BRÜHL, GERMANY.-The Max Ernst Museum Brühl just opened in the city where Max Ernst was born, Brühl in 1891. The museum has a space of 2,000 square meters in a classicist building and a modern one designed by German architect Thomas van den Valentyn. The museum will hold exhibitions to focus on all the facets of this key artist.

The museum was officially opened by German president Horst Köhler and the leader of the North-Westfalia federal state, Jürgen Rüttgers. The cost of the building was around 14 million euros from private and public funds. The museum opens with two complementary exhibitions. The first exhibition will be on view through March 5, 2006 and reflects the variety of artistic languages and the contradictions the artist faced.

According to Werner Spies, former director of the Pompidou Center in Paris and curator of the opening exhibition, Max Ernst “opens the door to a world nobody sees.” He said this new museum is “an architectural portrait” of Max Ernst.

Ernst abandonó Brühl en los años veinte para trasladarse a Francia. Spies, amigo de Max Ernst, relata cómo Breton decía que sin Ernst no existiría el surrealismo. Antes, Ernst había experimentado en Colonia con los dadaístas.

“The conflicts began at home, in elementary and secondary school, when the mind of the child got the idea that he came to this world to paint. Adults tried to oppress him. The artist resisted. No matter where destiny took him, and what happened in the world, he found friends among the persons, angels and free devils,” wrote filmmaker Peter Schamoni, friend of Max Ernst.