Illustration: Hannah Höch, From an Ethnographic Museum No.

X, 1924/25, Berlinische Galerie, © VG BILD-KUNST Bonn, 2016, repro: Anja Elisabeth Witte

DADA
AN ENGLISH COMPANION

AFRICA
DIALOGUE WITH THE OTHER
 DADA AFRICA
DIALOGUE WITH THE OTHER

Entrance

A – Dada Gallery
B – Ante Dada
C – Dada Performance 1
D/E/F – Dada Performance 2
G/H/I/J – Dada Magic
K – Dada Rebellion
“Dada negates the “You don’t “There’s no such thing “Africa – this new world
‘meaning’ of life to as primitive art, just like now awakening is
which Europe has so far understand there’s no such thing as obviously going to be
subscribed.” Dada, you civilised art, because art the world of the future.”
Raoul Hausmann experience is always a perfectly Tristan Tzara
hermetic creation,
Dada.” complete in itself, and
“We were Richard does not lend itself to
looking for an Huelsenbeck any historical
classification.”
elemental art to Marcel Janco
cure people “I work like Oceanians,
from the who never worry how
long the material is “I wanted to
madness of the going to last when they show up the
age.” make a mask.”
unscrupulous,
Hans Arp Hans Arp
simplistic use of
the negro
“Always with the big
bass drum: boum boum
sculpture from
boum boum boum – Africa that was
drabatja mo gere flooding Europe
drabatja mo
bonoooooooooooo.”
at the time.”
Hugo Ball Hannah Höch
DADA AFRICA
DIALOGUE WITH THE OTHER

Marking the centenary of the Dada movement, this is the first repertoire developed by the Dadaists exerted a significant influence
exhibition about Dada’s response to non-European cultures and on the art of the 20th century – from performance to collage –
their art. Five sections display Dada works in a dialogue with which still persists.
works from Africa, Asia, North America and Oceania. The exhibition relates to a historical situation. Terms in current usage at the time like “primitive”,
“art nègre”, “poèmes nègres”, “chants nègres” and their German equivalents were the products of
In the midst of the First World War, a group of artists came racist and colonialist thinking with which we by no means identify.

together in 1916 under the random title “Dada” to resist a bour- Visitors are welcome to use the companion brochures we have provided. They contain notes on
geois Western culture. This, in the eyes of the Dadaists, had numerous exhibits. If they are no longer required afterwards, we will be happy to keep them.

lost all credibility. Dada set out to “negate the ‘meaning’ of life to
which Europe has so far subscribed”. Its artists radically ques-
tioned the inherited values of their own cultural setting. The Other
seemed to offer an attractive alternative, a foundation for devising
entirely new forms of articulation. Dada pictures and masks were
inspired, for example, by African artefacts. Costumes worn at
Dada soirées drew on designs by native peoples of North America,
and Dadaist assemblage revealed Oceanic influences. In the
literary field too, Dada poems took their cues from African and
Australian texts.

With their multi-genre performances blending music, text and

dance, the Dadaists threw open current notions of art. The
protagonists’ estrangement from their own bourgeois mould was
just as intended as the alienation of an audience confronted
by novel stage acts and unconventional works. The disconcerting
impact on viewers reflected Dada’s objective: to create space
for new ways of thinking and seeing. The formal diversity of the
SECTION A A1 (CAT. 2.2) A3 (CAT. 3.1)

DADA
MALE FIGURE, LEFEM UNKNOWN ARTIST
EARLY 20TH CENTURY MALE FIGURE
LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH

