MAX ERNST — Max Ernst — Musée national d’Art moderne, Paris — 1959

Original retrospective exhibition catalogue published for Max Ernst, Musée national d’Art moderne, Paris, 13 November–31 December 1959. Éditions des Musées Nationaux. Catalogue and biographical notice by Gabrielle Vienne; preface by Jean Cassou. First edition.

The catalogue registers 175 works: 94 paintings; 61 watercolours, drawings, collages, frottages, imprints and photomontages; and 20 sculptures. Individual entries retain dates, materials, dimensions and lender information, gathering works dispersed between the artist, museums and private collections into a single numbered institutional record.

The exhibition arrived at a decisive point in ERNST’s late recognition. He had returned permanently to France in 1953, received the Venice Biennale’s Grand Prize for Painting in 1954 and became a French citizen in 1958. The Paris retrospective followed his appearance at documenta II and preceded the international museum exhibitions of 1961 in New York, Chicago and London. Archival research records nearly 3,000 copies sold during the exhibition.

This handled example preserves that public circulation directly: the catalogue through which a scattered body of work was consolidated, classified and returned as art history.

In-8, 44 pages. Illustrated wrappers; black-and-white plates. Condition: fair to good; extensive rubbing, creasing and edge wear to wrappers, surface marking and soiling to rear, with an exposed and partially separated rear hinge. Contents remain legible and generally well preserved.

Securely packed; tracked UK and international shipping available.