This small collage is one of a series of eleven works executed for the exhibition “Max Ernst and Hans Arp,” which was held at Galerie Der Spiegel in Cologne. “Der Spiegel” means “the mirror” in English, and the gallery’s catalogs were titled Go through the Mirror, so it was fitting that Max Ernst used window molding illustrations found in a catalogue of architectural ornaments for the mirror frames, and then added lion or human faces also cut from the ornament catalogue, as though they were peeking through the mirrors. This angel was probably one such ornament, too. Ernst’s favorite book was Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. Spreading his wing out of the mirror, this angel seems to invite viewers to enter the mysterious dream world beyond the glass, as Alice does. The two worlds in front and behind the glass are connected.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)
This small collage is one of a series of eleven works executed for the exhibition “Max Ernst and Hans Arp,” which was held at Galerie Der Spiegel in Cologne. “Der Spiegel” means “the mirror” in English, and the gallery’s catalogs were titled Go through the Mirror, so it was fitting that Max Ernst used window molding illustrations found in a catalogue of architectural ornaments for the mirror frames, and then added lion or human faces also cut from the ornament catalogue, as though they were peeking through the mirrors. This angel was probably one such ornament, too. Ernst’s favorite book was Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. Spreading his wing out of the mirror, this angel seems to invite viewers to enter the mysterious dream world beyond the glass, as Alice does. The two worlds in front and behind the glass are connected.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)