Ernst and Max Ernst were both pioneers in the Surrealist art movement. Ernst, born in 1891, was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet who was a primary founder of the Dada movement and an important contributor to the Surrealist movement of the 1920s and 1930s. His son, Max Ernst, born in 1891, was a German-born American painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet who was a primary founder of the Dada movement and an important contributor to the Surrealist movement of the 1920s and 1930s. Both Ernst and Max Ernst were influential figures in the development of Surrealism, and their works continue to be highly regarded today.