p><\/div>\n

Forests don’t look like this, but some do feel like it sometimes.\u00a0 There is a forest like this somewhere out in the world, undiscovered by us, and this image prophesies it.\u00a0 Imaginary art slips past our eyes and makes a direct appeal to our minds by conveying, in secret alphabet, a message our eyeball gatekeepers would have turned away.\u00a0 It’s a parable or metaphor: more real than the real thing.\u00a0 I can’t think of any better way to define what “art” is than that: art is what you think of when you’re looking at it.<\/p>\n

There are great expressive possibilities for fractal art.\u00a0 But first we have to accept, like I believe Ernst accepted with his own work, that we are better off letting it direct us than we are in trying to direct it -being the directed rather than the director.<\/em> How can one make imaginary things?\u00a0 They can’t, of course.\u00a0 But we can look for them and decipher their names.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the works of Max Ernst (1891-1976) might exhibit a pronounced frontal brow on their foreheads, closer examination reveals startling similarities between them and the contemporary fractal art that now inhabits the same landscapes they once did. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/712px-Sahelanthropus_tchadensis_-_TM_266-01-060-1.jpg?fit=712%2C600","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5149,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5149","url_meta":{"origin":1829,"position":0},"title":"The Synthetic Aesthetic 4: The Creative Device","author":"Tim","date":"2 October, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Creative Device Synthetic art has only one principle to it: the creative device.\u00a0 As a result, the synthetic aesthetic is not bound to any particular medium but rather is a way of being creative within any medium.\u00a0 The computerized medium holds the most potential for synthetic art because it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/apparatus.jpg?fit=400%2C282&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1031,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1031","url_meta":{"origin":1829,"position":1},"title":"Fractal Vizion’s Performing Arts","author":"Tim","date":"28 March, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you who don't know... there's a lot of fractal programs out there! 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