"The picture is playing with our perceptions, however, because what we interpret as the background is, in fact, the foreground. In other words: the artist has not placed his colorful forms on top of a dark background, but has covered a gaily painted canvas with areas of dark green, black, and blue. The floral shapes are ‘remnants’ of this originally brightly colored ground." Read more at http://www.fondationbeyeler.ch/en/exhibitions/max-ernst/works