hh arnason - from fantasy to dada and the new objectivity (ch. 13)

8/17/2019 HH Arnason - From Fantasy To DADA and the New Objectivity (Ch. 13)

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From antasy to Dada andthe New Objectiviy

ate nneteent-century exploratns of the rraonall

nd fantastc nd a growing interes in nive and prizng modes of expresson n rt found a skng

emboment dng Wold War I n te eclecc producons of a dverse group of sts who labeled therendeavor "Dada The Dadss felt ta reason logc, andWsern des of progess had led to the saster ofrld wa nd tha te only way forward was rough polclanch, te nar emotos, the nve, and e aol. Dada was rst and foremost a response to t�brul mechzed maness of w More stly cbe seen as a descendnt of Romntcsm and Symbosm wch temselves were preceded by a ousand yes ormore of nduals and movemens concerned w sesort of person, eccentc orthodox mysc or super

naal expresson These crrents so found expre §son ofa more nwrdly focused knd n l1e of Mc Chagllnd of Ital pnters of e Meaphyscal School

Truth Purued thrugh theDreamwrld: Chagall and theMetahyical Schl Romncism grew nd spread in the nneteenhcentry vsons of magned wods appeed n manyforms pnng sculpture, and chtecte The dem wods of Moreau, edn, Ensor (see g 522) Bcn

(see g 524) Knger d ousseau (see g 35) proded te pncpl nston om neeenthcentyRomntcsm to tenethcentry ntasy

Chaallle Russan atst M hg (88798) was thecontemporay of such pronent gres as Tatln andGoncharova (see chapter his art folowed a cousequte vergent from that of the onsuctvsts n postrevoluonary Russa haglls pantngs do not neatlyto a category or movement but the sense of fntasyantcpates aspects of Surrem wch deveoped some

w at later. Chag w as bo o a lge nd poor Jmily in Vebsk, ussa He acqed a lge reprtRussnJewsh folktles and a deep attacment t

ewish relgon and taons, from whch hs pers poec vsul language emerged He attended vschools n St Peersbg, but deved tle benet908, when he enrolled n an expermentl school dby te teaer desgner Lon Blst who was ethe new deas emnang om France 90 a years of sudy hagll departed for Pars

I Prs,· he entered the orbt of Gullaue ld te leaders of te new ubsm (see chapter 0) as that of Mogni Soutne nd les Pascin CRuss pantngs had largey been ntmae genre oen erched by elements of Russan or ewsh l

Hs ntoxcaon wt Pais eled hs expermenaFauve color and ubst space and s subjecs bed wh a lycsm at, wtn to yes of s emeged n mae d unquely poetc ptngs

Homage to Apoinare (g 3) was show st me at Herwarth Wlden's Der Strm GlBer n 94 That sow had an mpact on t Expressonsts ta tended well beyond Wold Whagall's pantg s a omage to four people he ad nclung Herwar Walden nd Aponre whos e nscbed aond a he a the lower le Thncluded s own name n Roman nd Hebrew l

te op of te canvas A crcul pattern of color

spred by the pantngs of hs end bert D(see g 044) surounds e brcated gre ond ve The esoterc symbolsm of Homag toAohas been vously nterpreted Beyond e trabblcal mengs are references to chemy and ocl schools of thought The bodes of Adm aemerge om one pa of legs to symbolze te ioopposton of male and femle derved om meresentatos of the Fl from Grace The numbrs ole arc of e outer crcle noduce te noon o tfact te ges themselves read lke the hands of


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M Chgl Hoag Apon 1 1 1 -1

d d slve wde vs 6 6" 6' 3% 1 m Stedelij v Abbe Musem EidhveNtherl ands.

thmes of lovrs irrevocably oined extend trough

ut hagalls work as do rferencs to both ewish and

ristn spituaityuring th nxt years in Pars Chagl continued to cr

t nw forms to exprss his igly prsonal vision I Pari

rough th Window (g. 32) the doubl-facd Janus gur (the Roman god of doorways) in th lowr rightcornr th is o proles in contrastng ight ndshadow suggsts a double natre for the pintingthromantc yet r Ps, and the Paris transformed in th pot's dreamsth trins oatng upsid down pdstins promnaing parlll to the sidewaks, and an aviator

supported by a tangar t Th wdow with its framof rd, yellow, blu, and gren and its hman-haddcat acng as a domscated Cerbrus (th myhicl three

headd dog who guards th undrworld) bcoms a partion beteen th to ralms h compositon of thesky in larg gomric aras nd the anmated bulngs

parculrly th somwhat tltd Effel Tower whic couldnot b sn om Chagl's studio) suggest RobertDlaunay's dynmic mehod (see g. 1043) imposedupon a drem of genle nostlgia Many of Chagls contmporris inclung Dlaunay id not favor this strong

magnave element It was th poet Adr Breton th prncipal theoist of Surreism who would recogniz thsignicance of Chagas "iberaton of th objct from th

laws of weight and gravity Chagall rtuned to Vitbsk in9 and caught by th

'tbrak of war in ssia h stayd thr untl922 trhs ruion ssia with is blovd Bla whom hemarrid in915 h commmoratd feing for hr n agroup of pintngs of lovrs Bithday (g 133 is a 1923copy of a composition originly pinted in 191 (Chagall

occasionaly made copies of his pinngs to kp for his

3.2 Mr Chglls Thugh heWo 1 1 3 l vs 5 54" 1 3 3 X 1 3 m)Sl R GuggeheMsem ew Y.

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ow use). Thi cavas comme1norates Bela's surpise vi�itto e rits do wi a bouquet of owers for hi birday Chagl oas ecstaicy ough e air ad, wthdelicious absurdiy, ists is head for a kss

er e Rssi Revoluio, Chagl, like Maevichad oe avt-grde asts, served for a time a a commissr of e rts d formed a fee rt academy Pehap

his most ·uil work was for e State Yiddih Chamberheater i Moscow, whee he pted murls ad degedet d costumes his oppori to work o a lage clei the theater coiued to fa


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Chco, Caa, ad th Mtaphyical Schoolin Italy om around 1913 to 1920, the

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e

p1y

sJcal

painters retained e forms of Renaissance perspective space recogizable environent and

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ra

gures and objects, but used variou utaposi- produce sprise nd shock and to create an

of stangenes, sometes even of fear andThough the Metaphysical School was never a

0,

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et or sye in the sae sense that Cubism wa, insearch for new content Metaphysical painters had a

inuence on Surreaism's exploraion of the intu

d the irrational (se chapter 15).

he work of g d Ci (18881978), in pa·inks eteenth-centry Romanc fantasy with

�nteeny Surrealism Born in Greece of taliande Chirico leaned dawing in Athens Aer the

of his ther, the family moved to Muich order tothe arsc eanings of Giorgio and the usical

jeg

of his younger brother In Muich de Chirico wasxou

to the art of Bclin (se g 524) and Kinger

ipressed de Chiico about Bkin was s abiliy tosurpise": to ake rea ad coprehensible the

or lusory by uxtaposg it with noralyay expeience De Circos concept of a painting as

boic vision wa also affected by his readings of the wgs of Netzsche For exampe

Nitzcbe's iistence that art epresses deep-seated oti within the huan psyche led de Cico to his

neapsica eaination of sti lfeWhile de Chirco was in Germy from 1905 to 1909

Nouveau (se chapter 5) was stll a force and theem; Epressiosts (see chapter 8) were beginning to

theselves known Ideal or mysica phlosopes

and pseudopilosophies were gg curreny amongists and witers everywhere and modrn Theosophy

was n international cult We have already seen theTheosophical bases ofslys approach to abstractionand his ystical concepts of a inner realiy beyond sfaceappearance that later affected ars as divergent asMondrian andKlee

Psychoanalyis, with i stdy of he subconscious, the

ybolism of deam nd the iportance of ntinct deotion on han behavor, lso had great importance forarsts seeking new modes of epression These tsts wereoccasionally profound students of pilosophy or psycho!·ogy Most oen, however, they assiated te cent, popularized ideas which became the basis for works o atexpressed through thei pecuar and tense perceponDe Chirico constanty refeed to the metaphysical content of his paintngs usng the word metaphysical (wichin phiosophy refers to broad quesions of the natre ofcausat beng and tme) loosely or inaccuratey to cover vaiou eets of stgeness sprise and shock

e Chicos approach to at during hisealy and mostimportant phaseup to 1920w to eane a theme asthough wringing om it it cenl mystery n 1912 and3, whie living in ais he painted a group of workscorporang a Hellenisc sculpre of a reiing iadeOne of these works, Th thayr Rcmpn (g35) presents the darkened arches of a cassic faadebeneath a large clock On the stant horizon a mongtain introduces another modern element into a seeminglyanient context Such anomlies e commonpace intaa ciiesa palazzo may become a nineteenth-cenryraiway sttion De Chirico used hese anachroisms to

suggest the melancholy of departure a lanchoy that

3.5 Gi d ChThe ShayeRempense 93 Oin v 3 7359 .3 )Phidh Musuf Ar

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states the shadowed sque where deserted iadnemourns her depted lover Theseus. At times, the strange,sad loneiness of de Cico's sques tkes on imensions

of a and solaton a vas, empt spacee Meanchy and Mytery f a reet of 91 (

13.6) s one of de Chrco's est examples of deep perspective used for emoonal effect On the right a arcadedbuilng in deep bowns and grays casts a shadow gthe foreground; a lowe�· white arcade on the le weepsback towd it; the sk is theateg Ito thebighty lit space beteen the buldings emerges a ite girlrolling her hoop inexorably toward a loomig black specterof a gre standing behind the dark bulig In the foreground of the pazo on the right is an empt old-fash oned eght car or carval v whose opn doors add

another suggesve d istbing ement he scene maybe descibed matterof-facy: an Ita cit squae hshadows lengthenng a late autmn aernoon; arcadeof shops closed for the day rlway as n the lower lecorner; the shadow of a heroic eteenthcentury statea ite gl huying home But from these fmiliar components the ast created an ominous mood

For severl yeas aer 191, de Cco incorporatedmaequs into his composiions as surrogates for thehuman gre. hese maequins suggest the tculated

wooden ges sed awg classes, dressmkers dumies or naissce lay gures and anatomicl chts

