JIMMY ERNST | BLACK ON BLACK

Gallery of Surrealism, New York

Acquired from the above on May 1, 2004

Jimmy Ernst was a prominent figure in the New York avant-garde scene during the mid-twentieth century. Born in Cologne to Surrealist artist Max Ernst and art historian and journalist Louise Straus, Jimmy’s childhood was spent in the company of the likes of Dalí, Buñuel, Man Ray, Masson and Tanguy. At the age of 13 he emigrated to New York and found work at the film library of the Museum of Modern Art. In New York, he was able to develop his art practice and had his first exhibition at the Norlyst Gallery in 1943. Building on the Surrealist tradition of his father’s art, Jimmy soon found his own voice working in a more linear and geometric style. Around this time, Jimmy also became the director of Peggy Guggenheim’s The Art of This Century Gallery.

Finding his place among the Abstract Expresionists, Ernst joined The Irascible Eighteen, alongside Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollack and Robert Motherwell, in protesting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s policy against exhibiting abstract painting in juried shows. Ernst had a long and varied career, and his work is now featured in the collections of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.