A Moment of Calm 1939

Max Ernst made this big painting, A Moment of Calm, using oil on canvas. What grabs me is Ernst’s process. It feels like he built up the canvas slowly, scratching and layering until this strange landscape emerged. The colors are muted, almost dreamlike, but then you see these unexpected flashes of brighter tones, like the reds and blues near the center, that draw your eye. The painting has a real tactile quality. You can almost feel the roughness of the surface and imagine the tools he used to create those intricate textures. Look closely at the way the trees are rendered. They're not solid, but made of countless tiny lines, like a nervous energy is running through them. It’s kind of like Cy Twombly's mark-making in a landscape setting, where the process of application and the history of the hand is visible in every stroke. Ultimately, this painting feels like a space where the boundaries between reality and imagination blur, inviting us to wander and get lost in its quiet intensity.