3.6 Gigi iric c 94 il v34 X 2" 87 X 7 .4 Pivt cllct i

ad act as he protagonst n de rc

pictoil dramas. The paintings that se blakced gures also recal Renasaarctectural perspectives of the ee andsiteenth centies they create a drama c through the use of exeme foreshoteand closeups

Upon Italy's eny to the war de cle Pars, where he had attracted conside attention among the avantgade retuned home to Itly In Ferara, from 95to 1919 de Crco summed up hs eions of the preous years in a lly devel

mature stle The hang dreamlike sinof rei d et in is pnngs apy termed Meaphysic and when Chirico met the st Calo Carr d ilide Pisis n th my hospitl Ferra tformed the assocaon known the Sc!Metsica, o Metaphysical School e GMetaphycan (g 3.7) s a key work of ttme the cma of the asts vision of lo

less d nostalgia hs fea of he uknown i premotions of the ture, ad hs depicon of a reai beyond t physicl relm e Great Metaphcan combines t

arctect space of he empt cit sque and he deoped mequin gre he deep square is seled low clssical bulgs The bdngs to the ght and are abstat shouettes extending dk geometric shadover the brown area of the squre Oy the re buildnd he foegrod monument are brighty it hs ument on a low base s a loomng constuction of eleefrom he so nd drag table, crowned by a blmequn head It is ea from these pnngs tht tMetaphysic School shed little of the Itaian utuitfaith in machine technology (see chapter and its dto capture the dynmism of modern fe ather, de Ch

and is folowers soght elegiac d eigmac e sion, one that unke the Futuits did not reject the at the Itali past.

Aer 190, ust as de Chrico begn to e recogni a forerunner of new movements in my pats of Eoand the Uted Sates, he suddenly ted agst tirection of his own paintig d settled on an acadiclassicism that he continued to pusue As a result, he qreled violeny with the Sreasts who had haled his e work as the most crucial foreruner of teir own bt ismissed his later classicay orinted stle In hs tecareer de Chirico id not actually repiate his ow y

240 C AP fM AA AA A W BVY


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However, ke mny oher arsts, he abandoned

zpe

ri

etfim

aer World War I and atemted o rejoninsteam of Eoe os-naissance ainng.

The Futuris and Metahysical aner Clo Carchater met de Crico in 197 we on mlty

in Ferraa C had been relacing he coloisticof is Futist ainings with a more dscined

to Anlytic Cubism n the ely war yes he

Mretti's concet of ee words o collages wih

roj

agnl

stc nten (see g 17) he form roosedarne, and racticed for a me by Car, se

uenced oes and rtsts among the DadaissSurrealiss

he recions of Cr:'s ainings and collages aerindcae sech for a new conent nd for forms

fagmened h those of Fuurism He ainted ic· n 917 ha re almos astches of de Chrico's, bu

e Drnken Genteman (g. 38, daed 196 bu anted in 1917, he develoed an indvidua

�prac he objecssculed head, bole, glsode led with clear smlcity mued color gradaons

and whie hat ae gven sengh and soi by heimaso of the nt Ou of elementry sllfe

17 G de Cc h G Maphcan 1 9 1 7 l n vs, 4 1 X 27!'' 1 45 698 Te Memof Mde Ar Ne Yrk

13.8 Cl C h nkn Gnlan, 1 9 1 7dte 1 96 n cvs) O n cnvs 23 X 16 X 445 m). Cllen Cl Fu de Anel Mln

ros he atist creaed is own metahysica relt In191 Ca ublished Ptra Metaca a book about the

c Meahysicl School De Crco, justably feelng tha he was not gven adequate et, became embitered, andended both their friends and the Meahysicl Schoo asa formal moven

The Wrld Turned Uide DwnThe Birth f Dada

Ding Wold W , Zurich, n neual Swizerland asthe rs imornt cener in whch n , a lierae,and even a music and a theaer of he nasc and theabsurd aose 1915 a number of ss and writers,lmost all n their wenes and one way or another s laced by te war ha was sweeing over Euroe, con verged on this ci ls nteational grou nluded heGerman wers Hugo nd chd Huelsenbe, heRomian oe rstn zara, the aan nter andscultor Macel Janco, the Alsaan anter, scultor and

oet Jean (Hans) Ar, the Swiss ater nd designerSohie aube, nd the German aer and exerimentallmmalerHans her Many oher oes ad arss wereassocated wit urich Dada bu these were e leaders whose demonsations, reangs of oey, "noise concers, art exibitions, d wrings assaulted he tadiions

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and preconceptons of Western art and literatreThrowntogether Zurich these yong men and womenexpressed heir reacons to the spreadng hysteria of a world at war in forms that were ntended as negave anarchic and destrcve of c convenons. Dada was a searchfor nw vision and content that went beyond any frvolodesire to orage the borgeoise In Dada here was a centra frce of wdly imaginave ·hmor one of ts lastng

deights-whether manfested in freewordassoaton poetry readngs drowned the din of noise machines, inabsrd theaicl or cabret performances (see g 30)in nonsense lectres, or in pntings produced by chance oriniion controlled by reason Neverheless, it had aseous ntent: he Zrich Dadsts were mg a criticreexmnaion of he aions, preses, rles, logicbases, even he conceps of order, coherence, nd beautyhat had gided the creaion of he rts hroughot historynd remined cenl to he enterpise of ghminded,topian modernsm.

Th C�bart Voltai ad Its LacyHgo Ba, a phlosopher and mysc as well as a poet, wasthe st actor the Dada drama n Febrary 6 witthe ightclub entertner Emy Hengs he fondethe Ca�aret Voltaire in Zurih as a meetng place for thesee sprts ad a stage om which exsting values cold beattacked. nteresgly enough, across the street om theCabret Voltire ived aimir Ilyich Lein, who wouldstand at he foreont of he Russn Revoltion he followig year Bl nd Henings were soon joined byTzra,Jaco, Arp, d Huesenbecl.

he term Dada was coed in 6 to descrbe he

movement hen emerging o he seemig cha ofhe Cabret Voltare, bt its orgin is sill dobl. he popr version advanced by Huesenbecl is that aFrenchGerman dictonary opened at random prodcedhe word "dada meanng a child's rolng horse or hobbyhorse. Richter remembers the da da da> da ("yes, yes)n the Romanan conversaton ofTzara and Janco Dadan French aso means a hobby event, or obsession. Other

posible sorces are in dialecs of Italian and K Aanhatever ts oigin, the name Dada is the cental moclingsybol of ths attac on estblished movements, whethertradtona or experimental, that charactezed early twenti

ethcentury art he Dadaists ed many of the formulasof Fts1 in the propagaton of their ideasthe ee words of Marinet, whether spoken or written; the noisemsic eects of Ligi ssolo to drown ot the poetsthe numerous manifestos But the intent was antitheticalto that of the Futrists, who extoed the machine worldand saw in mehanization, revoltion, and war the rationaland logical means, however brutal, to the soluon ofhuman problems

Zurich Dada was primary a literary mafestaton, whose ideological roots were in the poey of Arthrmbaud, n the theater of Aled Jarry and in the crical

deas of Mx Jacob and ulaume polinaire I p itinand sclptre, until Piaba rrved, the only real i\tions were the eeform ree nd colages according to the laws of chance by Jen (se 3). Wth few exceptions, the paintigs d scul tof other arsts assocated wth Zuril Dada bok e l t tnew ground n abstract and Expressiost r pay trough he experiments of Hans chter and ViinEggeg-and in photography and typographic d ihowever, the Zurih Dadasts made mportnt innov a

The Dadsts' heatrica acity was an mpr precrsor to the sxties "happeing and other for performnce rt that deveoped aer Wold War I, r larly hat of he Fluxs grop see gs. 2.20 22)ct, he effecs of Dada re so pervasive i today's cuhhat one cn nd strcions for composing Dada pton he Inteet. Arp described a tpicl eveing at tCabret Voltire hus:

Tza is -igging is behin ike d1e bely of n Otalncr. Jnco is playing an nvisible vioin n bowing andscapng Maame Hengs ·ith a Maona face ong the spits Huelsenbeck is banging away nonstop onthe geat um, with Bl accompnyng on the pia

pe as a chky ghost We wee given the honory tle Nilss

The performers may have been weang one of the reated by Marc Janco () made of pi paper d crdbord (g 39 Ba sid these mnot oly ced for a stable costme but compee t werer to act upreictably, to dance with "preise, mdrmac gesres, borderg on madness Dada theat

his kd ha d precedents i n Russan Futrist performsch as he 3 Vctory vr th un for wich Malidesigned costmes.

H Bl inoduced absract poery at the CaVoltaire with hs poem Gad Br Bma in Je Wrapped in a cdboard costume (g 30, he reithis "sound poem, Jarawan from he to asc snds. Balls hesishat convenion lngag no more place in poery hn he outworn human m paintngproduced a chnt of more or less melodic sbles without meng such as: "zimzim raala zizanzibar zimlalla zm . Despite he enzied reaco

the audence to this experiment, its ence-like else presented at the Cabret Voltreffected the squent course of twentiehcenry poe

he Zrich Dadiss were olently opposed to orgazed program n he ts, or y movement t ight express the common sylisic denoator coherent grop Neverheless, hree ctors shaped creative eortsThese were brisme (noisemusic, fro-"noise-as in cncrt rut), simltnand chance Britsme came om he Frsts, and sitaneity from the Cubsts via he Futrists Chane,course, exists to some degee i ny act of artistic crea

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Mre Jn Ma , 1 9 1 9 Ppe, drd, trg,e, d pte, 1 7% X X 2 [5 X 2 X 5 ).e N dArt Mdee, Cee dAt et e Ctueerge Ppd, P

he past the rtist had nrmaly attempted t cnlor t direct it, but it nw became n verring principle hree, despite he aiss' avwed negavism sncame he bsis fr he revunry apprach t he

creive act, n pprach si fund in pery n1usic rma d painting

The yer 96 witnessed the st rgazed Dadaveng t public h in Zurich and he st issue fe magae ocon Dada which Tzara wd eventu

aly tke ver nd mve t Pais The fllng yer hest public Dada exbins were held at the shrt-vedGlerie Dad Such acivies ushered in a new mre cnuci v phase fr Zurich Dad, bradened m he spnteus perfrmnces f he Cabret Vltire. But h the d f Wld War , Zurich Dda t was rawing t an d The inia enhusiasms were faing; its prcipantsre scatterng Bal bndned Dada, and Huesenbe hd ppsed ttempts t rn Dda int a cnvenn cded mvement le fr Berlin Tzar reminedr a ime in Zrich and versaw he last Dda sre n99, aer which he mved t Paris Th pnter Frncis

