Raul Hausmann & Kurt Schwitters & the German Dadaism in Graphic Design

 

The German Poet Hugo Ball one of the founders of Zurich Dada in February 1916, gathered at Cabaret Voltaire to come out their creativity to protest against the war. It was characterized by the irony, satire, and improvisation in their performances and work. In which, Dada exemplify iconoclastic spirit. (Eskilson, 2007, pp. 135) Zurich Dada "anti-artistic" made events at the Cabaret Voltaire; these events were principally directed against Western art.

German Dada follows the rule of, never follow any known rule. Dada movement itself influenced by Abstraction, Expressionism and cubism; nevertheless,  there was no predominant medium in Dadaist art works; It was a creation from various materials such as glass, plaster, wooden reliefs, assemblage, collage, photo-montage and the use of ready made objects. Dada movement was directly responsible for Surrealism.

First International Dada Fair, Berlin, June 1920. From left to right:
Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Hoch, Dr.Burchard, Johannes Baader,
Wieland Herzfelde, Mrs. Herzfelde, Otto Schmalhausen, George Grosz,
John Heartfield

Raoul Hausmann was one of the young people who stand against the war and was the core of Berlin Dadaist. (Dickermen, 2006, pp. 87) In April 12^th, 1918 Hausmann, Huelsenbeck, George Grosz,  John Heartfield, Jung, Höch, Walter Mehring and Baader started the Club Dada in which it show more serious political commitment.

Hausmann used the photo-montage and collage technique extensively in his work, also; he organized the first International Dada Fair  featuring almost 200 works by Dadaist artists.(Eskilson, 2007, pp. 140)

 

Raoul Hausmann, Der Dada 1920. Collage

Raoul Hausmann became the most important publisher of German Dada writer when he started the journal Der Dad in 1919. This work shows some of collage, free typography and limited color palette. In this poster he represent his portrait with some random objects over one large sheet, trying to emphasize some aggressive challenge.(Eskilson, 2007, pp. 141)

Mechanical Head [The Spirit of Our Age],
assemblage circa 1920

 This time Hausmann tries to permit new material in painting to show vigor, In addition to this, fixing the spirit of every object to their basic formation and state (Foster, 2004, pp. 138) He tried to emphasize that object itself can interact with the surroundings. Moreover, his intention was for extending his practice into three dimensional space, also; to deliver his ironic stance to those bourgeois material and mediums concerns.(Gale, 1997,pp.135) 

(Optophnetic poem ) Phonemes“kp’erioum” (1919)

 Hausmann continues experimenting using printed poem letters and playing with it creatively, the elements of typography varies in terms of different sizes and thicknesses even typeface; Giving the indication of the musical notation, Therefore, this work often called "The science of visible speech sounds" (Richter, 2001, pp. 121) He reflect the continuous development, it was the most effective and original art for the Dada's.(Gale, 1997,pp.125) 

 

Hausmann  was a complete genius, this is one example of his onomatopoeia poems (1946 Recording), at the first of the clip; Giving a small brief on his acoustical poem, then Hausmann  is being introduced at ( 0:30s) . 

A remake animation of Cabaret Voltaire, which shows some Dadaists and a phonetic poem is heard. In which the used character is Hugo Ball  dress and the poem by Raoul Hausmann.

ABCD (Self-portrait) A photomontage
from 1923-24

The artist tries to make the material exposed reflecting simple reality, perhaps with new realities by combining photo with words ( collage ), (Gale, 1997,pp.131) Making it condensed and rich photo-montage collage. The artist portraits emphasis the organic and vital signs of an reality artwork. Nevertheless, having well distribution composition and warm color palette insure that the poster carries value message.

Raoul Hausmann, 1920 " Tatiln At Home "
Collage of pasted papers and gouache,
National Museum, Stockholm

Hausmann made a photo montage showing the a half-blooded combination of man and machine (Eskilson, 2007, pp. 224) in which the brain is made up of industrial parts and objects, emphasizing the vision of an engineer. Hausmann stated that this photo montage  was an almost random process. (Eskilson, 2007, pp. 224) Furthermore, the Dada and the Constructivist have many concepts in parallel such as using abstraction to communicate ideas in order to convey their beliefs; The term photo montage means " Photo assemblers " originated in Berlin Dada. 

