Max Ernst (1891-1976) was born in Bruhl, near Cologne.  Following war service in World War I, he formed the Cologne Dada (1919) with Johannes Baargeld.  He participated in Paris Dada through his friendship with Paul Eluard.  Ernst joined the Surrealists in 1924, exhibiting in their first major show at the Galerie Pierre, Paris, and in the same year created, with Joan Miro, the decor for Romeo and Juliet.  He was the finest of the Surrealist printmakers, was among the most inventive and prolific contributors to the development of both Dada and Surrealism and is one of the most original members of those groups.  He invented the 'automatic' techniques of frottage and grattage.  Frottage is the automatic Surrealist technique adapted by Ernst that involves taking a rubbing on paper from a textured surface.  Grattage is the automatic Surrealist technique where a freshly painted canvas is laid on a rough surface and the paint is scraped off.

In the past, the visual character of African and Oceanic art were widely regarded as primitive sources and remote from self-conscious Western civilization.  So-called primitive art was first collected by travelers because of their curiosity about the exotic.  Today, the term primitive is contentious and generalized in referring to ancient non-classical cultures.  Masks, in non-Western societies, are not just pieces of sculpture, but magic things.  They are mediums used to protect against unknown and threatening spirits and used in intricate ceremonies often concerned with prestigious ancestral ghosts.  Symbols are the communicative medium in Max Ernst's work.