Summary of Max Ernst - Inspiration to Order

Summary of Max Ernst “Inspiration to Order”

Max Ernst begins his essay by recounting a creative experience.  The sequence of events entail the discovery of textures on a floor; producing rubbings that brought out the details; a heightened sense of visionary powers; an association with love, and the unleashing of a flood of ideas (58-59).   The experience was spontaneous and hypnotic and the materials tended to lose their physical attributes when he drew to this state of mind (59).    The process of diminishing character is, “likely to throw light on the first cause of the obsession, or at least to provide a substitute for it” (59).  In other words, the material loses its characteristics and become more representative of the psychological factors that inspired the act.

The process of the rubbings is referred to as the frottage process.   Ernst associates not only the physical act of the rubbing with the process, but also the intensifying of the mind’s capacity for nervous excitement (59).  Artists are better able to remove themselves or reduce their influence from the work, in this state of mind.  It is Ernst’s belief that the author is a spectator during the creative act and that they are impassioned and indifferent (59).  More specifically, “the artist’s role is to gather together and then give out that which makes itself visible within him” (59).  

Ernst discusses the creation of poetic experience through juxtaposition of things out of place.  He writes that the artist must be willing to put everything completely out of place (60).  He advises that the relationships between “false absolutes” will force a different “absolute” that will become immediately true and poetic (60).   The idea is that the pairing of opposing realities forces viewers to make connections and mentally fill in the gaps.  These connections then give authenticity to viewers as they are ones forged the concepts.

Ernst describes another creative experience generated from a catalogue.  He experienced the nervous excitement and his mind made associations between the random images within the pages (61).  What is unique about this experience is that he did not feel he needed to generate a new idea from scratch, but could just add to the existing images (61).

The essay ends with Ernst claiming that Surrealism has “opened up a field of vision limited only by the mind’s capacity for nervous excitement” (61).   He views this as a new and exciting field and that critics oppose the idea of minimizing artists or their talents (61).  However, he seems to enjoy the idea that surrealism is available to anyone attracted to “true revelation” and that surrealism is a “hastening the general crisis of consciousness” (61).

Ernst, Max. “Inspiration to Order.” The Creative Process: A Symposium. Ed. Brewster Ghislen.  Berkeley: University of California Press. 1985. 58-61. Print.