A day trip to cherish… Lady Bianca… a special day… Happy Birthday!
AFROSOLO PRESENTS: LADY BIANCA & THE WEST COAST CARAVAN OF ALLSTARS
Maison Nico… Transamerica Pyramid… an American dream…
The Cube… Midnight March… Masaki Miki…
Center for Architecture + Design… Do Not Try to Remember: The American School
of Architecture in the Bay Area… Holy Nata… sweet end of a magic day!
TRANSAMERICA PYRAMID’S SECRET GARDEN JUST GOT FAMED SURREALIST’S SCULPTURES
Feeling uneasy about the prospect of war and already branded a centerpiece of the “degenerate art movement,” as the Nazis called it, Ernst and Carrington fled Paris in 1938 for Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche, a hamlet in the South of France, where they lived in a cottage. There, Ernst created an enchanting group of sculptures to populate the garden, while Carrington adorned the interior walls with mystical murals.
The artistic Eden was short-lived. After war was declared in 1939, Ernst was twice imprisoned — first by the French as a German national and later by the Gestapo. His escape to the United States marked a critical turning point in his life and in the migration of avant-garde art to the New World.
The sculptures he left behind, restored in this installation, are described in an essay published by the Gallery Wendi Norris as “the last breath of the avant-garde before its relocation to the other side of the ocean.”
Ernst’s otherworldly bronze creatures summon mythologies from ancient Rome, Egypt, and Syria. Mermaids, sphinxes, and totemic figures gather in silent conversation, anchored by the recurring presence of “Loplop” — Ernst’s alter ego, an anthropomorphic bird who serves as trickster and guide through his layered dreamworlds.
Max Ernst at Transamerica Pyramid Center
Public Art at the Transamerica Pyramid: An Interview With Art Collector and Developer Michael Shvo