To Forget Everything (A tout oublier) from Natural History (Histoire naturelle) by Max Ernst is a seminal French Surrealist print created in 1925. This work is one of thirty-four images constituting the portfolio, published in 1926, which established a new visual language for the movement. The piece is a collotype, a high-quality photomechanical print, created after Ernst’s pioneering development of frottage.
Ernst developed the frottage technique earlier that year by placing paper over textured surfaces-such as wood grain, leaves, or coarse fabric-and rubbing with charcoal or pencil. This method allowed the existing texture to dictate the emerging composition, bypassing conscious control and harnessing chance operations. Ernst sought to achieve what he termed "the hallucination of the mind," directly aligning his practice with Surrealism's core tenet: accessing the subconscious through automatism.
The resulting image in To Forget Everything presents an ambiguous, biomorphic form, built from the transformed remnants of its original texture. The composition suggests organic growth, erosion, or perhaps a strange scientific specimen visualized through the lens of a dream. Ernst viewed these compositions as visualizations of the natural world filtered through the unconscious, transforming mundane textures into fantastical "natural history" specimens.
The portfolio Histoire naturelle was a pivotal achievement, widely establishing Surrealism's visual vocabulary in the mid-1920s. As a French cultural artifact from c. 1925, it showcases the movement's drive to incorporate technical innovation and chance into graphic arts. This specific print, classified simply as a collotype after frottage, reflects Ernst's dedication to printmaking as a means of dissemination. Ernst utilized the collotype process to translate the delicate intricacies of his original rubbings into durable, reproducible prints, ensuring the wider circulation of these bizarre, dream-like visions. This work is part of the distinguished collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which holds numerous critical examples of Surrealist graphic arts.
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