Max Ernst – Naissance d'une Galaxie (1969)

Louisiana poster with the work, Naissance d'une Galaxie - Birth of a Galaxy (1969), by the German artist, Max Ernst, (1891-1976). Max Ernst's picture is from the year of the moon landing in 1969, and was on loan to Louisiana's exhibition, The Moon—From the Inner World to the Outer Space , in 2018.

The exhibition showed up to 150 works about the moon, as one of our culture's great motifs, and drew a multifaceted portrait of the Earth's natural satellite through art, film, music, literature, cultural-historical objects, design, architecture, natural science and astronomy.

As the only celestial body whose surface can be seen with the naked eye from Earth, the Moon has fascinated artists and writers for centuries. Its round, white disc has been an open projection surface for myths, imaginings and dreams.

When we look out into space, we also see ourselves—and the Moon becomes, as an absolute otherness , a mirror for the human. Here, science and folklore, fiction and technology, existential quest and economic expansion meet.

Louisiana's exhibit explored how seemingly conflicting cultural impulses intertwine in the Moon's recent history.

Max Ernst was born in Germany and later acquired both American and French citizenship. He was one of the leading figures within both the Dada movement and Surrealism, experimenting with and mastering—a myriad of genres and techniques.