Here Everything Is Still Floating (Hier ist noch alles in der Schwebe) by Max Ernst is a foundational work of early Dada montage, created in 1920. Classified formally as a drawing due to its size and paper base, the piece masterfully employs the technique of assemblage, using cut-and-pasted printed paper and pencil on a printed paper support affixed to cardstock. This medium allowed Ernst to subvert traditional fine art practices by incorporating mass-produced imagery from scientific texts, technical manuals, and popular advertisements.
The composition utilizes fragmented, machine-like forms and schematic representations of figures, rendered primarily in monochrome. The resulting juxtapositions are unsettling, reflecting the intellectual and social chaos permeating European culture in the immediate aftermath of World War I. This period marks Ernst’s deep involvement with the Dada movement in Cologne, where he utilized collage as a tool for satirizing bourgeois convention and destabilizing pictorial logic.
The enigmatic title, suggesting things "still floating" or "in suspension," aligns with the work’s visual instability, creating an environment where objective reality dissolves into mechanical absurdity. Ernst was a pivotal figure in the development of collage, pushing the boundaries of the medium during 1920 and establishing the framework for later Surrealist explorations of the unconscious through irrational imagery.
Though created during his German phase of Dada, Ernst’s pioneering approach to mechanized figures and arbitrary association proved hugely influential in the subsequent French avant-garde, where he would become a central figure. This historic work, which powerfully captures the spirit of disruption inherent in early modernism, is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The importance of this revolutionary piece ensures its ongoing study, with high-quality prints and reproductions frequently utilized for art historical reference.
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