Sculptomania describes how Rudy Ernst became a painter, how his humanoid figures begun to jump out of the canvas to become self contained, and how he became a passionate sculptor over the course of the past twenty-five years. It also shows and talks in detail about his recent Space Sculptures and his Humanoids: the Femalions and the Lilliputs.
About the Author: Rudy Ernst is a U.S. sculptor, painter, poet and writer. His career marks the transition from the old (analog) world of European painting to the digital media of the 21st Century, and his extensive body of works fully reflects that profound changeover. Ernst was born in 1937 into one of the leading Swiss banking and industrialist families of the ancient patrician city of Winterthur. He grew up in a rural village, next to the medieval city of Schaffhausen, which belonged to the church parish where Carl Jung's father was the pastor and where the famous psychologist spent the first years of his life. While growing up as a wild child among farmers, Ernst also spent much of his formative years among the rich and famous of the world in the Swiss ski resort of Klosters, where his family moved every year from December to March to spend three winter months on some of Europe's favorite ski slopes. That was just a few miles from Schiers, the place where Alberto Giacometti went to high school and was influence by the same mysterious tall pine trees that almost come to life as spooky giants against the snowy mountains in the middle of a long, clear and crispy full moon night. After pursuing other activities (including a Ph.D. in economics), Ernst was a latecomer to the scene of serious artists. In 1982, he immigrated with his family to Manhattan. In 1989, after becoming a poor man, he began painting and sculpting with cheap building materials, including roof tar, carpenter glues and gesso. He also attached found objects in the streets onto large wood leftovers from construction projects in his neighborhood. In recent years, Ernst created a series of sculptures as "Space Sculptures" (Suspended in Acrylic Casting), "Humanoids" (Bronze sculptures), and "Reverse Engineered" (Antique European tools welded together). Ernst has lived in many fundamentally different cultures and economic fields. He is fluent in German, French, English and Spanish and intimately familiar with all of those cultures. He considers his art pieces another language, in which he expresses his rich life experience. Previously published books by Rudy Ernst include "The Story of Dada", the "New York West Side Stories", "MAGIC- Computer Aided Art (CAA)", "Anatomy of a Dada-Mind" (Drawings, Writings, Sculptures), his Childhood Tales ("Lümmelgeschichten") and a collection of his German poems ("Kurz belichtet und verdichtet.")