Creativity is that marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition.
Max ErnstRead
Who made art history? Not the most reasonable people. The mad men did. If painting is the mirror of a time, it must be mad to have a true image of what that time is. To one madness we oppose another madness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art reflects the chaos of its time, often driven by unconventional thinkers.
Max Ernst suggests that true art does not conform to reason; instead, it emerges from the minds of those deemed 'mad' or unconventional. He implies that to capture the essence of a particular era, artists must embrace a certain madness, as it reflects the underlying complexities and tumultuous nature of society.
Themes
ArtMadnessCreativityExpressionHistory
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of creativity in education.
More from Max Ernst
All quotes →Painting is neither decorative amusement, nor the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation.
Max ErnstRead
When the artist finds himself he is lost. The fact that he has succeeded in never finding himself is regarded by Max Ernst as his only lasting achievement.
Max ErnstRead
Collage is the noble conquest of the irrational, the coupling of two realities, irreconcilable in appearance, upon a plane which apparently does not suit them.
Max ErnstRead
Every normal human being (and not merely the 'artist') has an inexhaustible store of buried images in his subconscious, it is merely a matter of courage or liberating procedures ... of voyages into the unconscious, to bring pure and unadulterated found objects to light.
Max ErnstRead
Painting is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation.
Max ErnstRead
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