Aquis submersus, 1919

About the Work

The world has congealed into a lifeless backdrop. A limbless figure stands in front of a swimming pool; another dives ramrod straight into the water. The night sky appears above the scene like a stage set – an impression strengthened by the hard shadows cast by the prop-like buildings, as well as by the presence of the clock where the moon should be. The act of disappearing from this dreariness allegorises what the Surrealist Max Ernst saw as a rejection of the rational world. In his art he was intensely concerned with the unconscious part of the psyche, symbolised by water.