Max Ernst

Donald Ung, Paris

Galerie Thomas, Munich (acquired from the above in 1970)

Acquired in 2024 by the present owner

Cahiers d'Art (ed.), Max Ernst, œuvres de 1919 à 1936, Paris 1937, p. 94, illustration of the 1936 version

J. Russell, Max Ernst, Life and Work, London 1967, no. 127, p. 331, illustration of the 1936 version

U.M. Schneede, The Essential Max Ernst, London 1972, no. 309/310, p. 156, reproduction of the 1936 version

Willy Rotzler, Objektkunst von Duchamp bis Kienholz, Köln 1972, p. 55, illustration of another number of the edition

Werner Spies, Sigrid Metken and Günter Metken, Max Ernst. Oeuvre-Katalog. Bd. 4. 1929-1938, vol. IV, Houston 1979, no. 2251-1, p. 361, illustration of another number of the edition

Paris, Galerie Charles Ratton, Exposition surréaliste d' objects, 1936, the 1936 version exhibited

Paris, Galerie des Beaux Arts, Exposition internationale du Surréalisme, 1938, no. 81, the 1936 version exhibited

Paris, Grand Palais, Max Ernst, 1975, no. 222, p. 161, illustration of the number HC 000 of the edition

Basel, Museum Tinguely, Max Ernst. Im Garten der Nymphe Ancolie, 2007/2008, p. 220, illustrated p. 76

Paris, Centre Pompidou, Le surréalisme et l’objet, 2013/14

• This sculptural work exemplifies Ernst’s transition from two-dimensional collage to three-dimensional assemblage
• The sculpture is an ironic hybrid of toy, machine, and household appliance
• Paired with its title, “Mobile Object Recommended for Families,” the work satirizes bourgeois ideals and critiques blind faith in modern technology

Max Ernst, a pioneering figure in both Dadaism and Surrealism, played a central role in redefining modern art through his radical experiments with both collage and assemblage. By the mid-1930s, Ernst had increasingly turned toward three-dimensional forms, creating sculptural objects that defied conventional categorization. Deeply influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s objets trouvés and André Breton’s vision of the unconscious, Ernst sought to blur the boundaries between the real and the imaginary, the mechanical and the organic, the rational and the absurd.

Objet mobile recommandé aux familles (1936) exemplifies Ernst’s surrealist approach to object-making. At first glance, the sculpture resembles a curious hybrid of toy, machine, and domestic appliance. Yet its construction is paradoxical, suggesting functionality while denying any clear purpose. This playful ambiguity creates a sense of both attraction and unease. The title, which translates to “Mobile object recommended for families,” adds a layer of irony: what appears to be harmless and utilitarian is, in fact, absurd and grotesque. Rather than a comforting presence in the home, the object stands as a critique of the bourgeois ideal of the family and the blind faith in modern technology.

The work reflects Ernst’s embrace of “poetic logic”, a Surrealist strategy that privileges intuition and unconscious association over reason and order. In doing so, he recontextualizes the ordinary, revealing its strangeness. Objet mobile is not merely a visual provocation; it functions as a spatial manifesto of Surrealist thinking, using the sculptural medium to explore psychological and emotional dimensions.

Executed in a period when Ernst was increasingly exploring the intersections of technology, the object also speaks to a broader cultural moment. The year 1936 marked the International Surrealist Exhibition in London, an event that solidified the movement’s global reach, with Ernst as a key participant. Within this context, Objet mobile recommandé aux familles stands as a significant contribution to Surrealism’s sculptural vocabulary: a poetic distortion of the everyday that invites viewers to reimagine the familiar through the lens of the subconscious. By transforming found materials into unsettling new forms, Ernst produces an iconic work that brings together many of the core ideas of the Surrealist movement.