Dimensions: support: 1254 x 1079 mm frame: 1397 x 1210 x 102 mm
Copyright: © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Max Ernst's "Celebes," currently residing at the Tate Modern. The... machine-like elephant form is captivating. What do you see in this piece, especially concerning its materiality? Curator: Ernst’s use of oil on canvas transforms industrial imagery into something almost organic. The "elephant" itself, fabricated perhaps from metal scraps and wartime remnants, questions the boundaries between the manufactured and the living. How does that tension strike you? Editor: It makes me think about the societal embrace of technology versus its inherent coldness, especially after the World Wars. Curator: Precisely. Ernst's work embodies the anxieties and the fascination with technology that defined the era, reflecting upon labor, consumption, and the very materials of our world. Interesting, isn't it? Editor: Absolutely, I'll never look at machinery the same way again!
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tatemodern 27 days ago
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The central rotund shape in this painting derives from a photograph of a Sudanese corn-bin, which Ernst has transformed into a sinister mechanical monster. Ernst often re-used found images, and either added or removed elements in order to create new realities, all the more disturbing for being drawn from the known world. The work’s title comes from a childish German rhyme that begins: ‘The elephant from Celebes has sticky, yellow bottom grease’. The painting’s inexplicable combinations, such as the headless female figure and the elephant-like creature, suggest images from a dream and the Freudian technique of free association. Gallery label, October 2016
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