In fact who wanted to make a work, it should have a relation with the society, and have a strategy to represent the modern world in a novel world without using the conventional Realistic painting techniques.(Eskilson, 2007, pp. 224)  

KurtS. Figure1

Kurt Scwitters entered the German Dada movement early 1919 when everything was already identified in term of thematic and style properties, especially the nonsense and playfulness characteristic.(Dickermen, 2006, pp. 157) Scwitters was the one who introduced Dada in Hannover, embraced collage and developed his famous collage work Merz art with new approaches. He was an important project collaborator, such as his Dada/ Merz performance tours with Raoul Hausmann. (Dickermen, 2006, pp. 157) Schwitters  worked in several movements inlcuding Dada, Constructivism; Also, poetry and typography. (Gale, 1997,pp.131)

This animated work is for Kurt Schwitters " Ursonate", In which it's a reference to a musical composition. Schwitters's main play is a composition that balances between music and language, while at the same time forming a unique visual work as seen in KurtS. figure 1. Schwitters had got many sound poetry .

Kurt Schwitters, " Das Undbild " ( The And Picture ) 1919

Schwitters work shows his collage process contains a variety of material, it's an assemblage of gouch, papers, board, wood, metal, leather, cork, and wire gathering on paper. In addition, he used a large modern non-serif type; Also, using the diverse parts together to make it a big assemblage painting. All in all, to explore its conceptual implications in a more complicated and formal way.(Dickermen, 2006, pp. 163)

 

This video will shows us why Schwitters collage is uniqe.

Kurt Schwitters Interior of Merzbau, Hannover,1923

The Merzbau is one of the ultimate Dada monument art piece. Starting in 1923, Schwitters began converting rooms in his house in Hanover, into architectural works of art. As the project expanded it began to look literally Cubism, his work was full of contradictions.(Gale, 1997,pp.163) Schwitter method of working expressed the destruction and construction expressed through process and collage in its broadest understanding.(Dickermen, 2006, pp. 173)

Theo Van Does Burg and Kurt Hausmann
"Small Dada Evening" 1922

In 1922, Van Does Burg  with the contribute of the Dadaist Kurt Schwitters make poster of  Kleine Dada Soirée "Small Dada Evening"(Eskilson, 2007, 194). The poster shows clearly Dada as chaos element, mixed type of fonts with different scales and weights(Eskilson, 2007, 195); Nevertheless, it shows asymmetrical balanced layouts and color is used as an essential structural element.(Gale, 1997,pp.162) So, De Stijl and Dada was considered opposite but complementary movements, it's signified a revolution. (Meegs, 2006, 303)

In Conclusion, Dada was melding into surrealism, this movement was unstable and became less active. Because artists started to explore another movements such as surrealism, social realism and other forms of modernism. Dada started to fade by1924 in Paris.

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Bibliography:

- Eskilson, S. (2007). Graphic design: a new history. New Haven: Yale University Press.

- Gale, M. (1997). Dada & Surrealism. Phaidon Press.

- Dickermen, L. (2006) DADA. New York: D.A.P

- Meggs, P. Purvis, A. (2006). Meggs History of Graphic Design. New Jeresy: John Wiley & Sons.Inc.

- Foster S. C. (1985). Dada / Dimensions . London: U.M.I Research Press.

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Online Rescourecs:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqkIJ0odFxA&feature=related
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Schwitters
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Hausmann
- http://musingsofanartstudent.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html
- http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/07autumn/orchard.htm
- http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=5293
- http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi
- http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/photographs/abcd_raoul_hausmann/objectview.aspx?collID=19&OID=190017368
- http://www8.georgetown.edu/centers/cndls/applications/postertool/index.cfm?fuseaction=poster.display&posterID=2864
- http://seansturm.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/optophonetics/
- http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm

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Dada In brief 30min :

http://www.youtube.com/user/OttOmOlOtOv