Unter der Konsole, 1933

About the Work

Inspired by Surrealism, the paintings of Edgar Ende made a crucial contribution to twentieth-century art. Here, he depicts a grey desert landscape whose inhabitants are completely devoid of identity. Naked and helpless, they figure as the epitome of desperation. Traced in red lines, a pathway leads the viewer’s gaze across the menacingly empty picture plane before it disappears into the horizon. Simultaneously, the man looking out from underneath the console is pointing at an enigmatic object in the background. Ultimately, however, the precise meaning of this nightmarish scenario remains elusive.