GALLERY
Bangwa region, Cameroon grassfields | Wood |
Völkerkundemuseum Zürich, 10084, Han Coray CENTURY
Collection
Côte d’Ivoire, Baule region | Wood | Private
collection, Paul Guillaume, Leon Bachelier
This wooden statue is an archetypal Collection
portrait of a Bangwa chief in the grass-
The springboard for the international Dada movement was fields of Cameroon. The sculpture The sculptor who carved this wood-
was made during the dignitary’s life-
the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. It was on this stage that the first en figure with the large extremities
time and served to remember him and tightly bound hair and beard lived
Dada cry was uttered on 5 February 1916. The leading protago- after his death. The expressive, ani- among the Baule people of the Ivory
nists in this embryonic Dada cell were Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, mated features of carvings from Coast. This area was a bastion of figu-
Marcel Janco, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Cameroon inspired many artists, along rative art in Africa, and naturalism
Richard Huelsenbeck and Hans Richter. Challenging bourgeois them Marcel Janco, a Dadaist of was a major hallmark of its style. Most
Romanian origin. traditional African sculptures were
standards and the nationalist arrogance that had driven the
created by artists whose names we do
country into the First World War, Dada broke with conventional
not know. The work did not belong (in
patterns of articulation, perception and thinking. At their multi- the Western sense) to the sculptor who
media performances, the self-proclaimed anti-artists also referen- A2 (CAT. 2.3)
made it; rather, these artistically
ced non-European art and languages: the audience were treated MARCEL JANCO
crafted sculptures were seen as mes-
to chants nègres and poèmes nègres. sengers between human beings and
1895–1984 the gods or spirits, offering these a
DESIGN FOR A DADA temporary abode during rituals. The
The artistic ferment on this stage only lasted a few months, but POSTER ADVERTISING “LE Paris art dealer Paul Guillaume sent
the Dada idea spread from New York to Paris, from Zurich to CHANT NÈGRE” EVENT the Male Figure to Han Coray’s gallery
Berlin. In January 1917 the Zurich gallery of Han Coray was the ON 31 MARCH 1916 for the first Dada exhibition in 1917.
first to exhibit works by Dada, shown on an equal footing with It is the only African sculpture proven
Charcoal, smeared on thin sketching paper, to have been on show there and pic-
sculptures from Africa. Just two months later, Galerie Corray was mounted on thin vellum and card | Kunsthaus
tured in the catalogue (AV1).
taken over by the Dadaists, who continued their Cabaret Voltaire Zürich, Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde, Z.
Inv. 1980/42
activities here at soirées and presentations. Coray, the gallery’s
former owner and a patron of Dada, became one of Switzerland’s This poster design borrows unmista-
leading collectors of African art. kably from the carvings made in the
Cameroon grassfields. The dynamic
movement and aggressive facial ex-
pressions of these figures unleash
a vitality that the Dadaists also sought
to generate at their soirées.
A4 (CAT. 3.14) A5 (CAT. 3.10) AV1 (CAT. 3.13) AV2 (CAT. P. 38)

