I’m not too familiar with artist Max Ernst‘s work, but I recently came across a short article by Curator Robin Reisenfeld published by the Museum of Modern Art in 1997 about his body of work, Fiat Modes. This collection includes his prints and illustrated books. There’s a line at the end of the article that struck me as elusive but terribly provocative – “Ernst wryly comments upon what he believes to be a misguided belief in the infallibility of human progress based upon instruments of reason.” What does this mean? What Reisenfeld is arguing is that Ernst essentially makes fun of this belief that human progress, guided by reason, can’t be wrong. He is driving against the notion that reason is all knowing and all powerful and cautions against placing complete trust in reason to guide human progress. Certainly, the mainstream thought is that reason can and should absolutely guide human progress, but perhaps what Ernst is suggesting is a more fantastical, creative, imaginary, dreamlike approach to progress, as he suggests in his Fiat Modes collection. Perhaps we should all take this method with some seriousness and try it out. There’s nothing wrong with a path that’s a little more fantastical than the one we’re faced with…