"Europe After the Rain"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the painting "Europe After the Rain" by the well known Surrealist of Cologne and Paris, Max Ernst. Biographical material is presented as needed to explain this unusual painting as it points to primeval themes and those of destruction and nature as forever stronger than civilization. It shows how understanding the painting involves a sense of Ernst as World War I soldier, a person affected by nerves plus a strong interest in abnormal psychology, madness, and experimentation with pigments and technique.

From the Paper:

"Surrealism has been noted for its spiritual and political, as well as artistic expression, for an appeal to the unconscious, and expression that is often symbolic, if liberated from conventional form. In the mid-1930s, Max Ernst wrote of Surrealism as a form, all its own, that called for mental processes, in Beyond Painting. (1948) Since childhood, Ernst had been interested in imagery, and the powers of the imagination, and as these would take centre stage in his career, as it developed in the aftermath of World War I."

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