Question 1

True or false: Max Ernst never visited the United States, despite his fame there.

Accepted Answer

False. He fled to the US in 1941 during WWII, living in New York and Arizona until returning to France in 1953.

Question 2

True or false: Max Ernst was a German-born artist who became a naturalized French citizen after World War II.

Accepted Answer

True. Max Ernst fled Europe during WWII, lived in the United States, and later returned to France, becoming a French citizen in 1958.

Question 3

True or false: Max Ernst served as a fighter pilot in the German Luftwaffe during World War I.

Accepted Answer

False. Max Ernst was drafted into the German army in 1914 and served as an artillery engineer, not a pilot. The war profoundly affected his later art.

Question 4

True or false: Max Ernst was born in Zurich, Switzerland, and grew up there.

Accepted Answer

False. Max Ernst was born in Brühl, near Cologne, Germany, on April 2, 1891. He spent his childhood in Germany, not Switzerland.

Question 5

True or false: Max Ernst was a founder of both Dada and Surrealism.

Accepted Answer

True. He helped launch Dada in Cologne and later became a key Surrealist, pioneering techniques like frottage and collage.

Question 6

True or false: Max Ernst was a founding member of the Dada movement in Cologne.

Accepted Answer

True. In 1919, Max Ernst, along with Johannes Baargeld and Hans Arp, established the Cologne Dada group and organized provocative exhibitions.

Question 7

True or false: Max Ernst studied at the Bauhaus school under Walter Gropius.

Accepted Answer

False. Max Ernst never attended the Bauhaus. He studied philosophy and art history at the University of Bonn and was largely self-taught as an artist.

Question 8

True or false: Max Ernst's famous painting 'The Elephant Celebes' was inspired by a dream of a mechanical elephant.

Accepted Answer

False. It was actually based on a photo of a Sudanese grain silo, not a dream. The title comes from a German children's rhyme.

Question 9

True or false: Max Ernst was married to fellow artist Dorothea Tanning from 1946 until his death in 1976.

Accepted Answer

True. They married in 1946 and remained together until Ernst's death in 1976, a span of nearly 30 years.

Question 10

True or false: Max Ernst was married to the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.

Accepted Answer

False. Max Ernst was married to Peggy Guggenheim (1941–1946) and later to Dorothea Tanning (1946–1976). Frida Kahlo was married to Diego Rivera.

Question 11

True or false: Max Ernst developed the frottage technique by rubbing pencil over paper placed on textured surfaces.

Accepted Answer

True. Max Ernst invented frottage in 1925 after being inspired by the texture of floorboards. This method became a key Surrealist technique.

Question 12

True or false: Ernst's work 'Ubu Imperator' features a giant spinning top with a human leg.

Accepted Answer

True. This 1923 painting shows a bizarre top-like figure with a single leg, blending mechanical and organic forms.

Question 13

True or false: Max Ernst created the collage novel 'Une Semaine de Bonté' using images from Victorian catalogs.

Accepted Answer

True. Published in 1934, 'Une Semaine de Bonté' contains 182 collages made from 19th-century engravings, a landmark of Surrealist book art.

Question 14

True or false: Ernst created the 'grattage' technique by scraping paint over textured surfaces.

Accepted Answer

True. Grattage involved scraping wet paint across a canvas laid on textured objects, revealing unexpected patterns.

Question 15

True or false: Max Ernst was arrested by the Gestapo during World War II for his art.

Accepted Answer

True. The Gestapo arrested him in 1940 as a degenerate artist; he escaped and later fled to the U.S.

Question 16

True or false: Ernst invented the surrealist game 'Exquisite Corpse' with André Breton and others.

Accepted Answer

False. While a Surrealist, the Exquisite Corpse game was created by Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró, and friends, not Ernst.

Max Ernst Trivia Questions