Grattage

[1][2] In this technique, one typically attempts to scratch and remove the chromatic pigment spread on a prepared support (the canvas or other material)[3] in order to move the surface and make it dynamic.

[4] Incorporate the technique of grattage in the painting in order to create a strong sense of texture or pattern on the surface of the picture plane.

In the grattages, the scraping of the surface layers of paint over an assortment of objects serves to stimulate the mind to engage itself in the automatic process of “discovering” images lying hidden within its innermost recesses.

[11] Grattage allowed Max Ernst to free the creative forces full of suggestions and evocations, less theoretical and more unconscious and spontaneous.

[12] This technique was refined by the artist Hans Hartung;[13] through this process he reaches the sublimation of his typical pictorial gestures, creating a new sign alphabet relying on pointed tools, suitably modified brushes, and rollers.