Jimmy Ernst (1920- 1984) was born in Cologne, Germany. His father was the Dada/Surrealist artist, Max Ernst, and his mother the art historian, Louise Straus-Ernst. His childhood was spent in the company of the foremost figures in the avant-garde art world, among them, Jean (Hans) and Sophie (Tauber) Arp, Paul Klee, Paul Eluard, Tristan Tzara, Andre Breton, and Lyonel Feininger. He escaped capture by the Nazis and emigrated to New York in 1938. In 1939 he began to work at the Museum of Modern Art in the mail room and film library. About this time he started painting and in 1941 a work was acquired by the Wadsworth Atheneum. He had had his first solo exhibition in 1943 at Norlyst Gallery, NY and the Museum of Modern Art purchased a painting from the show. He had solo shows at the gallery in 1945 and 1946. In 1952 he joined Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York and had numerous solo exhibitions between 1952 - 1976. His memoir, A Not-So-Still Life, was published in 1984 and a monograph with an essay by Donald Kuspit, preface by Kurt Vonnegut and edited by Phyllis Braff was released by Hudson Hills Press in 2001.. He is the recipient of several awards and honors including the Hattie Brooks Stevens Memorial purchased prize, Pasadena Annual, Pasadena Art Institute, California (1946); Juliana Force Memorial Award, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1950); Norman Weit Harris Prize, Art Institute of Chicago (1954); Brandeis University Creative Arts Award (1957); Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1961); Honorary Doctorate by Southampton College of Long Island University (1982); and was elected to membership of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York His work is in many private and public collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, TX; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Pompidou Center, Paris, France;San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Wadsworth Antheneum, Hartford, CT; Wallrof-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany and theWhitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY among others.