Ernst, Max (1891-1976)
La Lune en bouteille (Moon in a Bottle)
1955
Oil on canvas, 60 × 81.3 cm
Tate Britain, London
After an eight-year exile in the USA, where he settled in Arizona, Ernst began to visit Europe in 1949. He rediscovered his Surrealist companions and old haunts in Paris, and continued to experiment with painterly techniques, as can be seen in the scraped surface of Moon in a Bottle. This was completed in the year after Ernst won the painting prize at the 1954 Venice Biennale, which confirmed his status as one of the senior figures of contemporary art. (Tate)