MASTER OF GOHITAFLA UNKNOWN ARTIST DADA EXHIBITION: PROGRAMME FOR A SOIRÉE

FEMALE FIGURE KNIFE WITH IVORY HANDLE CONTEMPORARY PAINTING, ON 14 JULY 1916
C. 1900 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY AFRICAN SCULPTURE,
Zunfthaus zur Waag, Zürich | Kunsthaus Zürich,
OLD ART DADA-Sammlung, V:8
Côte d’Ivoire, Guro region | Wood | Museum Democratic Republic of Congo, Mangbetu
Rietberg Zürich, RAF 309, Han Coray Collection region | Iron, ivory | Museum Rietberg Zürich,
Exhibition catalogue, Galerie Corray, Zurich,
RAC 19, Han Coray Collection
1917 | Kunsthaus Zürich, DADA Collection,
Dada soirées established a new per-
It was in Switzerland that Dada artists DADA IV: 5 formance practice, featuring both
began discovering non-European – theoretical talks and enactments of
and especially African – art and cul- A6 (CAT. 3.2) trance-like frenzy. There was masked
ture. When Dadaist Emmy Hennings dancing and also chants nègres,
first saw a female figure from Africa at HANS ARP performed according to Hugo Ball “in
the Galerie Corray in 1917, she expres- 1886–1966 black smocks with exotic drums large
sed amazement at the beauty of the COMPOSITION EN and small, like a Vehmic court”. The
wooden sculpture. Dadaist art objects DIAGONALES – CRUCIFIXION poèmes nègres written by Tristan
and pictures were often inspired by 1915 Tzara for these Dada evenings were
statues or masks from other cultures. based on authentic sources found in
Tapestry, wool | Private collection B. Marcatté ethnological journals. The cultural
Other was, to the Dadaists, a liberating
Hans Arp wanted to renew art, and counter-cosmos.
to this end he also experimented with
fabric. Tapestry, with its geometric
shapes and textile constructions, com-
bines materiality with abstraction,
debunking the old genre hierarchies
that distinguished between applied
arts and liberal arts. This was high-
lighted in 1917, when this wall tapestry
was displayed at the Galerie Corray
alongside African sculpture.
AV3 (EX CAT.) AV5 (CAT. 3.9) by – among others – Hans Arp, Marcel authors from Eduard Möricke to
Janco and Hans Richter went on Hermann Hesse. By elevating the gifts
TRISTAN TZARA MARCEL JANCO show alongside African sculptures and of expression “originally born to us
1896–1963 1895–1984 weapons. The exhibition strategy, all”, his efforts resonated with the
1RE EXPOSITION DADA: apparently devised by Tristan Tzara, Dadaists; for Marcel Janco, this book
Typescript for a lecture at the Galerie Corray, made a point of treating Dadaist and was the “epitome of Dada”.
1917 | Paper, printed | Kunsthaus Zürich, DADA CUBISTES, ART NÈGRE,
African forms of expression equally.
Sammlung DADA V:54 GALERIE CORRAY The Zurich audience, meanwhile,
1917 found the juxtaposition bewildering.
AV4 (CAT. 3.12) AV7 (CAT. P. 14)
Exhibition poster/reproduction | Kunsthaus
Zürich, DADA Sammlung, DADA V:48/B 51 B 1
HANS RICHTER UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER
Han Coray opened his gallery at the AV6 (CAT. P. 115) EDUCATION REFORMER,
1888–1976
PORTRAIT OF HAN CORAY Sprüngli-Haus on Bahnhofstrasse in DADA GALLERY MANAGER
Zurich on 3 December 1916, when HAN CORAY AND COLLECTOR HAN
1916 he was still working as a school head- 1880–1974 CORAY
Brushwork on black over tracing paper | master. As a patron of the arts, he NEULANDFAHRTEN – 1924
Kunsthaus Zürich, Graphic Collection, Z. kept company with those who fre- “A BOOK FOR PARENTS,
Inv.1992/0034 quented the Cabaret Voltaire, and Hans TEACHERS AND CHILDREN” Vintage print, reproduction 2016 | Sammlung
Arp and Otto van Rees benefited Pieter Coray
The portrait shows the education re- particularly from his support. The se- Leipzig/Aarau/Vienna, Meyer Verlag 1912
former and art dealer Han Coray. cond exhibition at his gallery was also
In the 1920s he became a leading col­ the first-ever exhibition of Dada: works The gallery owner, Dada patron and
lector of African art in Switzerland. collector of African art Han Coray had
He played a key role with his gallery, been headmaster of the Pestalozzi
strengthening the influence of non- school in Zurich, which implemented
European art and culture on the Dada educational reforms, since 1912. As
movement. In early 1917 he made his part of the holistic philosophy he
“Galerie Corray” available for Dada’s sought to impart, Coray believed that
very first exhibition, where European modern art had a pivotal role to play in
and African art were presented side by personal development. In his book
side as equals. Neulandfahrten (Journeys to Unchar-
ted Lands) he set out his educational
views, publishing children’s drawings
and poems on a par with writing by
SECTION B BV1 ages and peoples” qualifies as
Hannah Höch’s first artistic response

ANTE
CARL EINSTEIN to non-European formal vocabulary. In
1885–1940 1915 she began training at the col-
NEGERPLASTIK (NEGRO lege run by the Museum of Decorative

