0:00:00.375,0:00:03.375 (jazzy piano music) 0:00:04.610,0:00:06.050 - [Steven] We're in the[br]Museum of Modern Art. 0:00:06.050,0:00:08.000 And we're looking at a[br]painting by Max Ernst, 0:00:08.000,0:00:10.480 Two Children Are Threatened[br]by a Nightingale, 0:00:10.480,0:00:12.800 and this isn't a painting[br]in the traditional sense. 0:00:12.800,0:00:14.200 There's stuff in it. 0:00:14.200,0:00:16.000 - [Beth] A lot of stuff, actually, 0:00:16.000,0:00:18.850 that emerges toward us from the painting. 0:00:18.850,0:00:22.730 There's an open gate,[br]there's a rudimentary house 0:00:22.730,0:00:25.880 with some other objects[br]stuck on top of it. 0:00:25.880,0:00:28.230 And there's something[br]that looks like a knob. 0:00:28.230,0:00:30.610 - [Steven] And despite[br]these toy-like objects 0:00:30.610,0:00:33.090 that are nailed into the[br]surface of the painting, 0:00:33.090,0:00:35.780 there are references to[br]the tradition of painting. 0:00:35.780,0:00:37.970 There's a deep recessionary space 0:00:37.970,0:00:40.670 that's beautifully expressed[br]by linear perspective 0:00:40.670,0:00:43.100 and by atmospheric perspective, 0:00:43.100,0:00:45.870 but tradition pretty much stops there. 0:00:45.870,0:00:47.610 - [Beth] Including[br]objects from everyday life 0:00:47.610,0:00:51.620 had been done by Picasso and[br]Braque about a decade earlier, 0:00:51.620,0:00:55.580 but in those paintings we[br]see forms that still cohere. 0:00:55.580,0:00:58.620 What we have here is something[br]that was very important 0:00:58.620,0:01:01.200 to Dadaist artists, and that[br]is the bringing together 0:01:01.200,0:01:03.260 of really disparate objects. 0:01:03.260,0:01:06.680 We see the title on this painted frame 0:01:06.680,0:01:10.660 and then we see a surface[br]painted with a thick impasto 0:01:10.660,0:01:14.790 in very flat green and two[br]figures painted in grisailles, 0:01:14.790,0:01:17.080 that is painted in grayish tones. 0:01:17.080,0:01:18.610 - [Steven] These are both female figures. 0:01:18.610,0:01:20.670 The one that's upright seems to be running 0:01:20.670,0:01:22.250 holding an enormous knife. 0:01:22.250,0:01:24.501 Her hair is flying up behind her, 0:01:24.501,0:01:26.670 and so there's a sense of[br]velocity, a sense of drama 0:01:26.670,0:01:29.780 which suggests that she's[br]either fleeing or chasing. 0:01:29.780,0:01:32.380 And it's completely unclear as to which. 0:01:32.380,0:01:36.230 - [Beth] And she moves toward[br]the outside of the painting. 0:01:36.230,0:01:38.500 And so if she is running from something 0:01:38.500,0:01:40.060 we don't see anything behind her. 0:01:40.060,0:01:41.760 And we certainly don't see anything 0:01:41.760,0:01:43.330 that she could be running toward. 0:01:43.330,0:01:45.920 So we're missing a big[br]piece of that narrative. 0:01:45.920,0:01:49.460 And then this figure who is either asleep 0:01:49.460,0:01:52.830 or wounded or dead in this green field. 0:01:52.830,0:01:55.450 There is a feeling of danger. 0:01:55.450,0:01:57.310 Perhaps the woman on[br]the left with the knife 0:01:57.310,0:02:01.280 is reacting in some way to[br]that figure on the ground. 0:02:01.280,0:02:02.920 - [Steven] But they're far enough away 0:02:02.920,0:02:04.770 that they're also disassociated. 0:02:04.770,0:02:06.740 And that's the confusing part. 0:02:06.740,0:02:08.520 The woman with the[br]knife is running by her. 0:02:08.520,0:02:12.140 She's not running at, or from[br]the figure on the ground. 0:02:12.140,0:02:14.620 - [Beth] I think that you[br]raise an important point 0:02:14.620,0:02:17.080 that they're not near one another, 0:02:17.080,0:02:20.510 but we really can't judge[br]distance here at all. 0:02:20.510,0:02:24.170 That wall moves too quickly[br]back into that space. 0:02:24.170,0:02:27.720 Those forms in the background,[br]what looked like a wall, 0:02:27.720,0:02:31.350 a triumphal arch, and behind[br]that a domed structure 0:02:31.350,0:02:34.730 perhaps with a minaret[br]or a wall around it, 0:02:34.730,0:02:36.770 how far away are those? 0:02:36.770,0:02:39.230 How far away other[br]figures from one another? 0:02:39.230,0:02:43.270 The depth of that green field[br]is impossible to determine. 0:02:43.270,0:02:46.520 And then these objects[br]are really close to us. 0:02:46.520,0:02:48.580 - [Steven] I always think[br]of this as metaphorical, 0:02:48.580,0:02:52.250 that that ancient Roman arch[br]is the distance of history. 