German Dada
1918 - 1926
Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates and
leaves for exile in Holland
(November 1918).
In November 1918, the revolutionary movement spread like wildfire. The declaration
of the new Republic marked the beginning of the dispute between the Right and the Left.
The declaration of the Republic marked the beginning of the dispute as to whether
parliamentary democracy or a republic of workers and soldiers’ councils should be
established in Germany.
Revolutionary soldiers and workers (Berlin, 1918).
Revolutionary soldiers take up battle stations on the roof of the
Brandenburg Gate.
First International Dada Fair, Berlin, June 1920
George Grosz and John Heartfield
with their panel “Art is dead”,
Berlin Dada Fair, 1920
Aims: Political Action
• to react to the contemporary crisis
• to provide a voice of opposition
• to open people’s eyes through their
provocative imagery and words
• to reform Germany’s decayed social system
and corruption
Characteristics
• the incorporation of graphic fragments from
everyday life subverted to attack those in
power
• the dislocation of objects from their familiar
context
• the attack of middle class German society
• the alignment with the German left
Raoul Hausmann
1886-1971
Raoul Hausmann. The Spirit of
Our Time (1919). Assemblage of
wigmaker’s dummy, collapsible
cup, purse with a small jewel case,
typographical cylinder, pipe stem,
bronze component from an old
camera with a wooden ruler
attached to the left side.
Raoul Hausmann. Dada Wins
(1920). Photomontage of
pasted papers and gouache.
Photomontage
• made up of bits of photos and other images
along with words and phrases from the
media
• arranged in symbolic rather than
representational groups
• appear angular and non-narrative like
Photomontage
In his article "Definition of Photomontage", Hausmann
seems to pin down its power:
"…its contrast of structure and dimension, rough against smooth,
aerial photograph, against close-up, perspective against flat surface,
The utmost technical flexibility and the most lucid formal
dialectics are equally possible…The ability to manage the most
striking contrasts, to the achievement of perfect states of
equilibrium…ensures the medium a long and richly productive
span of life…"
Philosophical Approach of
Photomontage
"…it embodied our refusal to play the part of the artist.
We regarded ourselves as engineers and our work as
construction...all the arts and their techniques needed a
fundamental and revolutionary change, in order to remain
in touch with the life of their epoch."
Raoul Hausmann.
Dada Cino (1920).
Photomontage of
pasted papers.
Raoul Hausmann. Tatlin at
Home (1920). Collage of pasted
papers and gouache.
Raoul Hausmann.
The Art Critic (1920).
Photomontage.
Raoul Hausmann.
ABCD (1923- 24).
Photomontage.
Hannah Höch
1889 - 1978
Hannah Höch.
Cut with a Kitchen Knife
(1919-20). Photomontage.
Hannah Höch.
Da-dandy (1919).
Photomontage.
Hannah Höch. Young
Bourgeois Couple
Has an Argument
(1919). Photomontage.
Hannah Höch.
The Beautiful Maiden
(1920). Photomontage.
Hannah Höch. Half-caste
(1924). Photomontage.
Hannah Höch. The Russian
Dancer (1928). Photomontage.
Hannah Höch.
Mother (1930).
Photomontage.
Kurt Schwitters
1887 - 1949
Merz
• taken from the bank name "Kommerz- und
Privatbank"
• premised on the practice of assemblage—
the union of ordinary quotidian items with
formal artistic elements—art and life,
aesthetics and rubbish
• transformed garbage into art
Kurt Schwitters. Drawing A2: Hansi (1918). Cut-and-pasted colored
paper and printed paper on printed paper with cardstock border.
Kurt Schwitters.
Revolving (1919).
Wood, metal, cord, cardboard,
wool, wire, leather, and oil on
canvas.
Kurt Schwitters.
Construction for Noble
Ladies (1919). Cardboard,
wood, metal, and paint.
Kurt Schwitters.
Picture with Light Center
(1919). Collage of paper
with oil on cardboard.
Kurt Schwitters. Star
Picture, Merz Picture
25 A (1920). Assemblage,
collage, oil on cardboard.
Kurt Schwitters.
Merz Picture 32 A.
The Cherry Picture (1921).
Cut-and-pasted colored and
printed papers, cloth, wood,
metal, cork, oil, pencil and
ink on board.
Kurt Schwitters.
Merz Construction (1921).
Assemblage, collage, oil
on cardboard.
Kurt Schwitters. Merz 448
(1922). Collage.
Kurt Schwitters. Der
Weihnactsmann (Santa
Claus),1922. Collage of
trash papers.
Kurt Schwitters.
Merz 410, Something
or Other (1922).
Assemblage and collage
on cardboard.
Kurt Schwitters.