DADA
Arts in Berlin, a close neighbour of
SCULPTURE)
the Ethnographic Museum. It is reason-
Verlag der Weissen Bücher, Leipzig 1915 (2nd able to assume that her drawing bor-
ed. 1920, Kurt Wolff Verlag, Munich) | Museum rowed from North American and
Rietberg and Ethnographic Museum at the
Oceanic exhibits she had seen there.
University of Zurich, archive, libraries
In her later collages, this interest in
Dada, as Hugo Ball famously said, was “fool’s play sprung from
Art historian Carl Einstein was one non-European artefacts resulted in her
nothing”. Even before Dada, however, non-Western and in par­ own entirely novel pictorial universe.
of the first people to attach equal sta-
ticular African art had attracted interest. The Cubists, like the pain- tus to African and European forms
ters of Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, sought fresh orientation of expression. In the early 20th century,
and stylistic inspiration from non-European forms of expression. For the era of colonialism, this was a rare
BV3 (CAT. P. 105)
Expressionist artists like Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel, acknowledgement. Artists and intel-
lectuals were particularly inspired by
African and Oceanic sculpture had a formative impact. The future ERNST GRÄNERT
the glossy images of African sculptu-
Dadaist Raoul Hausmann also learned from studying these works. res in his book and by his theoretical THE STATE ETHNOLOGICAL
In the mid-1910s, collage artist Hannah Höch frequently visited the observations about how cubism had MUSEUM
nearby Ethnological Museum while training at the Museum of influenced modern art. The gallery 1926
Decorative Arts in Berlin. owner and collector Han Coray had
Königgrätzer Strasse in Berlin | Kunstbibliothek,
a copy of the book, and so did Raoul SMB, Fotothek Willy Römer
Hausmann and Hannah Höch.
Alongside this contemplation of original objects, Carl Einstein’s
book on African sculpture was ground-breaking. His analysis of the
formal techniques met with broad interest on the part of contem-
porary avant-garde artists and also (future) Dadaists. Apart from BV2 (CAT. 1.3)
this, images of the cultural Other drew largely on travel journals
HANNAH HÖCH
and popular literature, which tended to apply Western stereotypes 1889–1978
and had little in common with realities at the time in those far-off GESCHICHTE DER PLASTIK
worlds. Scientific publications like those of Africa ethnologist Leo ALLER ZEITEN UND VÖLKER
Frobenius provided the opportunity for serious understanding 1915
and were read by Dadaists like Tristan Tzara.
Pen-and-ink and gouache on paper | Berlini-
sche Galerie | Purchased with funding from
the Museumsfonds of the Senator for Cultural
Affairs, Berlin, 1979

The cover design for this reference

work on the “history of sculpture of all
BV4 (CAT. P. 106) BV6 (CAT. P. 107) aginings onto other cultures, there were BV9 (CAT. P. 110)
encyclopaedias. Readers also had
UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER access to scientific travel reports and ALPHONSO LISK­CAREW
A DISPLAY CASE IN THE NEW INSTALLATION OF monographs, such as those by the 1887–1969
AFRICA DEPARTMENT WITH OBJECTS FROM BENIN Africa ethnologist Leo Frobenius, who BONDOO DEVILS, SIERRA
OBJECTS FROM BENIN, 1926 is still highly regarded in many African LEONE, SIERRA LEONE
countries because of his research
BEFORE 1905
Ethnological Museum of Berlin into African history. Léopold Sédar
1914 Senghor, the first President of Senegal, Postcard published by Lisk­Carew Brothers,
Ethnological Museum of Berlin | Ethnologisches
Since the 1880s, colonial civil serva- praised Frobenius for “restoring Africa’s Freetown, c. 1915 | Christraud M. Geary
nts, missionaries and explorers had Collection
Museum, SMB dignity and identity”. Dadaists like
been gathering vast quantities of eth- Tristan Tzara made serious use of these
nographic objects on behalf of ethno- Picture postcards were a common
sources.
BV5 (EX CAT.) logy museums. These would then be visual medium, and large numbers of
squashed together in fairly incompre- them were in circulation in the late
19th/early 20th century. These careful-
UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER hensible displays. Triggered by the
contemporary avant-garde, a rethink BV8 (CAT. P. 109) ly staged photographic impressions
DISPLAY CASES WITH of distant lands encouraged European
ARTEFACTS FROM OCEANIA set in during the 1920s: attention
was drawn not only to ethnographic JONATHAN A. GREEN ideas of a backward and fairly weird
C. 1920 Other. Portraits of women in erotically
details, but also to the artistic qualities DANCING GIRL, NEW
of these objects. Selected exhibits exotic poses were especially popular,
Ethnographic Collection in Zurich | Völkerkun- CALABAR, S. N., NIGERIA reinforcing a sexualised image of
demuseum archives, University of Zurich were to be presented in a worthy aes- 1898
thetic setting. There was still no African women (BV 8). Europeans were
commentary on the context in which Postcard published by Photoholm, Lagos,
not the only authors of these exotici-
the objects were made. before 1911 | Printed in Germany, posted in sed pictorial representations. Profes-
Dahomey | Nanina Guyer Collection sional African colleagues also con­
tributed to this “colonial photography”,
although their stereotypical portraits
BV7 (EX CAT.) are less degrading.