3.0 ug retg the poe Kwane the CbretVtre, Zurh, 9 1 6. htgp, 2 X 1 5% [71 X40 Ku, Zurh

Picabia arrived in 98 brngng cntact h silardevelpments in New Yrk and rcelna Picabia,

tgeher with Mrcl Duchamp nd Mn ay had cnributed t Dada asphere in New rk arund AfredStegits 29 allery nd his perdica (see chpter0) With hep f 1e cectr Walter ArensbergPicbia begn t publish his wn juna f prtest againsteveryng which he clled Aer a jey tarclna, where he fund many ikemnded expatiatesPicabia visited Zurch drwn by he spreading reputnf he iginatrs f Dd Rerng t Pais at the end fhe war, he becme lik s did zar, beween the pst war Dadsts f ermany nd France Dd, which was perhps mre a state f mind ha1 an rganized mve

ment, e n nrmus legac t cntemprry rt parcul the NeDada at f he ies and ery sixies (segs 20 26)

AJ Hs) rp 887966) was the mjr visual stt emerge ·m Zurich Dd Arp ws brn in Srsburg,hen ermn cit in the disputed regin f Alsace butsubsequenty recvered by rance. e sded pining and pe and in Pais in 904 h e discvered mdern paint ng, which he then pursued in sdies at 1e Wimar Schlf rt d the Acdmi Julian n Pris. He als rte

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poey of great ognliy and distncton toughout sfe. The spri beeen his forma tng and the pntngs he was drawn to brought uncertny, and hespent the yers 1908-10 in reecon n vous sml vllages n Switzelnd The Swiss landscape seems to havemade a lastng impression on m, d the absacton to wch he enly turned was based on nature andorgac shapes

I Swtzelnd, A met Paul Kee, nd er is retrnto Germny he was drawn nto the orbit of Kandnsk dthe Blaue Reiter pnters (see gs 8.17 8.18 In 1912 heexhibited in Herwth Wden's st Aumn Salon, ndby 1914 back inParis, he beonged to the crcle ofPicasso,Modiga, Aponre, Mx Jacob, and Delaunay

rp took an unusuly long time nng is own recton Since he destoyed most of his pre-1915 pnngs,the pah of s stuggle is dcult to ace He experimented vith geometic absacion based on Cubism,d by 1915 in Zurich, he ws producng rawngs andcoages whose shapes suggest leaves and nsect or mal

lfe but ch wee acually absacons With SophieTaeuber (1889193 whom he met in 1915 nd maried 1922, he jony made collages, tapestres, embroide�es,d scptes Through is oaboration ith her, p

rther clried his ides:

Ts pitus Riis in mslvs without mingo bal intnion W . llow h lmnty n

spontous to at in ll om Sin th isposiioof plans, an th popoons n olos of ts plns

sm to pn puly on hn l hat hs woks, lk ar w o aoing to th laws of

han chn big fo m mly a limit p of a

uahomabl aion de of an o nassibl istotiy

so emergng at tis tme was te tsts conviction of themetaphysical rety of obects and of life itsefsome comon denomnator beongng to boh the lowest nd thehighest forms of nd pls may have been passion to express s rety in he most concrete terms possible, s an orgc absacon (or, as he preferred tosay, an orgac concretion), that led him om pntng tocollage ad then to relef nd sculpture the round

In 19161 Arp poduced collages of to, rectnglr

pieces of colored papers scatered in a vagely rectnglarrangement on a paper grod (g 3) The storytold of their origin is hat rp tore up a draing hat s pleaed and ropped he pieces on the oor, then suddely saw the rngement of the falen scraps thesoluon to he problems wih which he had been suggng Ap continued to expement withcoages created ints mner, ust as Tzara created poems om words cutout of newspapers, shken and scattered on a tableLiberated om rationl hought processes, he laws ofchce, Ap felt, were more in tune ith he worngs ofnature By renquisng a certn amount of contol, he

w distancg msef from the creatve process Tsof depersonazaton, lready being explored by MDuchmp inPais, had profound consequences for lat

The s n emphasis away from the nvidulnd he uque arsc creaton llowed for l cooraton between Taeuber nd rp, who dubbed

ot producons "DuCoages Partly a a res Taeubers aing textes, he couple d not re

hemselves to the e rt mea tradtionly reserve pning and sclpre I their desre to ntegtand life they shred an ouook with contemporarRussia and atists such a Sonia Deaunay (see g 10Taeuber developed a geomeic vocabuly in hercomposions made in ich (g 32) These rigoabsactons, orgzed around a rhytmc balanchorontals nd verticls, had a decisive uence on A work He sd that when he met Taeuber in 1915aready new how to give drect nd plpable shape tinner reat She constructed her png like a of masory. The colors are lumous, gong from ra

yeow to deep red Beteen 1918 nd 1920 Taemade four remrkable heads in polycromed wood, wch re ports of Arp (g 33) These hhumorously reminiscent of hat stnds, re among te

1 3 1 1 Je Ap Ca Aand Accrd aw Cha, 9 7 T nd psed e, 9 X 3486 X 34 m e Mm of Mod At, e Yo

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32 Sphe eer Ryths Libr 9 9 Gue d wtelr vlu 4% X O; [37 X 5 Kunthu Zh

3.3 Sph Tur, DdHd 90 Pntedw eght 3 34 ) Funtn ArpClrt, Fre

works of Dada sculptue mde in ZUrich. At the se me,Rol Hausma s creing similr mnnequinlikensucons Berln (see g. 326)

y 95 rp s devsing a e of relief consistng oftn layers of ood shapes These orks, hich he called

"consucted pnings, represent meium somehere

between pining and sculpture They gve evidence of 's reness of Cuist collage nd constucons iche od have seen Pis 9 (see gs. 023,

26 027, 028 To mke is reliefs rp prepredrgs and gave them to a carpenter ho cut em out

ood. le not executed ith the sae aleatory meth- employed for the collages the relief drgs sprangro Arp's lngness to let hs pencl e guided uconously iout a set goal in mnd The curg vgueyorganic forms hat resuted ich evoked he ody nd isrocesses or some other higy scted form in nture,v e een clled iomorpc term used to descie thebs act imagery of rp's lter ork as ell as ht of many

Srreliss ho foloed is led. developed a vocaulry of iomorphic shpes ht had niversal signicance

A oval or eg shape for example s for symolof metmorphosis nd development of oes. A vioshape suggested fmle torso d then n ccent s

provided y cutout cicle hat ece nveL rps lter

pnted reefs suggested plans exoc vegetales crustcens, or srming moeae ih song implicaionsof lfe goth and metamorphosis He used the term«Frms trrsrs or earthly forms to descrie theserelie. A partcula shape migt suggest a specc oject

and thus gve the reef its name s n Fur Martau(Hammr Fwr (g 314)though the orgn of theshpes as nlly uve ( ne dooled n piece of

paper), he conto nes ere s orgnic s the ngorgnism ht inspired hem

lhough he as one of he founders of urich ada ho exerted tremendous inuence on susequent t rp

id not perform in the theatical presentaons at theCaaret Voltre (e Taeuer ho danced in the ada

performances) He never needed any hullaaloo sidHuelseneck rps greatness lay in his aility to limithmself to art He lso contiuted ngs and poems

AR 3 , R OM ANAS TO DDA A NW OC 245


11/32

i

I

!

to Dada pubcaons beteen 9 and 99 I rp's

later? eestanng sculptes in marble or bronze (§,eechapter the suggeson of head or torso became more frequent and expt hen asked 9 about a 93 piece enttled Aua reclining suggests some form of sea fe and stanng on end a sensuous femaletorso-he commented "In one aspect or another mysculptres are always torsos. I he same way that deChrco ntcpated the use by some Surrealiss of llusionisc tecques nd recognzable images Arps work foreshadowed the erent artsc tendency wiin STealsmto employ abstract biomorpc shapes and arbiry nondescriptve color to create a world of fantasy His work later

inuenced such artists as Joan A Masson and lexnder Calder (see gs , 0.

A Further hore New York Dada

Dng Wold War I Marcel Duchamp and Fancis Picabiahad boh come to New York nd found a ongenial enviroent at 9 the avantgarde galery founded by Al·edStieglitz who had introduced �he merican pubc to such European asters as Rodin olouseLautrec HeiRousseau Mase and Picasso (he Seglitz circle ofAmerican artists is discussed in chapter In 9,

3.4 J Ap u Mu 96 o woo, 4 X 9 6 9 X 498 F Ap C c

assisted by Ducamp and Picabia Se fonded the peocal to present te olutonary convictons about modern art by these asts. hus ideas comparabl those that wod dene Zuri Dada one ylater were ferenting independenly amal cohesive group in New York om the to Europens the most mporgre n the goup w < the young Amerartist Man ay In adtion he remarcolectors Water and ose Arensber

whose salons regulay attraced many of leang artsts and witers of the day

importat patons of Marcel Duchamp artst of greatest state and inuence in group

Duchamp' Ealy ahe enormous mpact made on teniecentry art by Mc Duhp (889 is best summaized by the archard Hamilton: ll the braches put ouby Ducamp have boe frut So widesprhave been te effects of s ife that no in

vidual may lay laim to be his her no one has is scope r

his restraint Duchamp a hdsome charismac ma geat intellect devoted lifetme to the creaon of an that w more cerebral than visual By the begning oWod r I he had rejected e works of many of his ctemporaries as retal art or art oly intended to plthe eye Although a ged painter Duchamp ulmaabandoned conventional methods of mang art in oreras he said "to put rt back at he serce of the mind Hved a simple but peipatetc existence taveng beEuope and America for most of his adlt fe

Duchamp's inqu to he very nae of art was rexpressed in such pantngs as Nude Dcndn a Sarc

