News & Nightmares

Homer, Ernst, and Wood Engraving
January 8 – June 13, 2010
Print Gallery

This exhibition looks at 19th-century wood engraved illustrations created for the mass media from the perspective of two radically different artists. From 1857 through the 1880s, Winslow Homer (American, 1836-1910) designed over 200 wood engravings for illustrated periodicals such as Harper’s Weekly. Homer’s drawn-on-the-spot illustrations depicted the public and private life of Americans, including their entertainments, holidays, and sports, as well as portraits of political figures and events, and images of the Civil War. In 1933, Max Ernst (French, born Germany, 1891-1976) cut up and recombined illustrated melodramatic and romantic 19th-century French periodicals to create his astonishing Surrealist collage novel. News & Nightmares includes 16 prints designed by Winslow Homer from the Art Center’s complete collection of Winslow Homer’s wood engravings. The exhibition also features 26 images from the Art Center’s recent acquisition, Max Ernst’s une semaine de bonté, ou les septs elements capitaux (A Week of Kindness, or the Seven Deadly Elements) 1934.

News & Nightmares
Related Programs

Gallery Talk
Amy Worthen, curator of prints and drawings, will present a gallery talk comparing Homer and Ernst’s approaches to wood engraving, as represented by their works in News & Nightmares.
Thursday, January 14, 6:30 pm
Print Gallery
FREE admission

Lecture
Robert Rainwater, chief librarian (retired), Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, and curator (retired), Spencer Collection, Humanities and Social Sciences Library at the New York Public Library, will speak on Max Ernst’s Surrealist graphic novels. Rainwater is the editor of Max Ernst: Beyond Surrealism, a retrospective of the artist's books and prints, 1986. Rainwater’s talk is sponsored by the Des Moines Art Center Print Club and is open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture.
Thursday, February 4, 7 pm
Levitt Auditorium
FREE admission

Download the Gallery guide here: News & Nightmares Gallery Guide

The Gallery Guide is a PDF file and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view, which is a free download.

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Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910). The Wonderful Dutton Children (The Smallest Children of their Age in the World; Standing beside a Miss of their Own Age). Published in “Ballou’s Pictorial” on May 14, 1859. Wood engraving on paper. Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Gift of Richard and Kay Ward, 2003.44.

Winslow Homer (American, 1836–1910). The Wreck of the “Atlantic”—CastUp by the Sea. Published in Harper’s Weekly on April 26, 1873. Electrotype from wood engraving,with typographic text on paper. 15 15/16 x 11 inches (page); 9 3/16 x 13 7/8 inches (image), Gelman 235. Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Gift of Richard and Kay Ward, 2003.164

Max Ernst (French, born Germany, 1891–1976). Deuxième poeme visible, 4, from Une semaine de bonté (A Week of Kindness), 1934. Electrotype relief print. Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Purchased with funds from the Edmundson Art Foundation; Rose F. Rosenfield; Myron and Jacqueline Blank; Julian and Irma Brody; and anonymous gift by exchange, 2009.21.6.c.

Max Ernst (French, born Germany, 1891–1976). Le rire du coq (The Cock’s Laugh), 2, from Une semaine de bonté (A Week of Kindness), 1934. Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Purchased with funds from the Edmundson Art Foundation; Rose F. Rosenfield; Myron and Jacqueline Blank; Julian and Irma Brody; and anonymous gift by exchange,2009.21.5.b