LEO FROBENIUS
1873–1938
UND AFRIKA SPRACH…
(THE VOICE OF AFRICA)
Deutsches Verlagshaus, Berlin, 1912

Books were an opportunity to indulge

a little in yearnings for the Other. Apart
from tales of adventure like the ones
by Karl May and James F. Cooper, with
their projections of home-grown im-
BV10 (CAT. P. 112) B2 (CAT. 1.12) B4 (CAT. 1.11) B5 (CAT. 1.9)

ALPHONSO LISK-CAREW HANS ARP RAOUL HAUSMANN ERICH HECKEL

1887–1969 1886–1966 1886–1971 1883–1970
NO CROWN WITHOUT A DADA DRAWING DRAFT LETTER TO OSKAR MASK WITH BUSHBUCK
THORN, SIERRA LEONE C. 1916 MOLL WITH THE “MASK” HIDE
C. 1920 DRAWING 1913
Ink over pencil on paper | Stiftung Arp e.V.,
Berlin/Rolandseck 1915
Photomontage, Christmas/greetings card Oil on canvas | Museum Wiesbaden
published by Lisk­Carew Brothers, Freetown |
Pen-and-ink drawing and handwriting on paper
Gary Schulze Collection By the time Dada was founded in | Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with funding Erich Heckel, like the Cubists, col­
1916, Arp had rejected oil painting and from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Berlin, lected African masks and sculptures,
One of the most successful postcard figurative content. In his pre-Dada 1979
acquiring most of them through his
producers in West Africa was the drawings he explored new composi- brother, who worked in what was then
photographer Alphonso Lisk-Carew, tional principles. These biomorphous The study of African and Oceanic
German East Africa. In these works,
who engaged in a brisk trade with forms evoke both early cave paint­- sculpture deeply influenced the style
Heckel discovered new motifs and
Britain. For one Christmas postcard, ings and non-European artefacts. of 20th-century avant-garde artists,
compositional techniques. The pain-
he created a collage from different including Brücke members Erich
ting Mask with Bushbuck Hide de-
faces of groups of men and women in Heckel and Raoul Hausmann. Both
picts a Makonde mask (B3) in front of
Sierra Leone, combining them with artists chose the Makonde mask (B3)
a brown-and-white-striped antelope
masked figures. The picture was not B3 (CAT. 1.10) as a motif for practising cubist face-
skin, both from the artist’s private
supposed to depict reality, and spiced ting. This same aesthetic infused
collection. This interest in non-
by the title it strikes a satirical note UNKNOWN ARTIST Hausmann’s pen-and-ink drawing
European elements symbolises a
not unlike the effect sought by MASK Mask. Like his drawing Hannah Höch
counter-manifesto to conventional
Dadaists. LATE 19TH CENTURY with Hat (I) (B6), this sketch exempli-
academic painting.
fies the Expressionist period that
Tanzania, Makonde | Wood | pre-dated his Dadaist activities.
Erich-Heckel-Nachlass
B1 (CAT. 1.13)
The Makonde people live in the north-
HANS ARP east of modern-day Mozambique and
the south-east of Tanzania. Their
1886–1966
artists are best known for their hand-
PRE-DADA DRAWING carved wooden masks. Originally
C. 1915 the masks served a magical religious
Ink over pencil on paper | Stiftung Arp e.V.,
function as a link between this word
Berlin/Rolandseck and the world beyond. Later they were
used as dance masks during initiation
rites. The Makonde mask on display
belonged to Erich Heckel, who was
given it by his brother Manfred, a
railway engineer working in German
East Africa (now Tanzania).
B6 (CAT. 1.1) B7 (EX CAT.) B9 (CAT. 1.7) B11 (CAT. 1.5)