N (see g 0., wc used Cubist facetng to gihe sad "a stac representaton of movement he Prexbiton of te Futists February 9 had hlpthe artst to clari s atttdes although s intenti was at he opposite exteme of theirs Furist dynami wit its macne aethetc was an opmisc humoexaltaon of the new wod of the machine wi1 progr

measred terms of speed altitude nd ecieDuchp though he used some of Futurisms devi

expressed dsilusionment throUgh saricl humorDuhp spent he smmer of 9 pintg mac

of s own creaon Wle s in Frnce he made

246 CA R R AASY AA A W BCVIY


12/32

n nd Queen Trversed by Sw Nudes in wich heare not oy meczed but re conceived s

1 aces in operaon pumping some form of sex

erg om one to anoher. Subsequenly in Mnich e pursued his ntasies of sexlized macnes a series

paings and drawngs incung e Passe

n t Bde (g. 3.5) nd he inil drwing for theeat pantng on glass, e Brde Strpped Bre Her

chelrs Even or e e Glss see g 1320) Though works suggest anatomcal diagrams of the respratoryrclatory gesve, or reproductve systms of igherammls in each Duchmp abandoned he physiclity ofte human body he orgic becmes mechzed ndmn esh is supplanted by bes pistons and cylinders.e term "mechanomhic ws eventuy coined toescribe Duchamp's dstncve grang of machine formsnto humn actvit hus wle he restored tradonasmbols of nviolable puri and sanced consummatonie. he virgin and e bride) he desroyed any sense ofcnvenon by presenng hem as elaborate systems of

atomic plumbing Doubng he vi of aionlntng and sclpture as appropriate modes of contempory eression d ssased wth Cubism Duchpstill created beauly rendered visually seducve works f rt Hs recognion of fact no doubt contrbuted tos decsion to abandon panng at the age of tent-veFrom Much on, Duchmp sd "I had he idea of

e re Glass I was shed h Cubism and ith movementat least movement ixed up wh oil panthe whol trend of pintng was somehng I dn't creto conue

Durg 912 the so-cled Armory Show was beingorgned in New York and the Americn pnters Kuhn nd Arthur B Daves nd the pntercrc WlterPach were then is seectng works by rench artsts Fo pnngs by Duchamp were chosen includng Nudeescendn Strcse and e Kn nd Queen Trversed Sw Nudes. hen the Armory Show opened in

Februy 9 Duchamps pntngs nd most partcularly e Nude became the uccs de scndle of the exibiton Despite attacks in the press ll four of Duchs painngs were sold and he suddenly found imselfnotorous

Duchp as menwe contning with s experi ments towrd a form of rt based on everyday subject matter-wih a newsignicance deterned by e rst nd h internal relaonships proceeing from a relavisc

mahematcs and physics of his on devsing. Alhugh hehad almost ceased to pnt Duchamp worked intermittently towrd a climacc object: e e Gls (see g±20) intended to sum up te ideas nd forms he had� xplored n e Pe Vn t Brde nd related pntgs. or s project he made beween 1913 and95 he awings designs nd mathemacl clcatons

1315 Mr Dhmp,Th Pssg f Vg Brd Mnh JuyAugust9 . nv,

3 X (594 X4 m) he Musem Mdern Art New

CA OM FAA DADA AD H NW OjCTVY 24


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for Bachlr Machn and Chclat Grnd later tobecome part of te male apparas accompanyng the bridein La Gla.

Duchp's most outrageoUs an& -reaching assaulton rstic taditon by far was hs inventio in 191 3 ofe "readymade, dened by Sureaist An Breton as"manufactured objects promoted to te ign of artrough the choice of e ast. Duchamp sd his selec

on of common "fod objects, such as a botle rack(g 1316 was guded by complete vsul nerence or"anaestesa nd the absence of good or bad taste Theydemonstated, n he �ost ritang fashion to e atwold of Duchamps day, tat t cold be made ut ofvirtay nythng and tat it reqed little or no maipulation by te arst Withn Duchps ocabulary hisfamously irreerent adton of a musche and goatee toa reproducon of te Mna La was a "rected readymade An "assisted readymade also reqred_ se interventon by the ast, as when Duchamp mounted an oldbicle wheel on an ordny kitchen stool (g 1317

Because the readymade could be epeated indiscrimnately Duchamp decided to make oly a small numberyely saying "for the spectator even more thn for tharst art a habtrn dru and I wted to protecmy readymade aginst sch cntnatn He sressed;that it was in the ery natre of te readymade to lackuiqueness d snce readymades re nooriginals in teconvention sense a "repica wil do just as we Toextend te perersit of this logic, Duchamp remaked:"Since the tbes of pint used by an arst aemanufacte and readymade products we must concludethat a pinngs n te wold are assisted radyad.

o l

1

Duchp limited e number of readymades so that oginal concept would not lose its impact Ths atstruck a hord mong a broadspectum of atsts in t les nd sxties Socalled NeoDada Pop lnd Conceptl tsts for exmple, in ter ow undermned te clt of gnat tat srrouded oberaed by te tist's hand They ncorpoated fundobjects (see g 254), le t fabricaton oftewrk

oters (see g 2254) or sometes aoded te objltogeerFor Duchp the concepton, he "discovery Wa

what made a work of t not te unueness ofhe objOne gmpses n te works disussed so far te lxprocss of Duhamp's ougtte delight n parathe play of vsul agnst erbal nd te penchntfor eraon and double and ple mengs In a delberat of provocation, Duchamp subtted a porcelan urwhich he trned ninet degrees nd entled Fun(see g 316) to e 97 exhbon of te New YSociet of Independent Asts The work was sgned RMutt, a pun on e plumbng tue manufacter . LMott Iron Works Needless to say e association \vth ten popular Mut and Jeff ctoons did not escDuhamp Altough te exhibion was principle oto y arsts subsson without e ntervention of auythe work was rejected Duhp resigned om e assaton, and Funtan became hs most notorious readyma

In 19314 Duhmp had carred out experimentchance tat reslted in Stppa ta/n StandStppa (g 1318 and was later apped to LaGl I a spit that nocked te noon of standascenically perfect measurement, Duchp dropp

3.6 Mrcel chBot R nd ot9 7 . Itnphtgah, chlm96

248 CAPT RM AAY O AA AN T E NW OCY


14/32

7 Mel Duhmp e ee ew k 9 5 [hi esi fe ls gin 9 3 Assemlge melheel 5W 638 m imee mne pie w 3 [60 m) high ell 50 X 5 X 6 8 3 X 648 X 4 ) . he Museum f Men A,ew k

tree rg each e meter egth m a heght fne meter t a pated caa The trg were aedt te caa wt rh the hape the amed t

mp nd preere frm bted thugh chace"hee ecti f ca d cree were e cut frmte tretcher d ad dw ga pe ad treetempate were cut frm wde rer the pre f

1.18 Me uhmp Sg E/ { SddSgs} 9 34 Assemblge 3 hes gue 3pine ns sips eh mune n glss pnel 3 wsls shpe ng ne ege mh he es f hehes he whle ie in wen , 3 pne nssis eh 5 X 47 (33 X 0 m); e me n gss pnel 7 X 49 X ' ( 84 X 54 X 06 m)hee w ss, X 43 X (6 X 09 X 0 m), X 47 X (6 X 9 4 X 0 m) X 43 X \''63 X I 097 X 0 m); ell ie i w bx

X 50 X 8 X 9 X m. he Musemf Men A, ew k

e hape amed e g The dea f the epermett he aci efwa what rged Duchmp Stag an u a remrkbe dumet etr f chce a a cg fatr i te reaf a wrk f rt

I 8 Duchamp made Tu ' (g 1319 h tpg c fr the cectr Kaere reier a

Me Dhmp ' 9 8 Oi n gphe n ns wih bs sfey pins nu n bl 3 X 0%" 07 Xle Uniesiy A Glley ew en

CAP ROM ANTASY TO DADA AD H NW OjCVY 249


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leaing spirt in Ameican avt-garde art The paiting hasn unusually long and horizontal format, for it ws desned for a spot above a bookcase in Dreier's librry. Itincudes a compenum ofDuchampian images: cast shadows, drawn in pencil, of a corkscrew and o readymades,Bccle Wheel and Hat ck; a pyramid of color sples(hrough which an acual bolt is fastened); a trome loeltear he canvas "fastened by ree rea safe ps an

acal bottle brush; a sign painters hand (rendered by aprofessional sign painter as we as he outlines at the le

d right of Stoage ta/n Together wth Dreier dMan Ry Duchamp evenualy founded he Socit

Anonyme, n important orgazaion that producedpublaions, gave lectres and put on exibitons whilebuilng an mportant collecon of modern art

3.20 Mrce DuchmpT Bid id Baby H Balos E o

e Glass.95-23 Ol led wrefo dus d vrsh ogss 8 57 (2.7X 7 m) hdelpMuseum of A

Duchamp Lat CaWhen the United States entered World War in lDuchamp relocated for several onths to Agentn

then to Europe n 92 he retrned to New Yorkd

ing a vial he caled 5 cc oar r as a for thelector Wter rensberg Dug this peiod he invefemale alter ego, Rrose la which when pronoun lFrench sounds lle "Eros cest la ve or "Eros, thts Duchamp insribed works wth ths pseudonym an wphotographed several es by Man y in the gise offeinne persona Such gestres were pical of s dency to brel down gender bodares, and they desate the degree to wich Duchamps acvies a personaity were as sigcant, if not more so tha objecs he made

HAR 1 3 ROM ANTAY O DADA AN NW O


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7'ng-o]

d n.'

