Jimmy Ernst

Jimmy Ernst (1920-1984), son of Max Ernst, was born Hans-Ulrich Ernst in Cologne, Germany in 1920. Through his father, he met many famous Surrealist artists who would influence his early work.  He immigrated to New York after Hitler’s rise to power. He worked for the Museum of Modern Art in the film library before becoming the Director of Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery. In 1943 he had his first solo exhibition. Ernst’s early work was surrealist and built on a foundation produced by Surrealist automatism with biomorphic forms. His work evolved into Abstract Expressionism concentrating on a linear and geometric style. His work in the genre led to him joining the Irascible Eighteen in 1950 as they protested the Metropolitan Museum of Art and their refusal to allow abstraction in a juried exhibition. However, in the 60s and 70s, Ernst returned to figuration and began incorporating Native American symbols in his paintings. His late career is characterized by landscapes reminiscent of the linear precision in his early abstract works. He was appointed an instructor at the Department of Design, Brooklyn College in 1951. His accolades include the 1961 Guggenheim Fellowship, 1967 Carnegie Foundation Grant, 1982 honorary degree from Long Island University, election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1983, and the National Academy of Design in 1977.