Merz 600, Leiden
(1923). Collage of
pasted papers.
Kurt Schwitters. Merz
ELIKAN (1925). Collage
of cut pieces of paper.
Kurt Schwitters.
Merz 26, 41. Okola
(1926). Collage of
pasted papers on
cardboard.
Kurt Schwitters.
As You Like It (1946).
Collage of cut pieces
of paper.
Kurt Schwitters. View of The
Hanover Merzbau (1923-36),
destroyed in 1943. Rubbish,
plaster, and bits of wood.
The Merzbau (Merz building) was
a monumental three-dimensional
assemblage progressively created
from 1923 onwards in the artist’s
studio and home in Hanover.
Kurt Schwitters. View of
The Hanover Merzbau
(1923-36), destroyed in 1943.
Rubbish, plaster and bits of
Wood.
George Grosz
1893-1959
George Grosz.
Lovesick (1916).
Oil on canvas.
George Grosz. Suicide
(1916). Oil on canvas.
John Heartfield and puppet
George Grosz. Conservative
Gentleman (1919). Puppet.
George Grosz. Metropolis
(1917). Oil on canvas.
George Grosz. Explosion (1917). Oil on canvas.
“At night, down a strange
street, a diabolical procession
of inhuman figures parade by,
their faces, eloquent of
alcohol, syphilis, plague.
One is holding a trumpet,
another yelling hurrah.
Death rides among the
multitude, on a black coffin,
symbolized straightforwardly
as a skeleton.”
George Grosz. To Oscar
Panizza (1917-18). Oil
on canvas.
George Grosz. Dada Picture
(1919). Photomontage.
George Grosz. Remember
Uncle August, the Unhappy
Inventor (1919). Oil on
canvas with cut-and-pasted
magazine advertisements
and buttons.
George Grosz. Beauty, Thee
Will I Praise (1919). Watercolor, pen and India ink.
George Grosz.
The City (1919).
Oil on canvas.
George Grosz.
German Doctors
Fighting the Blockade
(1918). From God for
us (published 1920).
One from a portfolio of
nine lithographs,
George Grosz. The Engineer
John Heartfield after Franz
Jung’s Attempt to Put Him
on his Feet (1920).
Watercolor and pasted
postcards, relief halftone,
and pencil on paper.
George Grosz. Daum
Marries her Pedantic
Automaton in May 1920,
John Heartfield Is Very
Glad of It (1920).
Watercolor and collage on
paper.
George Grosz. Grey Day
(1920). Oil on canvas.
George Grosz. Republican
Automatons (1920).
Watercolor on paper.
George Grosz. The Pillars of
Society (1926). Oil on canvas.
Otto Dix
1891-1969
Maimed World War I veterans
Otto Dix. The Skat
Players (1920). Oil on
canvas and collage.
Otto Dix. Prague Street
(1920). Oil on canvas and
collage.
Otto Dix. The Match Vendor (1920). Oil on
canvas and collage.
World War I amputees
Otto Dix. The War Cripples (with Self-portrait), 1920.
Oil on canvas. Confiscated in 1937, whereabouts
unknown; presumably destroyed in Berlin in 1942.
Otto Dix. Storm Troopers during a Gas Attack (1924). Etching.
Trench warfare
Otto Dix. War Triptych (1929-32). Tempera on wood.
Life in the Trenches
Otto Dix. Flanders (1934). Oil on canvas.
Max Ernst
1891 - 1976
Max Ernst. Aquis submersus
(Submerged by the Waters),
1919. Oil on canvas.
Max Ernst. Switzerland,
Birthplace of Dada (1920).
Photomontage.
Max Ernst. The Hat Makes the Man. (1920). Gouache and pencil on
cut-and-pasted printed paper on board with ink inscriptions.
Max Ernst. Dada Max (The
Punching Ball or the Immortality
of Buonarroti), 1920.
Photomontage.
Max Ernst. Murdering Airplane (1920). Photomontage.
Max Ernst. Fruit of a
Long Experience (1919).
Painted wood relief.
John Heartfield
1871 - 1968
John Heartfield.
A Berlin Saying
(1920).
Photomontage
and drawing.
John Heartfield: Ten Years Later: Father and Sons (1924). Photomontage.
John Heartfield.
Forced supplier of human
ammunition! Take courage!
The state needs unemployed
and soldiers! (1930).
Photomontage.
John Heartfield. Adolf the
Superman: Swallows Gold
and Spouts Junk (1932).
Photomontage.
John Heartfield. Blood and Iron
(1934). Photomontage.
John Heartfield. As in the Middle
Ages. . .So in the Third Reich (1934).
Photomontage.
John Heartfield. And Yet It
Moves (1943). Photomontage.