The Gramineous Bicycle Garnished with Bells the Dappled Fire Damps and the Echinoderms Bending the Spine to Look for Caresses (La Biciclette graminée garnie de grelots les grisous grivelés et les échinodermes courbants l'échine pour quêter des caresses)

The Gramineous Bicycle Garnished with Bells the Dappled Fire Damps and the Echinoderms Bending the Spine to Look for Caresses (La Biciclette graminée garnie de grelots les grisous grivelés et les échinodermes courbants l'échine pour quêter des caresses) is a seminal drawing by Max Ernst, executed in 1921. This work, classified as a drawing, utilizes gouache, ink, and pencil applied over printed paper mounted on paperboard. Created during a critical transitional moment when the French art scene was shifting from the nihilism of Dada toward the structured dream logic of Surrealism, the piece exemplifies Ernst’s early mastery of collage and visual disruption.

The composition hinges on the radical fusion of the mechanical and the organic. Ernst renders a hybrid machine, visible through the bicycle frame and accompanying bells, which appears to be overgrown or infested with grass (graminée), suggesting a disturbing transformation of technology by nature. A key characteristic of the work is the technique of applying the main drawing elements-gouache, ink, and pencil-directly onto pre-printed paper. Ernst allows the underlying diagrams or text of the printed paper to interact visually with the superimposed figures. This method creates the illusion of depth and lends a spurious scientific authority to an entirely fantastical image, underlining the artist's rejection of rational interpretation.

The highly poetic and lengthy title, characteristic of the Surrealist experiments of the 1920s, reinforces the enigmatic visual content. The work juxtaposes specific, technical concepts like "dappled fire damps" (referring to dangerous methane gases found in mines) and anthropomorphic marine life, such as "echinoderms," contributing to the piece’s profoundly disquieting narrative. This 1921 drawing firmly establishes Ernst as a leading figure in the emerging Surrealist movement, capturing the period’s preoccupation with object metamorphosis and subconscious poetry. This important work currently resides in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.