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.
Max ErnstRead
Creativity is that marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creativity involves connecting different ideas to form something new and innovative.
Max Ernst's quote emphasizes the incredible ability of creativity to unite seemingly unrelated concepts, enabling an individual to generate new ideas or works of art through the contrast and comparison of these ideas. This process of juxtaposition sparks inspiration and innovation, illustrating that true creativity often thrives at the intersection of diverse thoughts and realities.
Themes
CreativityJuxtapositionInnovationArtInspiration
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a creative workshop to inspire artists and thinkers alike.
More from Max Ernst
All quotes βPainting is neither decorative amusement, nor the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation.
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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.
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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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