nn

n

121 Mcel uh v x i Vis 94. Lehe lse conanng maure eplcas hoogaps adolo eucos of wos y Dhm Pladelph Museum of A

In 922, ar y anthr rund f rvl, Duchpstld Nw Yrk and cntinud wrking n e Largelass (g 1320 H nally casd wrk n i in 93Ths pning n glass, which was in gsatin fr svralyars, is h cntl wrk f Duchamps crr h glassuppr dispnsd wit nd fr a backgrund sinc byirt f is rnsprncy, i caprd h "chnc nvirnn f is surrunngs The Lae Glass dpics n labra nd uncnsummad mating Ual bwn brid h uppr half f h glas whs machinlik frm rcgz frm e Passage om in t Bride (sg 35) nd unifrmd bals in h lwr halhs frms r rndrd vih a iagrmac prcisinha undrscrs pSudsinic naur f tir acvis Dspi hir ffrs, h bachlrs fail prjc irlv gaslin (h sprm gas r uid cnsntly grundfrh b rllrs f h cla machin in thrm f brid s h whl cnsrucin bcms ardgm f pilss ric acviy Brn dscrbd i as�a msc and cynical inrprtan f phnnn f lv aa and supplmnt this crypic

rk Duch assmbld his rn scraps f ns, drawigs and cmpuatns i anhr wrk itld The GreenBox his cagu f Ducampian idas was lar pubishd by h ars in a facsi din Duchamp llwdw Yrk du fll n e Large Glafr vr a yr andhn had i phgrapd by Mn Ray cllig h rsultut Breeding; hn h clnd vrytling -bu a scn ft cns which h cmnd h dus wih a xavh nl uch cam whn Glasswas brkn whil inansi and was rby wbbd wih a ntrk f cracksDuchamp is rprtd hav cmmnd vt sasfacin,�w i is cmplt

Back in Pais h midhirs Duchp dvisd ark f ar a mad all f his invnns asiy prablh Bte en alise Box in a Valise (g 1321) was a kidf lahr brifca d wih miniaur rpcas f hsprvius wrk inluing h afrmnind bjc prvidd a suvy f Duchmps wrk, lik a ravlingrspciv Whn, s many hr Eurpn rtssDuchamp sugh n rg in Amrica m Wrld Wr

n Eurp, h cam qppd wih hs "prabl

musum. Fns such as h Aricn ars JsphC wh ls mad ar in bx frm (s g 954),hlpd him asmbl th many p f Bite Li TheGreen Bo i as mad n a mulpl n Duchampnndd ha h viwr parcipa in sting up and handling h bjc in h vais In his way, vwr cmplts h crav act st in mn by h rs

Alugh Duchamp l i b rumrd ha h had cad frml arsc acvy in rdr dv himsf ss(a whch h xclld), h wrkd n scr fr wny ysn a majr sculpral prjct cmpld in 966 tantonns La Chute d'Eau Le Ga d'clairage Given: .

e Waterall The Iluminating Gas is n f h mssurbing and ngac wrk f cnry, bu i cam ligh nly aftr ariss da whn i was insalldin h Philadlphia Musum f Ar, whch wn ms fDuchamps majr wrks A mixdma asmblag builarund rlsc r f a nud wmn sprawld nh gund tant onnscan ny b vwd by n prsn at a tim rugh a pphl a larg wdn dr.Duchamps scr cnsidrans fralism nd vyurism,c:pld wi mysrius tl prvid a alngingcmplmnt h mchanic sxualy and prsn symblism f e Large Glass

A OM AAS O DADA A D W OV 5


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PicaiaFranis Piabia (1875-1953) was born in Paris of welthyCuban and French parents Between 1908 and 1911 hemoved from Impressionism to Cubism He joined heSection d'Or bey and then expemented wth Ohismand Futurism (see g 10.49) In New York in 1 91 5 hecoaborated with Marcel Duchamp in establishing theAmerican version of protoDada ad, in he spit of

Duchamp, took up machne image as an emblematic andonic ode of representation "Almost immediately uponcog to Ameria, Piabia said, "it ashed on me thatthe geius of the modern word is in machnery, and thathrough machnery art ought to d a most vivid expression In hs "mechnorphic stle, Picabia achevedsome of is most stnctive work prticarly a series ofMachne rra of imself and his key assoates NewYork Thus he saw Stiegi (g ) as a broken bellows camera, eqipped ih a automobe brake working posiion and a gear si neul signg heustraons experienced by someone yig to present

experment art in phlisine America Boh the Gotic letters and the title, Ideal conrm he conceptual or heralicform of the portrait, while also stablishing a ty conastbetween the commonplace, mechanic imagery and he:_�<

GET C LZF T AMR

13.22 Fans Piabia d, 9 en an e an lckink n pape 29 X 20 759 X 508 The MepianMuseu f A ew Y

anent, noble devices of tadionl heraly Mae publication i Stieglit's joua Picabias 191 traits are modest n sie, materials, and ambition, b iother works the arst developed his machine aesthetii"nctionless mahinesinto splenily icoc panigThey are tongueinche, however in their coeon the seriocomic character of hum sexua drives, have many parallels, both hemac ad forml i

Duchamps e e Gla hen under way in New Yor.eturning to Europe in 1916 Picabia founded is jou-nal in Barcelona and published it interttentl iNew York, Zurich, and Ps unil 1924 er meetig theZuch Dadaists 1918, he was acve in he Dada g Paris He reverted to representational art and, ae emergence of Surrealism, painted a series of Tranarin which he superiposed thn layers of transparent imag!'deieatg assicly beaul male and femle imges,somemes accpaed by exoc ora and fauna Tghhe Tranarenc and the greater part of Piabias ltework were long dismissed as decadently devoid of eit

content or forma terest, they have assmed new impo"tce among he acknowledged prototpes of eigNoExpressioism (see chapter 26)

Ma Ray ad th Amica Ava-Gadelaively bdened by adition some American awho met Duchamp ad Picabia New York had lie icul enterng into the Dada spit Indeed one of thmost dag of all Dada objecs was made by Philadelpborn Morton Schamberg who mounted a plumbg connecton on a miter box d srdoically iled it GdThough known primarily for his work Schamberg wactally a panter and photogapher who made a numboabstract machnenspired composiions in oil before hi liwas cut short by the massive inuena epidemic i 191

No ls ingenos in his ability to devise Dada objthan to photogaph them was Ma Ry 189019(born Emmanue Radnitsky, also om Philadelpha wwent on to pusue a lenghy, acve career in he ambiof Surrelsm He gathered wh Duchap and Picabi e Arensbergs' hoe and by 1916 had begun to mkpatgs sped by a Dada machine aeshec d dmensionl constructons made wth fond objects 1919 Mn Ray, who was always looking for ways to di

hmse of the "praphernalia of the raditonl pate

was creaing the st paintings made wth an airbrwhich he called "erographs Normally reserved commercia grapic work, the airbrush made possible soft tonalies the dang fans and cones of ud(g ) The artst was deghted with his new disery "It was wonderl he said, "to pant a picture wouttouching he cvas.

In 1921 disappoited t Dada had failed to ignitlscale isic revoluion New York, Man Ly moto Pris His exhibiton i December of that ye waDada event The gllery was completely lled wh ballo

CAPR ROM ANTAS O AA AN NW OCV


18/32

tat vws ha to pop in o to isov th at Gf(g 324) wh xsts toay a a pla of th 92ignl was ma n th spt of Duhamp's sightyte o "assst aymas Wth haatst blakmo Man Ray subvt an on's noml uitintion by attacng foutn tacks to its s s-mng tis fmi objt into somthing an anating Th ok as ma fo avantga Fnhompos Ek Sa hn ts i.

_ < '

-"

.24 Man Ray, , Replca o lo original of 92 1 aroni ail, eigh 6> X 3 X 3%" (165 X 92 X 95 m).lleco Moo G Nean aiy, Chicago

1323 Man Ray, gdla 919. Aiuegouache, pen a in, pncil, an ooe pencio pape oa, 22 X 27 [55.9 708 )irhorn Mum an Sculpue GaenShonian Isiuion, Wahingon, DC

Man Ray who ha tln up photogaphy 95 ough s assoaon th Sgltzvnt lss photogaphi mags thath all "Rayogaphs. Ths w ma byplang objts on o na snsi pap thatwas thn xpos ily to lght t1 popDaa mann th thnqu was isovaintally in th akoom By onollingxposu an by movng o movng objtsth ast us ts "autat poss to catmags of a sangly absat o symbolihaat (g 325).

Man Ray bam an stablsh gu n th Paisanavantg gang £ with hs Daa lms th hspimntl photogaphs his photogaphs of atists ant n is fahion photogaphy (s g 5.6) By thJ wns h as a nta gu f th Suast l( � hapt 5). Sval of s assistants bam potant photogaphs i thi own ight: Bi bbott(s g 8.8) Bill Bant (s g. 69) n L Mil(s g 958)

1325 Ma Ray, ld 1 922 Geanlve pin[Rayograp, 9 X " 23.8 X 1 778 ) The Museu ofMoe A, New Yo

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'

I

"Art is Dead": Dada in Germany

In 1917, wth a devastaing war, severe resrcons on dilylife, and rampnt inaon, the ture n Gerny seeedcompletely uncertain Ts aosphere, n which highlypolized and radcal polics ourished, was conducive tothe spread of Dada. Hulsnbeck, returng fro Bernto Zurich, joined a sa group ncludng the broers

Wieland and Heut Herzfelde (who changed naeto John Harteld as a pro-erican gesre , H1hHOch, the painters oUl Hausm, George Grosz, nd,later, Johes Baader Huelsenbeck opened a Dadacapgn early in 1918 with speeces 1d mafestosaacng ll phases of the arstc status quo, incudngExpressionis1, Cubis, nd Futurism A Club Dada wasformed, to wch Krt Schwitters, later a major exponentof Gern Dada, was resed membership because ofhis associaon th Der Sturm Gllery, regarded byHuelsenbeck as a bason of Expressionst art and one ofDada's cef tgets er the w and the ll of the

monchy cne a period of policl chaos, which did notend with the establishent of the Weimar Republic(1918-33) and democrac government der the moderate socilist president Fiedich Ebert Expemetal arstsand witers were generally leng, hopel that chaos would emerge a ore equable sciey, but dsllusonent among ebers of the Dada group set as theyrealzed hat he so-caled socast goverent was acallyin leag wh busess interess 1d the old imperlmiltary. Fo he sgst wh what hey regded as abakupt Western clre, hey turned to rt as a meufor soc and polcal acvy The weapons were mosy

coage and photoontage erlin Dada, especia

ly forHeareld nd Grosz, qckly took on a lefting,acfst

and coust irecon The Herzfelde brothers' jonl,Nue ]d nd heir publishng house, MikVerlag,uzed Dada tecniques for poltcal propaganda (seegs 1328 133) George Grosz made mny savage socilnd polticl angs nd pinngs for the journl neof the publcaions nnced by the Herzfede brotherswas Eery Ma i Ow Footba though the workwas qcly banned, its tle became a rallying cry forGermn revolutionists In 1919 the rst issue of Dr Dadaappered, followed in 1920 by the rst internaonal

