Loplop
May 31, 2015 2:08 PM Subscribe
And Loplop, bird superior, has transformed himself into flesh without flesh and will dwell among us.
Loplop was the Dada and Surrealist artist Max Ernst's alter ego. whose beloved pet cockatoo had died the same night his sister was born.
He described his birth in 1891 as having hatched from an egg that his mother laid.
Ernst took many ideas incorporated in Freud's works and used them to try to identify himself, in 1922 painting Oedipus Rex and then in 1922 Two children are threatened by a nightingale.
In 1931 Loplop; who had the previous year introduced Loplop, now introduced the surrealist group.
Ernst described collage as the "alchemy of the visual image". Loplop was the narrator in his alchemical collage novel Une Semaine de Bonté. as he had previously with La Femme de 100 tetes.
In 1937 he painted Fireside Angel predicting the rise of Fascism. and in 1940 he painted Attirement of the bride depicting his then lover Leonora Carrington. With the war arriving in Europe Ernst left for America. Loplop lived on at least through to 1960 in his sculpture.
Loplop was the Dada and Surrealist artist Max Ernst's alter ego. whose beloved pet cockatoo had died the same night his sister was born.
He described his birth in 1891 as having hatched from an egg that his mother laid.
Ernst took many ideas incorporated in Freud's works and used them to try to identify himself, in 1922 painting Oedipus Rex and then in 1922 Two children are threatened by a nightingale.
In 1931 Loplop; who had the previous year introduced Loplop, now introduced the surrealist group.
Ernst described collage as the "alchemy of the visual image". Loplop was the narrator in his alchemical collage novel Une Semaine de Bonté. as he had previously with La Femme de 100 tetes.
In 1937 he painted Fireside Angel predicting the rise of Fascism. and in 1940 he painted Attirement of the bride depicting his then lover Leonora Carrington. With the war arriving in Europe Ernst left for America. Loplop lived on at least through to 1960 in his sculpture.
Good old Une semaine de bonté.
posted by infinitewindow at 3:03 PM on May 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by infinitewindow at 3:03 PM on May 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
transformed himself into flesh without flesh and will dwell among us
I love it when that happens!
posted by Meatbomb at 3:08 PM on May 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
I love it when that happens!
posted by Meatbomb at 3:08 PM on May 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
According to WikiArt, all Ernst's works are identical renderings of the (to me, previously unknown as attributed to this artist) white-on-white work titled "Due to copyright restrictions, this image is not available in your country".
LopLop may have transformed himself into flesh without flesh, but he's not dwelling among us Brits. I know we were a bit slow on the uptake over surrealism, but that's hardly fair.
My next work will be Chance Meeting Of An Obsidian Block Of Impressive Size As Spat From The Mouth Of The Lady Of Utrecht Herself With As Many Reptilian Shape-Changing Corporate Shills As Is Necessary. Plus One For Luck.
posted by Devonian at 4:35 PM on May 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
LopLop may have transformed himself into flesh without flesh, but he's not dwelling among us Brits. I know we were a bit slow on the uptake over surrealism, but that's hardly fair.
My next work will be Chance Meeting Of An Obsidian Block Of Impressive Size As Spat From The Mouth Of The Lady Of Utrecht Herself With As Many Reptilian Shape-Changing Corporate Shills As Is Necessary. Plus One For Luck.
posted by Devonian at 4:35 PM on May 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh, it's not that. One is not easily denied. I can find Mr Ernst in great profusion on the Internet (or, indeed, my bookshelf). Or, should I wish it, I can metamorphosis into a form which the mighty digital paranoids of the Internet will swear blind is living at this very moment on the vast plains or in the mighty cities of the United States.
It's that little blob of spittle thrown into my eye at the precise moment of blameless consummation that gets me.
In its own way, it's quite surrealist - the juxtaposition, the thwarted expectation, the revelation of an unseen form through the surfaces of the familiar, the layers upon layers of irony. Take delight, I tell myself. Step back from the irksome, the hypocritical and the useless. See them all as just textures in the great human experiment.
But I love surrealism, and this is loveless.
posted by Devonian at 5:58 PM on May 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's that little blob of spittle thrown into my eye at the precise moment of blameless consummation that gets me.
In its own way, it's quite surrealist - the juxtaposition, the thwarted expectation, the revelation of an unseen form through the surfaces of the familiar, the layers upon layers of irony. Take delight, I tell myself. Step back from the irksome, the hypocritical and the useless. See them all as just textures in the great human experiment.
But I love surrealism, and this is loveless.
posted by Devonian at 5:58 PM on May 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
Great post, thanks.
posted by rock swoon has no past at 7:24 PM on May 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by rock swoon has no past at 7:24 PM on May 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
Max Ernst, my favorite painter, forever. One of the best things about him is his artistic trajectory. Most artists change over the course of their career, but not always in the way Ernst did, distilling his art to its powerful essence. Loplop at home in the Cosmos.
After decades of worshipping him wherever I could (most notably, recently, at the Vancouver Art Gallery: The Colour of My Dreams, the Surrealist blockbuster show of the summer of 2011) I'm headed for The Max Ernst Museum near Cologne in a month and a half!
(And then a pilgrimage to Franz Kafka's home town!)
posted by kozad at 7:53 PM on May 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
After decades of worshipping him wherever I could (most notably, recently, at the Vancouver Art Gallery: The Colour of My Dreams, the Surrealist blockbuster show of the summer of 2011) I'm headed for The Max Ernst Museum near Cologne in a month and a half!
(And then a pilgrimage to Franz Kafka's home town!)
posted by kozad at 7:53 PM on May 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
I adore Max Ernst's surrealist collages. His "Une Semaine de Bonte" is inspirational and very inexpensive, highly recommended. The attitude in the artworks is of half-animal people running around threatened by dragons and water, like a subterranean noir.
posted by shavenwarthog at 8:10 AM on June 1, 2015
posted by shavenwarthog at 8:10 AM on June 1, 2015
I’m another admirer of Ernst’s work. I first heard of him (and of Loplop) via a TV documentary I saw about him back in the late ’80s or early ’90s (the specific details of which I can’t now recall). Even though this was years before I developed any real interest in art, he nevertheless came across as a singularly fascinating man. There’s a (different, but also very interesting) documentary about him on YouTube which, while it doesn’t make any specific mention of Loplop, does include Ernst talking about the incident of his cockatoo’s death and his sister’s birth.
posted by misteraitch at 8:16 AM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by misteraitch at 8:16 AM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
I really enjoyed this post.
posted by Oyéah at 10:10 PM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Oyéah at 10:10 PM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
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...is one of the most beautiful paintings. I used to have a t-shirt with that print on it but an ex gf of mine absconded with it.
posted by Fizz at 2:12 PM on May 31, 2015 [1 favorite]