ABOUT THE WORK

In the summer of 1935, during a stay with Alberto Giacometti in Maloja, Switzerland, Max Ernst began his earliest exploration of sculpture. Together, the two artists collected granite stones from a nearby riverbed on the moraines of the Forno Glacier. Worn smooth by time, ice, and weather, the stones’ forms inspired Ernst to work in the round. Rather than significantly reshape them, Ernst preserved their natural shape and beauty. In some cases, he carved shallow reliefs, in others, he focused his artistry to painted iconography.

Until this point, Ernst’s engagement with sculpture had been limited to a few isolated found objects rather than a sustained body of work. The Maloja stones marked a turning point. This example features black and red painted shapes that leave areas of natural stone exposed. The result balances natural formation with artistic intervention and stands as an early and important extension of Ernst’s practice into sculpture.

This particular granite stone was formerly in the collection of Alfred H. Barr Jr., founding director of the Museum of Modern Art. Examples of Ernst’s Maloja granite stones are also held in major institutional collections, including the National Trust in the United Kingdom and the Kunsthaus Zürich in Switzerland, as well as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.