Max Ernst (1891-1976)

' one rainy evening in a seaside inn, I was struck by the obsession that showed to my excited gaze the floor-boards upon which a thousand scrubbings had deepened the grooves. I decided then to investigate the symbolism of this obsession and, in order to aid my meditative and hallucinatory faculties, I made from the boards a series of drawings by placing on them, at random, sheets of paper which I undertook to rub with a black lead. In gazing attentively at the drawings thus obtained I was surprised by the sudden intensification of my visionary capacities and by the hallucinatory succession of contradictory images superimposed My curiosity awakened and astonished, I began to experiment indifferently and to question, utilizing the same means, all sorts of materials to be found in my visual field: leaves and their veins, the ragged edges of a bit of linen There my eyes discovered human heads, animals, a battle that ended with a kiss'

(M. Ernst, 'On Frottage', pp. 428-431, in H. B. Chipp, (ed.), Theories of Modern Art, London, 1968, p. 429)