The Elephant Celebes (or
Celebes) is a 1921 painting by the German
DadaDada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
ist and
surrealistSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
Max ErnstMax Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
. It is among the most famous of Ernst's early surrealist works and "undoubtedly the first masterpiece of Surrealist painting in the De Chirico tradition." It combines the vivid, dreamlike atmosphere of Surrealism with the
collageA collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
aspects of Dada.
Description and influences
Giorgio de ChiricoGiorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Greek-Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
was an inspiration for the early Surrealists, and Celebes palette and spatial construction show his influence. The painting also attempts to apply Dada's
collageA collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
effects to simulate different materials. Ernst's realistic portrayal of the constituent elements produces a hallucinatory effect that he associated with collage, and was trying to achieve in this painting. Regarding the art of collage, Ernst said, "[It is] the systematic exploitation of the coincidental or artificially provoked encounter of two of more unrelated realities on an apparently inappropriate plane and the spark of poetry created by the proximity of these realities."
The central focus of the painting is a giant mechanical elephant. It is round and has a trunk-like hose protruding from it. The figure's round body was modeled after a photograph in an anthropological journal of a clay corn bin from a southern
SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
ese tribe, the Konkombwa. Celebes suggests "ritual and totemic sculpture of African origin", evidenced by the totem-like pole at right and the figure's bull horns. The painting uniquely combines found imagery and tribal elements.
Ernst's creature has a frilly metallic cuff or collar, and a horned head and tail. The low horizon emphasizes the creature's bulk, and the gesture of the headless mannequin introduces the viewer to the figure. The mannequin wears a surgical glove, a common Surrealist symbol. This nude figure may have a mythological connotation, suggesting the abduction of
EuropaEuropa is a Phoenician princess in Greek mythology. Her name is the name for Europe in Latin and other languages.Europa may also refer to:* Europa Island, a small island in the Indian Ocean which is a possession of France, part of the Îles Éparses...
by
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
while disguised as a bull. The mostly empty sky contains more incongruities: there are two fish "flying" at left (one writer considers the scene to be underwater). The black shape to the right of the fish looks like an oncoming airplane, and there is a trail of smoke in the right part of the sky. These may be allusions to the "mechanical terror of the war experience" which led to Ernst writing, "On the 1st of August 1914 Max Ernst died. He was resurrected on the 11 November 1918 as a young man who aspired to find the myths of his time." Celebes
, then, seems to represent the myth of destruction.
"Celebes" was once the popular name for the island of SulawesiSulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands.- Etymology :...
, one of the Greater Sunda IslandsThe Greater Sunda Islands are a group of islands within the Maritime Southeast Asia. Islands included in the group are Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi and adjacent smaller islands. The group is politically split between Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia.They can be contrasted with the Lesser Sunda...
of IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Ernst told Penrose that the title Celebes was derived from the opening words of a German schoolboys' rhyme with sexual connotations:
Der Elefant von Celebes
Hat hinten etwas gelebes
Der Elefant von Sumatra
Der vögelt seine Grossmama
Der Elefant von Indien
Der kann das Loch nicht finden
The elephant from [C]elebes
has sticky, yellow bottom grease
The elephant from Sumatra
always fucks his grandmamma
The elephant from India
can never find the hole ha-ha
In this context, the totemic pole may be interpreted as a
phallic symbolPhallus can refer to a penis, or to an object shaped like a penis. The word comes from Late Latin "phallus", from Ancient Greek "φαλλός" phallos, penis.-In art:...
.
History
The painting's less common but original title is Celebes
, according to inscriptions on the front and back of the canvas.
Ernst painted Celebes in
CologneCologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants...
in 1921. The French poet and Surrealist
Paul ÉluardPaul Éluard was the pen name of Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
visited Ernst that year and purchased the painting and took it back to Paris. Eluard would buy other of Ernst's paintings, and Ernst painted murals for Eluard's house in
EaubonneEaubonne is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located . from the center of Paris.It is twinned with Matlock, Derbyshire, England and Vălenii de Munte, Romania.-Transport:...
. It remained in Eluard's collection until 1938 and was then purchased by the English artist
Roland PenroseRoland Algernon Penrose , CBE, Kt, was an English artist, historian and poet. He was a major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom.- Biography :...
. It has been in the collection of the
Tate GalleryThe Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
, London since 1975 and is displayed in the
Tate ModernThe Tate Modern in London is Britain's national museum of international modern art and is, with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives, and Tate Online, part of the group now known simply as Tate....
. The back of the canvas is decorated with some doodles that are seemingly unconnected to the subject matter on the front of the canvas, including two figures holding
golf clubGolf club may refer to:*Golf club , a piece of sports equipment*Golf club , an organised group of golfersSee also*Country club...
s adjacent to the word "GOLF".
External links