DadaMesse, or Dada Fair, where the arsts covered thewlls of a erin gallery wth photomontages, posters, andslogans lke "Art s dead Long live the new achine art ofTatlin The rebellious members of Dada never espouseda cle· program, and their goals were oen ambiguousand soetmes contradictory: whie they used art as aeans of protest, they also quesoned the very validiy ofarisc producion

aman, h, ad aildThe Zuch Dada expements n noisemusc and abstact phonetc poetry were rher explored n erlin

Ro au (188-1971) the chief thered wrter of the group (nicamed "the Dadasclamed the invenon of a poec form involving atory and autve combinations, rmly ed to a aton, expressed n tpography by "letters of sizes d thiclesses whch us took on the chacmusicl notatons." In his Spirit ofOur Time (Mechaad (g ) 1919 Hausnn created a

threeensionl colage To a wooden annequhe attached rel objects, icluing a et collapsinga tape mease, labels, nd a pocketbok Thrugh of common fond objecs, Hausmnn partook conocastic spirt of Duchp's readymades and that human bengs had been reduced to minless devoid of individu will ·

In the visul ts, a major venton or dscoveyphotoontage, created by cuttng up d pstng photographs of inividus nd events, posters, bokets, and a vriey of peces in new and starting cnrationsanything to achieve shocl The surce a

for ths medium was made possble by the emengrowh the pint media n Germany HausaHOch (who were lovers and occasional coaboaalong wih Grosz, cled to have oiginated Dada pontage, ahough it was a technque that had existe

Ra Hsma Spirit o Our m (Md 1 91 9 W eher un ra an c % X 9" [3 X 9 m) Mu na A MCr A e Cuure Gerge piu ari

A OM ANASY DADA AND W OBIIY


20/32

327 Hnh Hh t w t Kc Dada Tog t at Wma B By al Gmay 9 1 9- Phoge 44 X 35' [ 4 X 9 m) Slch Musn zu Brn russscherKlures Nonlglr

yers in avertisin n popuar imaery. reeentan aso be ienie in Cubist oae opaper co anurist oae see 117). hotomontae wih isearinteraon o imaes o moern e into works o rtprove to be an iea orm or Daiss n subsequentyor Srreaists

A are photomontae o 1919-2 by aa 8891978 wit a piy saroni tite Cu whh Kchen Kne Dada hrough he a #mar Berl Cuural Epoch ofGerman ) was inue

in he DaaMesse espite e eorts o Grosz nHere to exue her work The izzyin prosiono imaery here emonsrates the ways in whi photomontae reies on maeria appropate rom its normaontext, su as maaine iustration, an introues itto a new suntive ontext thereby investin it withnew mean H here presents a satiria panorama oWeimr soiey. She iues photoraphs o her Daaoeaues omunist eaers ners sports resn Daa sos in vryin typeaes. The espise

CHAT OM ANA O AA AN W OCVIY 55


21/32

Weimr goverment leaders at the upper right are labeled"ati-Dada moement. At the very center of the composition is a photo of a poplr dncer who seems to tossher outofscale head nto the The ead is a photo ofExpressiost pimker Kthe Kolwt (see gs. 818.1). lthough the Dadists revled the emove at ofthe Expressionists it seems lkely that HOch respected tisleng woman arst Thoughout he composiion re

photographs of geas and wheels boh a ribute to technology ad a means of imprting a sense of dynaic, circlr movement ne dfference beween HOc nd hercolleagues is he preponderance of female imagery in herwork inicative of her interest in he new roles of womenin postr Germny, which had ganted women te Votein 1918 to years before the United States

Jo d 1891-198) made photomontagesof a somewat fferet vaey He composed images omthe clippings e too :om newsppers, retouching temin order to blend the parts into a facsimile of a single integrated image These images were photographed nd made

into photogravres for mass reproduction Beginning in1?30 as he rise ofNazism began to domnate hepoliical ldscape Heateld contributed illuation reglarly to the leing magaine I orWorkr Iuratd Nwpap Fone ofs mostjarring images ofprotest, madein 1934 aer Hierhad become Germn chcellor (and had assumedictatoril powers) he ltered he words of a

raona Germn Chismas caol nd isted the forof a Christmas tee to a swastla tee (g. 32) "Tannenbaum m deutchen Rum ie umm/si Inte! ("0 Cristas tee in Germa sol ow cre yo brances) the heang reads. The tet states hat n he tre tees must be cut in his l

SchwiHers

Somewhat apt om the erlin Dadits w the verian arist Kt c 18871948) who ompleted hi form ting at the cademy in Dresde anpainted poraits for a living He quarreled pubicly Huelsenbeck ad was denied access to Club Dada beauof hs involvement it he apolitical nd prot ound Herwrh Wlden's Der Sm Gllery Be weventally reconcled th oher members of the guhowever, nd estabished is own Dada vrint i Hvunder the designation Mer a word n prt derved othe word Comb included in one of g"At the end of 1918, e wrote I reaied hat a

oly exist relationship to each other nd at restic

1328 Jo Hee Lle German Chs 934 hoomoe 0 X 7� [6 X 0 Te Meropol Museum o Ar ew ork

1 329 Ku cwers Pu wh ig ene, 9 1 9 Colge ofu-se pers l crbor 3 3 � X 5� [845 X67 he Museum of Moer Ar ew ok

256 AP FROM FANAY O AA A THE N W OY


22/32

1.0 Shw Mrzbd 2A a teenil}Pct} 0 Ama X 3 W [ 04. X

em) unammlung orhnWfan Dlr

sigle mtel is one-sided nd smlindd. Fromnsight I formed Merz bove ll the sm of inividul

t forms1 Merzpinng, Mczpoy" Shwitters ws leted pot imprssive reings nd dely seiousabt his fforts n pinng olge, d onstonThese lwys involved degree of dedpn hmo deightl to those who [ew , but istbing to unfmiiens

Shwitters's olges wee mde of rubbish pikd upm the steegrete wrppers tkts newsppers,tig, bords \ srns, nd whtvr ught his y these sold Mrzbdr o Mrchnungn (Mez

or Merzrwgs) he tnsformed the dets s suroundngs into stnge nd wonderfu beuty Pctur wth ht Cntr (g 329) we see howtters ould extt elegne from thse owly foundteils He refly sutured his iulr nd gonllents within Cubistdeved gd, he theninford by pplyng pint ovr the olge, reng owing innr light tht its om the pitres entero his 0 ssemblg, Mrzbd 5A (Da Strnnbdtar Pctur (g 33), Shwittes did not resttself to the twodimensionl printed imgery we hveen n th photomontges of erted nd HOh Hiorportes rope, wire mesh, pint, nd other mterilstinite the rtst's song onern for physiity in his

srfes. But is re not identl jutposions or onesmde puly for fonl eet h sntes of tet fromGermn nwsppers in this Mrzbd n be deodd sreferng to rent pol events n Grmny

Shwittrs intodued himself to o usmnn in ein f in 8 by syng m pinter nd nlmy pis together" s dsripton pplies to ll srlief onsttons sine he drw no hrdndfst inebven them ndpapr co, but most speily to ssries of gret onstuons ·tht he lled MrzCumnor Mrzbau (g 33) uninton of Shwittersttemps to rete Gamtkunstwrk o totl work of rte begn the rst on n hose in nover ound s n bstt plster sulpre with prtes deted to is Ddist nd onstuvist frnds nd ontining obets ommemortng them: ondin, bo,Arp, ssitzl Mlevih, ihter, is vn der Rohe,nd Doesbg he Mrzbau grw thoughout thtwenes wit suessive reons of every kind of mtri untl it lled the room Hving then no pe to gobt up, he onned the nviromentl onstruon withimplble logi into th sond story te stutreg�ows bigger nd biggr," Shwiers wrote, vlys, hol6s, ves ppr nd these ed life of their own withine ovll stte he jxtposed surfs give rise toforms stng in evey ietion, spiring upwd" Whenh ws diven from Gemny by the Nzis nd orginl

13.31 r Shwr Mzau Dryhoo akn 3

CAR FROM ANA O AA A NW OC 257


23/32

Mrzbau was desed, Schers sared nher nein Nrwa The Nazi invasin frced Engand,where he began agn fr he d e er his deahin 1948 he hird Mrzbau was rescued nd preserved ine Uversi f Newcase The exampe f Schwiterswas cucia fr aer ariss wh sugh creae scupren an envrnmen sce. They ncude gres as iverseas se Nevesn (see g 196), Red Grms (see g

21.21), and uise Brgeis (see g 192).Ear in he wenies he de Sij aris The van

Des bg (see chaper ) had becme friendy wihSchwiers, and he cabraed n a number f pubicans and even made a Dada r f Hand Schwirsbecame mre and mre araced he gemeric absracniss d nsucviss, fr despie he fanasy and rubbish maeas n s wrks, he demnsraed reansipsand prprins ha riva Mndris NePasc paings in heir subey nd rigr

rars prvide te ame and accmpanyng ex ln thFaagagaed r Erhing i Foaing n anto ic awing f a beee becmes, upside-dwn a tba ang ugh he dephs f he sea. Sme thFaagaga sen Trsan Tzara in Pris fr in is faed pucan Dadagob Es had b cse cnac h he Prsi brch f Dada (see beo)and man f 1e arss wh wd devep Surrea0 Bthe me he mved Pars in 1922, he had areay crhe basis fOr much f he Surreais vcabuar

