Max Ernst

Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic training, but his experimental attitude toward the making of art resulted in his invention of frottage—a technique that uses pencil rubbings of textured objects and relief surfaces to create images—and grattage, an analogous technique in which paint is scraped across canvas to reveal the imprints of the objects placed beneath. Ernst is noted for his unconventional drawing methods as well as for creating novels and pamphlets using the method of collages. He served as a soldier for four years during World War I, and this experience left him shocked, traumatised and critical of the modern world. During World War II he was designated an "undesirable foreigner" while living in France.

2 April 1891

Born on the same birth date (2 April 1891): Jack Buchanan • Tristão de Bragança Cunha

Born on the same birth day (2 April): Adam Fleming (journalist) • Al Weis • Bernd Müller (footballer, born 1949) • Cornelis de Houtman • Eyal Berkovic • Francisco de Paula Santander • G. Spencer-Brown • Jack Buchanan • John Larsson • Léon Gambetta • Reggie Smith • Serge Gainsbourg • Will Hoy

Born in the same month (April 1891): Arnold Jackson (British Army officer) • B. R. Ambedkar • Frank Barson • Françoise Rosay • Laura Gilpin • Laura Vicuña • Nella Larsen • Ole Kirk Christiansen • Otto Lasanen • Robert Scholl • Sacco and Vanzetti • Vittorio Jano