RAOUL HAUSMANN RAOUL HAUSMANN KARL SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF KARL SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF

1886–1971 1886–1971 1884–1976 1884–1976
HANNAH HÖCH WITH HAT (I) UNTITLED (HANNAH HÖCH) FEMALE NUDE KNEELING, BLUE AND RED HEAD
1915 1915 1913 1917
Brush and ink | Private collection, Berlin, Brush and ink | Berlinische Galerie Reed pen, washed, on yellow paper, pencil | Wood, coloured blue and red | Brücke
courtesy Grisebach GmbH Brücke Museum, Berlin Museum, Berlin

Raoul Hausmann, later a key figure Unlike Brücke colleagues such as

in Berlin’s Club Dada, began his B8 (CAT. 1.8) Erich Heckel, who began making
artistic development under the stylistic B10 (CAT. 1.6) wooden sculptures around 1910, the
influence of the Brücke group. The two KARL SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF Expressionist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
drawings from 1915 of artist Hannah
1884–1976 KARL SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF had only dabbled occasionally in
Höch, his lover at the time, display a 1884–1976 sculpted art. When serving as a soldier
spontaneity, bold line and flatness
GIRL KNEELING in Lithuania between 1915 and 1918,
1913 WOMAN’S HEAD
of shape reminiscent of Expressionist however, he began carving little sculp-
1913
works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Brush and ink | Brücke Museum, Berlin
tures like this Blue and red head. The
Brush and ink, watercolour | Brücke Museum, narrow, elongated face with its low-
On the eve of the First World War, Berlin sweeping mouth is reminiscent of Cen-
following his deep involvement with tral and West African masks by the
cubism and African sculpture, Karl Senufo and Fang. Painting like this is
Schmidt-Rottluff hit upon a personal also found on figures by African and
technqiue that combined vitality Oceanic peoples, where carvings are
with expressive power. In 1913, tucked often coloured symbolically to en-
away in far-off Nida on the Curonian hance the expressive impact of these
Spit, he produced a series of ink objects.
drawings which included the three
shown here. The flowing lines and min-
imal shapes in Woman’s head and
Girl kneeling and the emphatic flourish
Schmidt-Rottluff’s orientation towards
non-Western art.
SECTION C C1 (CAT. 2.10) C2 (CAT. 2.11)

DADA
SOPHIE TAEUBER-ARP UNKNOWN ARTIST
1889–1943 MOUNTAIN SHEEP KATSINA
REPLICA OF A KATSINA (PANGWU)

PERFORMANCE
COSTUME C. 1900
1925 (?)
Katsina, Hopi; North America | Cottonwood,

1
horns, sprouted seeds, feathers, fur, woollen
(Replica by Ina von Woyski, 2015), assorted
thread | North American Native Museum
fabrics and felt | Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau, D
(NONAM), Zurich, DA 365, Gottfried Hotz
S 1903
Collection; previously Northern Arizona
Museum, Flagstaff, Percival Collection
Sophie Taeuber-Arp began taking an
eager interest in the culture of indi- Katsina (kachina) dolls are likenesses
Dada broke with all bourgeois conventions around art. The cultural genous peoples when she was young. of masked dancers among the Hopi
Other became a springboard for masked dancing, phonetic poems Inspired by original katsina figures she and other native peoples in the south-
had seen when visiting the Swiss western areas of North America. The
and the music of sounds. The aim, as Hans Arp put it, was to cre-
psychoanalyst C. G. Jung, she made dancers embody ancestral spirits who
ate “an elemental art to cure people from the madness of the age”. two costumes based on a formal idiom function as rain makers and as mes-
For the Dadaists, this also meant freedom from the straitjacket of of abstract geometry. The colourful sengers between human and divine
their own civilisation. By donning masks and costumes they were drawing (C3) illustrates the ornamental beings. The little figures made from
able – at their Dada soirées – to probe the boundaries of body design of the katsinam. It reflects the the roots of the cottonwood tree are
artist’s preferred vocabulary: square, accurate copies of the masks and
and mind and trigger emotional, irrational forces. If people in the oblong, triangle, circle. costumes worn by dancers. As kat-
audience felt disturbed by the frenzied performance, that was sinam are not regarded as sacred,
ab­solutely the intention. production for the art market began
early. They have been sought-after
Borrowing from non-European works, Dada’s creations were com- collectors’ items since the late 19th
posed of new materials previously thought unsuitable for art. century.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp was struck by the expressive powers of South
African and North American peoples. Marcel Janco’s masks and
pictures were inspired by artefacts from Cameroon, but also from C3 (CAT. 2.1)
Switzerland. In their experiments with language, Hugo Ball, Richard
Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara took their cues from African and SOPHIE TAEUBER-ARP
Australian texts. The Dadaists were not interested in copying. They 1889–1943
DESIGN FOR A KATSINA
wanted – with the stimulation that came from the Other – to burst
COSTUME (NO. 60)
the banks of home-grown art and language. C. 1920
Gouache and coloured pencil on paper | Arp
Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, LS 320
C4 (CAT. 4.10) C6 (CAT. 2.21) CV2 (CAT. 2.13) CV4 (CAT. 2.18)

