拍品專文
In pagan European lore the bird was often believed to be a prophet, the bearer of messages between the realms of heaven and earth. The angel is its Judaeo-Christian counterpart. The bird is a common symbol in 19th Century romanticism; the central event in Coleridge's Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner is the killing of an albatross, and composer Robert Schumann included a section titled "The Prophet-Bird" in his late suite of piano pieces, Waldscenen.
Birds often appeared in Ernst's collages and paintings of the early 1920s. They became a central theme in the "Dove" paintings and drawings of 1925-1926, of which To 100,000 Doves (Spies no. 1025) and Blue and Red Doves (Spies no. 1029) are the most noteworthy. During this period Ernst invented the technique of frottage, in which graphite is rubbed over paper placed down on textured surfaces, and the accompanying use of grattage, in which a pre-painted and partially dry canvas is vigorously scraped. These techniques enabled Ernst to devise the look of his own species of bird, one which resembled nothing in nature and seemed to exist almost as an archetypal or transcendent avian form.
This led in 1930 to the emergence of "Loplop, Superior of Birds," who becomes an alter ego for the artist. Loplop is a comic magician, a prophet-bird of the subconscious, and a symbol of sexuality freed from human constraints. In the early 1930s Ernst created over 50 paintings, drawings, collages and prints which feature Loplop, whose "elongated, anthropomorphic appearance was not without a curious resemblance to the artist himself." (W.S. Rubin, Dada Surrealism and their Heritage, New York, 1968, p. 88)
Loplop is a messenger or prophet from the subconscious, presenting his images on "signboards" he holds up to the viewer, so that the overall composition actually consists of a picture within a picture. The interior image in the present collage was created using a variety of techniques. The darkly shaded areas were produced lithographically, and the remainder of the image was drawn in pencil, with the background highlighted with white gouache. The chimaerical beast depicted here appears again in somewhat simpler form in the soft-ground etching Ernst executed to serve as the frontispiece to the deluxe edition of La cour du dragon, the third volume of his collage-novel Une semaine de bonté, 1934.
Birds often appeared in Ernst's collages and paintings of the early 1920s. They became a central theme in the "Dove" paintings and drawings of 1925-1926, of which To 100,000 Doves (Spies no. 1025) and Blue and Red Doves (Spies no. 1029) are the most noteworthy. During this period Ernst invented the technique of frottage, in which graphite is rubbed over paper placed down on textured surfaces, and the accompanying use of grattage, in which a pre-painted and partially dry canvas is vigorously scraped. These techniques enabled Ernst to devise the look of his own species of bird, one which resembled nothing in nature and seemed to exist almost as an archetypal or transcendent avian form.
This led in 1930 to the emergence of "Loplop, Superior of Birds," who becomes an alter ego for the artist. Loplop is a comic magician, a prophet-bird of the subconscious, and a symbol of sexuality freed from human constraints. In the early 1930s Ernst created over 50 paintings, drawings, collages and prints which feature Loplop, whose "elongated, anthropomorphic appearance was not without a curious resemblance to the artist himself." (W.S. Rubin, Dada Surrealism and their Heritage, New York, 1968, p. 88)
Loplop is a messenger or prophet from the subconscious, presenting his images on "signboards" he holds up to the viewer, so that the overall composition actually consists of a picture within a picture. The interior image in the present collage was created using a variety of techniques. The darkly shaded areas were produced lithographically, and the remainder of the image was drawn in pencil, with the background highlighted with white gouache. The chimaerical beast depicted here appears again in somewhat simpler form in the soft-ground etching Ernst executed to serve as the frontispiece to the deluxe edition of La cour du dragon, the third volume of his collage-novel Une semaine de bonté, 1934.