0:02:52.250,0:02:55.350 And the domed architecture[br]reminds me at least 0:02:55.350,0:02:59.240 of Renaissance paintings that[br]show Jerusalem at a distance. 0:02:59.240,0:03:01.240 And so the distance is not only physical, 0:03:01.240,0:03:03.580 but perhaps historical or metaphorical. 0:03:03.580,0:03:05.070 - [Beth] And we shouldn't forget about 0:03:05.070,0:03:08.970 what is perhaps the most[br]menacing figure in the painting, 0:03:08.970,0:03:11.020 the figure who alights on the roof 0:03:11.020,0:03:12.550 as though he's been flying 0:03:12.550,0:03:16.720 with just his right toes carrying a child, 0:03:16.720,0:03:19.540 and like the female[br]figure carrying the knife, 0:03:19.540,0:03:21.690 reaches out his arm and moves toward 0:03:21.690,0:03:23.780 outside the frame of the painting. 0:03:23.780,0:03:25.640 - [Steven] In fact, he[br]almost seems to be trying 0:03:25.640,0:03:27.550 to reach or touch the knob 0:03:27.550,0:03:29.930 that is physically attached to the frame. 0:03:29.930,0:03:33.030 And like the figures below[br]the child and the man 0:03:33.030,0:03:34.530 are painted in grisailles, 0:03:34.530,0:03:38.250 which some art historians[br]have noted reminds them 0:03:38.250,0:03:41.660 of Ernst's earlier collages,[br]where he would cut out 0:03:41.660,0:03:44.110 black and white photographs or drawings 0:03:44.110,0:03:45.300 and paste them together. 0:03:45.300,0:03:47.890 There is a fifth figure[br]also painted in grisailles. 0:03:47.890,0:03:50.400 And that's a bird,[br]presumably the nightingale. 0:03:50.400,0:03:52.050 - [Beth] The title tells us that this is 0:03:52.050,0:03:54.040 about the menacing of the nightingale, 0:03:54.040,0:03:56.560 this bird, which has a beautiful song 0:03:56.560,0:03:58.450 and which is supposed to seduce us, 0:03:58.450,0:04:00.270 does the very opposite here. 0:04:00.270,0:04:02.060 We have this immediate sense of things 0:04:02.060,0:04:05.610 that don't belong together,[br]suggesting a dream. 0:04:05.610,0:04:07.480 - [Steven] I would say that in this image 0:04:07.480,0:04:10.060 things don't come together[br]in an aggressive way 0:04:10.060,0:04:12.750 that is a reminder of[br]the art that was made 0:04:12.750,0:04:16.020 by groups of artists in[br]Paris where this was made, 0:04:16.020,0:04:18.090 in Cologne, where Ernst had come from, 0:04:18.090,0:04:21.320 but also in New York, in Zurich, Berlin. 0:04:21.320,0:04:24.020 And in all of these places,[br]artists were responding 0:04:24.020,0:04:26.090 to the devastation of the First World War, 0:04:26.090,0:04:28.610 of its uselessness, of its violence. 0:04:28.610,0:04:30.690 - [Beth] The absurdity of the war, 0:04:30.690,0:04:33.370 the use of technology in that war. 0:04:33.370,0:04:35.980 This is also the time of Freud, 0:04:35.980,0:04:38.210 who Ernst was very interested in, 0:04:38.210,0:04:40.100 the idea of the unconscious, 0:04:40.100,0:04:42.380 of things that can't be controlled. 0:04:42.380,0:04:45.310 And there are forms here[br]that suggest the erotic 0:04:45.310,0:04:47.900 or sexual meaning that would have been 0:04:47.900,0:04:50.650 similar to the kinds of readings of Freud. 0:04:50.650,0:04:54.230 So what are the figures[br]here afraid of precisely? 0:04:54.230,0:04:56.730 - [Steven] Ernest went[br]into the war in 1914 0:04:56.730,0:04:58.560 and didn't come out until the war's end. 0:04:58.560,0:05:00.590 He served both on the Western Front 0:05:00.590,0:05:01.910 and on the Eastern Front. 0:05:01.910,0:05:03.730 And he was wounded when artillery 0:05:03.730,0:05:05.530 that he was manning recoiled. 0:05:05.530,0:05:08.610 He had firsthand knowledge[br]of this devastation. 0:05:08.610,0:05:11.940 - [Beth] And when he came[br]back from the war to Cologne, 0:05:11.940,0:05:15.600 he came back to a city that[br]was occupied by British forces 0:05:15.600,0:05:19.520 and political and[br]economic chaos in Germany. 0:05:19.520,0:05:22.820 - [Steven] And yet, despite[br]this unprecedented violence, 0:05:22.820,0:05:25.500 society was trying to[br]normalize what had happened 0:05:25.500,0:05:27.570 and the Dadaists refused that. 0:05:27.570,0:05:29.815 And so Ernst does seem to be drawing on 0:05:29.815,0:05:32.370 his interest in Freud and[br]especially the interest 0:05:32.370,0:05:35.270 in the irrational of the unconscious, 0:05:35.270,0:05:38.620 of our state below our socialized beings. 0:05:38.620,0:05:41.100 What made the work possible? 0:05:41.100,0:05:44.100 (jazzy piano music)