Max Ernst

Max Ernst was born in 1891 and died in 1976 ( http://www.abcgallery.com/E/ernst/ernst.html).  He was born in Bruhl near Cologne and he never received any formal training but studied philosophy and psychiatry at Bonn University between 1919-1914.
He became friends with Jean (Hans) Arp who was assoicated with several art movements. He was conscripted into the army and this had a devastating impact on his art and his life. (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Ernst) He referred to this in his autobiography as 'on the 1st day in August  1914 as the day he died' and 'on the 11th November 1918 the day he was resurrected'.
After being demobbed he founded a group of Dadaists which is a form of anachist art.  Dadaism sprung from WW1 and for some it was a protest against bourgeois nationalism and colonist ideals, which many thought that this was the underlying cause of wars. 
( http://www.abcgallery.com/E/ernst/ernst.html).  His works of this period consisted of collage and junk assemblages.

             Down loaded from the Bridgeman Education Library, collage 1920-21 in the Dada style

In 1924 Andre Breton first published the First Surrealist Manifesto and Max Ernst was among those who took an active part in founding the new movement.  Ernst also developed Frottage (French for rubbing) a technic where paper is held over a textured surface and then with pencil rubbing over the paper to create a pattern in a similiar way to brass rubbing.  He also developed a technique called grattage where usually dry paint is scratched off the surface revealing a textured surface underneath.

                 Downloaded from the Bridgeman Education Library Fish bone Flowers 1928 Oil on Canvas
In 1918 he Married Luise Straus although this was short lived his son was born in 1920 and in 1921 he met Paul Eluard and moved in with him leaving his wife and son behind. He signed a contract with Jacues Viot which allowed hin to paint full time, and in 1925 he set up a studio at 22 Rue  In 1926 he collaborated with Joan Miro and experiemented with his frottage and grattage techniques
In 1927 he married Marie-Berthe Aureche which again did not last long  and again he remarried art patron Peggy Guggenheim in 1942.  After another shortlived marriage in 1946 he married Dorothea Tanning.  They lived in Sedona Arizona until 1953 when they both moved to a small town South of Paris where in 1966 he created a chessgame made of glass described by the poet Andre Verdet as a masterpiece of bewitching magic.
Ernst died on 1st April 1976 and left a huge imprint in the world of modern art.