In
art, frottages (from French ''frotter'', "to rub",
Rubbing) is a
surrealist and "
automatic
Automatic may refer to:
Music Bands
* Automatic (band), Australian rock band
* Automatic (American band), American rock band
* The Automatic, a Welsh alternative rock band
Albums
* ''Automatic'' (Jack Bruce album), a 1983 electronic rock ...
" method of creative production developed by
Max Ernst.
Details
In frottage, the artist places a piece of paper over an
uneven surface, then marks the paper with a drawing tool (such as a pastel or
pencil), thus creating a rubbing. The drawing can be left as it is or used as the basis for further refinement. While superficially similar to
brass rubbing
Brass rubbing was originally a largely British enthusiasm for reproducing onto paper monumental brasses – commemorative brass plaques found in churches, usually originally on the floor, from between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. The ...
and other forms of
rubbing intended to reproduce an existing subject, and in fact sometimes being used as an alternative term for it, frottage implies using this rubbing technique to create an original image.
It was developed by
surrealist artist
Max Ernst in 1925. Ernst was inspired by an ancient wooden floor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing. The patterns of the graining suggested strange images to him. He captured these by laying sheets of paper on the floor and then rubbing over them with a soft pencil.
See also
*
Rubbing
*
Surrealist techniques
Surrealism in art, poetry, and literature uses numerous techniques and games to provide inspiration. Many of these are said to free imagination by producing a creative process free of conscious control. The importance of the unconscious as a sou ...
References
*
Surrealist techniques
{{art-technique-stub