Despie he cse iendship beween Es and eir appraches _ pinng, cage and scuptr dieren rp's was ward absrac rgac Surreais which ges r her bjecs ma be suggesed b rare expici. Erns, fwing he exampe f de Cand fred b s wn "ghicimagain, bec principa fnder f he wing f Surreaism hat uiMagic Reismha is, precise deineaed, recgnibjeCs, isred and nsfrmed, bu neverhess p

st sened wih a ruess resm a rws e

When Ert 18911976) saw wrks by mde acquired fanasy in scng reie Cb 1 3 ass such as zane and Picass a he 1912 a echanized mnser whse runk-pipeine spr Snderbnd exibiin n gne, he decided frg cwskuhead abve an macuae whie car. A is uersi suies and ake up r He wen Paris in :�1913, and his wrks were incuded ha ear in te FirsGerman Aumn Sn a Der Srm in Berin, when earis was en ears d. In 191920, Jean rpesabshed cnac wih Erns n gne, nd he wwere insumena in he frmain f ye anher wing finernana Dada The had me in gne in 1914,bu Erns hen served he German am A he endf h wr, he iscvered Zuri Dada and 1e pangs

f de hiric ad Kee Ernss ea pngs were rd a e Ghic nas dran m Der Grnewa(see g 8), and Bs The ars was s scinaed bGerman Rmanicism he macabre frms f ingerand Bcin. This gc quaiy (in he des senseremaned a cnsisen chaacerisc f Ernss fanasies. I191920, a saggerg prducve peid he prducedcages and phmnages ha demnsaed a geiusfr suggesng e menrphsis r dube ideniy fbjecs, a pic aer cenra Surres icngraphy. In ngeius wrk �m 1920 (g 332), Es venedhis wn mechanisic frms as sands fr e han

bd. he equen d drng is peid, he arisk a page m a 1914 scienc ex usrang chemisr nd bigy equipmen and, by verpining ceranareas and inserng s wn adiins, he ansfrmed ggges d her abrar uenss in a pair f ariuscreaures befre a andscape. The cmpsin bears eingcmparisn wih Picabia's mechanmrphic inventins(see g 3.22)

During e ner f192021, Es and Arp cabraed n cages ened Faagaga shr fr Fabricaiod aba Garani Gomriqu Erns usuy prvidedhe cage imager we A and ther ccasina cab-

ess cassica rs becns he bes it an eeggved hand The images are u·eaed n a rana !;sme are eaening (he eephn, whie hers re expicabe (he beckning rs The rund frm f eephan was acua suggesed Es b a phgf a giganc cmmL crn b made f ca and sb pepe in suhern Sudan. e n cnstuced cage, Cb i is mn sparae mfs, is ifr

3.32 Mx n Coe ae Znc ate Rbbe 2 aes Dae Teecoe e Ma 20Goce n nl on e eocon X 6Y(4 X 6 7 m). Wheeo nkow

258 AP 3 FROM AASY O DAA AD H NEW OBJC


24/32

333 Max Ens O n anva X3" [ X 0 Tat Gl Lanon

by a collag asthc as w as y h ary pantings of

d hirico; i appals o th lvl of prcption ow con

siousnss. Erst, who work in a rmarkaly roa rng

of mia n styls, cam a major gur of Srsm

(s gs 56, 58, 59

Idealsm and Dsgus: The "NewObjecv n Germany

Imialy foowng Grmany's fat in Wol W acation of Kaisr Wilm som of la of Gn Exprssionism form h Novmrroup an wr soon jon y Daiss n 99, unr nwly salish Wimar Rpulic, h Workrs

Conc for was orgz t sought mor sa suport, mor commissions from inusy, an h rorganizaon of ar schools Ths arss incu many of

origin Eprssionists, such arcics as Wtr Gropius

an Erich Mnlson (s chaptr 2 ), an lag pos,usicias, a criics My of h ms of h Novmr

roup an h Workrs' ouncil wr incorporat intot progrm of Wim Bauaus

In thir xhiitions, h Novmr Group rstalishcontact wth Franc an ohr countris, n anagonsms

among th varios nw aigmns wr sumrg for a

on half of a common front Th Exprssioists wr

eii, as wll as rprsnavs of uism, asracon,

Consructism, Daa, l h nw ctcs

sow projcs for ciy plng n lrg-sc housg

Socis simr o h Novmr Group sprng up n

many prs of Grmany, an ir mfstos ra li a

cuious ln of socialis iaism an rvivist rgion

Th onon front of socias iaism not lst

long Th workrs whom h atiss xo n to whom

thy app wr vn mor suspicious of nw ar

forms hn ws t capitalist ourgoisi was naturly

om lattr hat nw patons of ar mrg By 924

Grmn pocs was shiing inxoraly o h right, an

h rsts' utopianism was in many cass rnng into is

usionmnt an nicism hr now mrg a form of

Soci Rism in paining o wch h nm h Nw

Ojcvy Di Nu Sachichkit was givn Manwl,h Bauhaus, th sign school run y Gropius sinc 99

a Wmar, ha ri o apply h ias of Novmr

Grop an h Workrs' ouc towar a nw rlaonsp

tn arst n sociy n 925 i ws forc y ris

g i of consrvaiv oppositon o mov o Dssau Is

facuy mmrs s clng o posar Exprssionst an

sois ias, ough y 925 hr program mostly

concrn ning of artiss, c workrs, sign

rs for an insia, capias sociy

os'1 principa painrs associat h Nw OjctvtyVr og os (893959, Otto Dix, an Max

Bcmr rists whos syl touch riy a cr

n points ut who ha ssnily irnt movaons

Gosz si at h Drsn Acamy om 909 o 9

n a h Royal Arts an rs School n Br o n on

·om 92 o 96, partiay supporng msf h raw

ings of th shay si of Bn ngh hs caustc

works prpar for s lar oln samnts of isgt

0 l1 posar Grmny n humnn gnrly n 9h visit Prs n, spit latr scrs, was oviouslyct y uism an its ohoos, pariculaly Rort

Dlaunay an Italian Fuurism Ar o yars in th ary

(946), Grosz rsum his carcars w convasc

ing in Brin hy rva a mitr prsonaiy, now

for y osrvaons of aocracy, corrupon, n h

horrors of a wo a wr Rc o h army 97,

Grosz n s my cr in n asylum on whos pr

so an amsaon h ma vastang commnt

r th wr Grosz was rawn io Bn Daa n is

ovrring lfng rction H ma stag signs n

collaorat on priocs, t conn his own work ofpoic or social sar Ddicatin t Okar Pania of978 (g 334 is his most isinspir workTh i rfrs o h writr Panizza, whos work ha n

cnsor a h n of th nntnth cntry Bu h

largr sujc, accorng o Grosz, was "Mnin gon

ma H si tha h humaniz grs rprsn

lcohol, Sypis, snc Showng a nral trn

into a riot, t pntig is oo wih a loo or r

Th ulngs ln crazly an is o is pack arou

h pra con on wch Dah sis tiumphly, sg

ging at a ot facs r horril masks; hmaniy is

HAR 3 RM AA DADA A D H NW C IY 259


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c ·

,

· J

3.3 Gog Goz dto to Osk P1 1 7-1 8 O n nv 55! x 43 1 x Sttgr Stuttgrt

swept into a hel of is own mldng; n the gure of Deathries above it ll on a black con Yet the st conols thechaos with a geomery of he bulngs an the planes intowhich he segments he crow

The rawing Fitfor Aciv Sri (g. 335 wa,s useas an llustaton in for Di Pli (Bankrupy oneof the many pocal publicaions ih wch Grosz wasvolve The etors Herzfele Grosz n Hetelle i it vth scathing polic sare whch occasionally got them thro into prson Tis work showsGrosz's sense of the macabre an his etestaon of bureauracy th a fat complacnt octor pronouncing his"OK of a escate caaver before rrognt Prussintpe ofcers The spare economy of the rasmsp nGrosz's llusraons s also evient in a number of thest's pinings one in the same perio Rpulian

Auomaon appes he sle an mofs of e Chiricoan the Metaphsical School to politcal saire as empyheae blal-face an mutlate automatons praeloyly though he sreets of a mechanisc metropols oner way to vote as hey re tol such works as hisGrosz comes closest to he spit of the Daaists anSreliss But he expresse s most passionate convicions in rangs n pintngs hat continue anExpressionist traion of savagely enouncng a ecayingGermany of brutl proteers an obscene prostutes nof limiless gluttony n sensuiy the face of abjectpovery sease n eah. Normally Grosz worke in a

1 335 Gorg Gosz Ft o Ave erve ( t 1161 n, bh nd nd ink ht X 1 458 X 36 T Mu f Mdr At ok.

style of spare britle rawing combine wil1 watercolor In le m-enes however he brie precise relism in por·iture lose to he New Obeiof Otto Dix (see g 7)

Grosz was :equeny in trouble wi1 the autl1ortiitwas Nazism that cause hm to ee In the Ute Suring the thirtes his personli was qte ransfoAllough he occasionlly crcate Americn pes twere relavely mil even aeconate America for ia ream come true an he painte he skyscrapers of

York or the unes of Provincetown in a senmentl His pervag sensuality was expresse in wrm potofRubenesque nues

The growth of Nazism reknle his power of commentary an Worl War II cause Grosz to pseres expressing bitter hatre an eep personal is

sionment In the later works sheer repulsion phe passionate convicons of his earlier statements enot return to Bern unl 58, an he e theefolowing yer

DixThe rist whose works most learly eine the natthe New Objectviy was Ott D 8) Boworkngclass prens he was a proletarian by upbi well s by poicl convicon Dix's combat expeimae hm ercely anmtaistic His war pinngs g

some escripons of inescibable horrors re

260 A 1 3 OM FAA AA AND W O


26/32

Oo Dx M0r-hemann 96.

n58% X 39"X 99 l m)

of Md AtYo.

in he Germn Gothic taion of GrUnewald (see g. 8His paintg e Trench g 1336) traveled throughoutGermny as part of an exbion mounted by a groupcaled No More W It was stored for a tme by ErnstBarlach (see g 99) but t was eventlly destoyed,perhaps when the Nazis set re to works of "degeera�ert in Belin oward the end ofWorld L ke GroszDix was expOSed to diverse iences from Cubs toDadaJ but from the beginng he was concerned ithucompromising realism Ts was a sympto of the postwar reacon against absacton a reacon most markedin Germy but also evident in most of rope andin America Even my of the pioneers of Fauvism andCubism were nvolved in it However, he superreaism ofDix was not smply a return to the past In his portrat ofhe laryngologist D MayerHermann (g 337), the

massive gre is seated ontaly, med by the vaguelymenacing machines of is profession Although he pnting ncludes nothng bizarre or extrneous the overpowering co·ontaton gives a sense of he real or s -typeof superrealism as istnct ·om urreaism) the ternMagic Reaism was coned: a mode of representaton thattkes on an aura of he ftasc because commonplaceobjects are presented with unexpectely exaggerated anddetailed forightness Dix remaed n Germany dgthe azi regime, lthough he was forbidden to exhbit orteach and was imprisoned for a short me er the war heturned to a form of myscal regious expression

