Plate II from Let There Be Fashion, Down With Art (Fiat modes pereat ars)

Plate II from Let There Be Fashion, Down With Art (Fiat modes pereat ars) by Max Ernst is a foundational work of Dada graphic art, dating to 1920. This portfolio, consisting of eight lithographs, satirized the increasingly consumerist and mechanized French culture following World War I. The title itself sets a defiant tone, positioning the superficiality of fashion against the serious enterprise of fine art. As a lithograph, the technique allowed Ernst to reproduce the mechanical precision and jarring juxtapositions characteristic of his early collages, enabling the distribution of these challenging images to a broader audience through the medium of prints.

The work was produced during a critical moment in European modernism, when the Dada movement sought to dismantle conventional notions of beauty and meaning. Ernst, a key figure in the Cologne Dada group, frequently utilized mechanical drawings, scientific diagrams, and found illustrations as source material for his compositions. This method of appropriation and decontextualization heightens the absurdity inherent in the composition of the plate, which often features bizarre hybrid figures or mechanized forms of human anatomy. These images reflect the postwar anxiety and the artist’s rejection of rationalism that characterized the artistic output of 1920.

The radical nature of the Dada period fundamentally changed how artists approached visual production. This particular print provides essential documentation of Ernst’s pioneering use of graphic satire and his merging of industrial aesthetics with the grotesque. The enduring impact of this French artwork ensures its prominence in major collections worldwide. This lithograph, along with the complete portfolio Let There Be Fashion, Down With Art (Fiat modes pereat ars), resides in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), ensuring its continued availability for study and scholarship. The work's documentation makes it a key resource for those tracking the history of modern art and the eventual trajectory of pieces moving toward the public domain.