CHAPER FOM FAASY O DAA AD H NW OBJEIVIY 26


27/32

13.38 Augu Sn Wer eope (Fhees Vok}

fo th mzs of he 20h Ceuy (Mesche des jhrhuers, fo th potoo ve eope n(Coogn Gmn. 30 Gtn-v pt 8\ X lO"2 0 X 2.5 Muu of Mon A N Yok

1339At Rngtzh Ios Use Shoek sWk 5: Gatnv pt G W oogn

Te Potograpy of Sander an Renger·PatzThe pon·e of tiss like Dix may vey wel hve b"iueced by 1e cotempoy photogaphs of

Au� b'IStSer (87), a Gem ast ad fome cwh� becme a powerul exponent of the Ne Objectvi.ed e at at the Desde Academy Snder stabot to accompish ohig less ha a compephotogaphic poit of "Ma i Tweie-Cenu1.\,Gemay He was coviced hat he cmea, hnes]�ad stghfodly employed, cold pobe be;appeaces ad issect he th hat lay wii photogaphed Gem soce its "sociologicl c'' ooccupaos ad lasses pesetig clal tes eomets that shaped em (g 338) pubshed the st volume of hs magm opso ohe most ambtous the hstoy of ptogpye ie Antlz der Zet ace of ime oly to se book suppessed ad e plates (bt ot the egadesoyed he ely hes by the Nazs who e�fod he photogaphe's deas coy to e o

pathological views of ace ad class Fo his pt awote: It is ot my teto ehe to ccze o odescibe hese people but to ceate a piece of istoy thmy pictues

The Gem photogaphe most mmedately dew e New Objecivi was e ge-Patzs87) Lke al ad e Uited tates g 8), Rege-azsch avoded e double eposad photogapc miplatios of M ay ee 5) ad Moholy-Nag (see g 7) well as hit ad soess of the ictoilists, to pi"saght photogap closely ad shly focsed obects solated, o absacted, fom he atl ad amade wolds (g. 33) Bt fo al its stk ealism, ua appoach yelded detls so eged ad cisply piof he_ sctal o fcol cotexts hat he vapatte they poduce bodes o pue desg il Rengeazsch ssted upo hs commmet to ctuy a looess to t fo a's ske

BeckmannM e 885) was 1e picpal aassociated wi e New Obectvit but could oly br

. be called a pecise Relist he sese of DC. Bo

wey paets Lepzig he was schooled i e Ea Ressce pites of Gemay ad the Nethela ad the geat seveteehcetuy Dutch pates

stues at e Wem academy ad a bef visit to PBeckma setled i Bei, the a ceteGema mpessiosm ad t Noveau ec Delacox ad b Gea academic tadiio paited lage eigios d classcl mals d vesioscotempoy isastes sch as the skig of he T(), doe e mode of Gcauls be mastepcomemoaig a 8 shipweck, Ra ofthe MBy Becla was a wellkow acadecia.

262 C AP 1 OM ANA O DADA AD H NW OC


28/32

sce in Word W I brought about a nervou break

wn and, a he later aid "great injury to hi oul. ThepeCJe turned hm toard a earch for internal reaiy

:Ba a�umed mny guie n over eighty-ve elort

;its

made toughout hi ife. The S-Prtrait withSarf of 1917 (g 1340) how he t in hi

Fr;t tudo hated and anxou eckmann' ugi aarent in a big unhed Rurrcin on hichpinted oradicay beteen 196 nd 1918 Here he

'att

enplcd

to join hi more intene and imeiate viionhe r year to hi rea academic formla Th

liberated him om h academic at n o ntg of917, Dcntm th Cr and Chrit and thman Tan in dultry he und a erona ereion,

in Gr\neld och and rueghel, though hehae and deimited ace ao oed uch to

ubi Out of i maing of Late Gothc, ubim, nderman Exreonim emerged eclnann' next yle

Alhough he a not oicay oriented eclnann responded to he violence and cruey of the at ye of the

1.40 Max eckmann e/o wh ,1 1 Oil on ava 3 1 \ X 3 (80 X 60 m)ttei, Stuttat

13.41 Max Beckmann, SfPora in Tudo, 1 927. Oil cna, 55 X 3% (14 x 6 m Buceiineu, Harard Universty Art Mueums, Cambrge,Msachuets.

a by atig drma of torre and brutaityymtomac of the laene of he e and ohec of hetateonored genocide of he eay forie Rendered inae, emoonly relive coor, the ge could betite and dtorted thn a comreed ace, a atemedev rereentaon of the torture of he damned (neclann' ork, he nocent) and the horror hitened by exlicit nd accurate detl Such ork ichimart ymbolc content hough hh examinaon ofexternal aernce ere cloe to and even ntcated heNe Objeciy of Goz and Dix

n S-Prait in ud om 927 (g 341)ela reent a vie of helf qite dfferent fromthe one ten year eier No a matue gure he aeaeriou and elfaured, debonar even he comoion itkg n t legant lcty h dee blal


29/32

len rsts. Nevertheless when the Nzis cme topower in 933 Beclann ws sripped of his techinpositon in Frt, nd 590 of his works were cons-cted from museums throuhout Germany On the openn dy of the 193 Deenerte Art show in Munich,wch ncluded severl works by Beclnann inclun 1340), te rtst and s wife led to Amsterdm In 94,er years of n from the Nzis he never returned to

Germany), Beckmnn ccepted tech posion tWshnton Uersit, St Lous issouri where h lled positon vcted by he bstrct Expressionist pnterPlip Gton see s 1920, 92 ) nd becme hihlyinuenal techer He remaed in the United Sttes forthe rest of his life.

Throuhout the thrties nd fortes Beclnn connued to deveop s ides of coloristic chness monumentali nd complexit of subject The eniched color cmefrom visis to aris nd contcts with French sts, prc-lly Misse and Picsso However, his emphsis on literry suects hin hev symbol content reected his

Germanc stc roos The st of s new monumentlsymbolic proch ws the lare 193233 iptchDerture 342 Becln mde nne pns inthe trptch formt, obously mln conncton·betwen his work nd he ret ecesistcal rt of te pst Aled Bar described Dert" s n alleory of he tri umhl voye f the moden spit thro\ andbeyondthe ony of the modern wld; he riht wi sos

ustrtion, deision nd selftorre n the left 1 VHgsistic mulon, and the tortre of ohers ec 1d f h h . 93

s o t S tpc On e right wng you can see yoursef trying to youway in he darlmess, ghng the a n sarase aiserable lap draggng aong te to yo as part of)oself, te orpse of yor eoes of yor wrongs, ofyoufaires he urer everyone coits at soe te

ife-you an neer free yosef of yo pst, yo a tarry te opse we Lfe pays te dr

Also despite s svowal of polcl interests te l.hnd panel must refer to the se of dcttorsp th adrivin liberal arists, writers, and thkers underro

The darless and suern i the wins are reslve he brillint sunliht colors of the cental pane where �kin, the mother, and 1e ld set forl1 uided b veiled botmn. Becln sad: The Kn and Qehve eed themselves of the tortres of lfehe �overcome hem The ueen crries the retest

Freedoms her cld in her lp Freedom is he one ht mtersit is the deprtre, the new start.t is important o emphsize the fct tht Beckm

lleoies nd symbols were not literal iconorph be red by nyone iven the key. The specttor hd to r-cipte ctively nd he llusions could mean someti

erent to ech viewer. In dion he llusio eckmnns work could be very complex. His lst trp

Mx �kman, Departur, 932-33 O on n,ipyh, n pnl 7'% X 3'9 [ X 5 ;i pn ach?%" X 3 [2 X I hMu of Mon At New Yo

AP 1 M ANTAY O AA AD W BCY


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r

343 Mx eman, Aas 1 949-50. Tih, oi on cava let pnel 6 X 29W 8 085 ente pnel X 22 g anl X 9W 8 085 m Ntionl Gae o At Whion, DC

Aonaut (g 343) was completed he day beforedied Beckmn origlly ended the work as an alle-

ory about the ars Png is represented in the ef panel artist, presmably a srogae sefportrit, wors

a canvas The women playig insruments in the righte sy1bolize music, whle the gures in the centerepic poery Promped by a dream to rename he paintng he Aonaut Beckm gave his image a moreyhologcl conent The model the lefhand wingecomes Medea; he cenl gures represen Jason, heoe Orpheus, d the sea god Glaucs and the women ae rght form an ancent Greek chorus But the tptych

lso has a biographical d1ension, since, during his years inAsterdam Beckmann associated wth a group of wriersand riss called the rgonauts Thus, Jason's heroicsearch for he golden eece becomes n alegry about heoyage of Becmann's own fe

ada Divide: Developmensin Parisy he me Max Es le Cologne in 191 Dada as nrgzed movemen was dead excep Pas Duchampad largely gven up creave actvit (nless s very exs

{ ence migh be so descrbed aprt om occasional moonexperimens, he compleon of s arge Glas and parcipation in commem


31/32

I : ',

I

: ' '•

I ! I ·

' , I '

red Jarry, uilaume pllnare and Jean CceauParis Dada in he hands he lierry men cnsised -equen maiess demnsrains, periics evens, andhappengs mre ilen ad hyserical han ever bere.he ariss rp, Erns, and Picabia k a less acive par inhe demnsrains, alhugh Picabia cnribued his wnmness he riginal mpes and enhusiasm seemed be lacing, hwever, and ivisive cins arse led prn

ciplly by ara and by Bren The early Dadaiss, ke he

Bshevks he ussian evlun sugh 1cnsan sae revlin, even anarchy, bu e

c

led by Bren sugh a mre cnsrucve revlscheme based n Dada. is riginl rm Dada he wild cnusin he Cngress Paris called iby he Dadaiss The rmer Dadaiss, inludngwh llwed Bren, were ined by pwerl ne v0amng hem Cceau and Ezra Pund By 1924 hi

w cnsidaed under he ame Srrelism

1344 R 3 luing Dada wal n egneArt·xiiton Mi 937

66 OM FSY O D D E NEW OJV


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hh arnason - from fantasy to dada and the new objectivity (ch. 13)

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