HANNAH HÖCH UNKNOWN ARTIST UNKNOWN FEMALE ARTIST UNKNOWN ARTIST

1889–1978 RELIC BOX BEAD BAG BEAD NECKLACE
DADA DOLLS 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY 1880–1910 UMGINGQO
1916/1918 1880–1910
Democratic Republic of Congo, Azande | Lesotho, Drakensberg, South Africa | Glass
Wood, bark, raffia | Museum Rietberg Zürich, beads, animal sinew | François and Claire
Textiles, card and beads | Berlinische Galerie | South Africa, Eastern Cape | Glass beads,
Han Coray Collection Mottas Collection, collected by Leng
Purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB, animal sinew, brass button, textiles | François
Berlin, 1979 and Claire Mottas Collection, collected by Leng

The Dada dolls are the only surviving

three-dimensional objects made by C7 (CAT. 3.11) CV3 (CAT. 2.17)
Hannah Höch. The artist performed CV5 (CAT. 2.19)
with them repeatedly, sometimes SOPHIE TAEUBER-ARP SOPHIE TAEUBER-ARP
dressed as a doll herself. These 1889–1943 1889–1943 UNKNOWN ARTIST
bizarre puppets are a sardonic com- ABSTRACT MOTIF (MASKS) NECKLACE BEAD BELT, UMUMBA/
ment on contemporary images of 1917 C. 1918-1920 UMUTSHA/UMBHIJO
femininity. They might also be seen as
1880–1910
Höch’s tongue-in-cheek response to Gouache on paper | Stiftung Arp e. V., Berlin/ Beads, threaded, loop technique | Aargauer
Remagen, 003.551 Kunsthaus Aarau, D S1915, long-term loan from
variations on Primitivism produced by South Africa, Drakensberg, Zulu or Sotho
a private collection
her fellow artists. region | Plant fibres, animal sinew, skin, glass
beads, brass button | François and Claire
Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s bead works Mottas Collection
CV1 (CAT. 2.12) are autonomous artistic designs, and
yet these geometric, and sometimes In southern Africa, bead art is wide-
C5 (CAT. 2.22)
figurative abstract, forms are strongly spread and comparable in status to
SOPHIE TAEUBER-ARP
reminiscent of bead art in South Africa carving. Necklaces, beaded belts
SOPHIE TAEUBER-ARP 1889–1943 and examples found in folk lore. and bags are used as adornments by
1889–1943 PURSE, GEOMETRIC SHAPES Taeuber-Arp saw her own efforts to both men and women. Motifs and
POWDER COMPACT 1918 combine art with practical life when colours reflect social standing, ethnic
C. 1918 designing everyday objects as con- origin and age. Until the late 19th
Silk yarn, silk, woven glass beads Zürcher
Hochschule der Künste; Museum für cordant with non-European cultures. century, only elites had access to the
Wood, turned and painted | Aargauer
Kunsthaus Aarau, long-term loan from a private
Gestaltung, Arts and Crafts Collection, glass beads imported from Europe.
KGS 07659
collection

Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s work was wide-

ranging, and this wooden powder com-
pact is just one example. Although
the artist designed it herself, the
shapes and material are reminiscent
of boxes from Africa, like those the
Azande made to store reliquaries (C6).
SECTIONS D/E/ F D1 (CAT. 2.14) DV1 (CAT. 2.23)

DADA
UNKNOWN ARTIST RAOUL HAUSMANN
DRUM 1886–1971
19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY OFFEAH

PERFORMANCE
1918
Democratic Republic of Congo, probably
Songye region | Wood, leather | Museum
Poster poem, print on orange paper |
Rietberg Zürich, RAC 325, Han Coray

2
Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with budget
Collection
funds from the Department of Cultural
Affairs, Berlin, 1992
The Dada “soirées nègres” were
sensory bombshells with a blend of Unlike other Dadaist sound poets,
poetry, dance, masks and music. Raoul Hausmann experimented be-
Inspired by the beat of African drums tween 1918 and 1920 with non-verbal
After the experience of the First World War, the Dadaists felt that
and accompanied by purportedly poetry, exploring its potential both
their home-grown culture with its ideals of truth, beauty and good- African cries of “umba umba”, the visually – as in this poster – and
ness was dead and buried. Literature needed to undergo renewal, Dadaists sought to trample European phonetically. Depleted of meaning, the
because language – as Hugo Ball put it in 1916 – had been ruined music and literature underfoot. letters, punctuation marks and sym-
by ideology. The Dadaists’ sound poems were one of the most bols are set alongside and over each
other with bold and italic variations.
radical attempts to return to poetic roots. They vigorously shattered
The sequence of letters was random.
speech so as to break through into non-verbal poetry, and they D2 (CAT. 2.16) Kurt Schwitters was inspired by
alienated common forms of rational expression so as to forge a new, Hausmann’s poster poems to write his
elemental relationship with reality. MARCEL JANCO famous Ursonate (primordial sonata),
1895–1984 which incorporates the combination
With his verses without words, described by witnesses as ex­- JAZZ 333 “q j y E”.
uding a hypnotic force, Hugo Ball appeared before guests at the 1918
Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich like a “magical bishop”. “World Dada” Oil on card Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée
national d’art moderne, Paris, AM 4264 P
Richard Huelsenbeck, who commuted between Zurich and Berlin,
beat the drums as he proclaimed his fantastical prayers, se- In 1918/19 jazz music, with its Afro-
quences of sounds which resembled an African language. Raoul American roots, reached Europe.
Hausmann dissected words into poster poems, random series Jazz broke with all the conventions,
of letters with a rhythm that is both visual and phonetic. Hannah and that made it a musical pendant to
Dada. It provoked the unheard (of).
Höch later recounted how the Dadaists took their cue from re- Jazz and Dada each transgressed the
cordings of non-European languages, which they were able to hear traditional boundaries of their art
at a private collection of sounds in Berlin. forms, encouraging spontaneous ex-
pression and direct experience.
DV2 E2 (CAT. 3.3) E4 (CAT. 2.5) E6 (CAT. 2.6)

RAOUL HAUSMANN HANS ARP MARCEL JANCO MARCEL JANCO

1886–1971 1886–1966 1895–1984 1895–1984
KP’ ERIOUM – TYPE BIRD MASK MASK MASK
CONSTRUCT FROM DADACO 1918 1919 1919
1919–1920
Wood | Stiftung Arp e. V., Berlin /Rolandswerth, Assemblage with paper, card, corrugated Assemblage with paper, card, wood wool,
002.491 board, cord, gouache and pastel | Musée gouache, pastel and glue | Musée national d’art
Print on paper | Berlinische Galerie | Purchased
national d’art moderne, Centre Georges moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris,
with funding from the Department of Cultural
Pompidou, Paris, AM 1221 OA, gift of Marcel AM 1220 OA, gift of Marcel Janco 1967
Affairs, Berlin, 1991 With its radically new sculptural
Janco 1967
approach, this relief is yet another
At the Dada soirées in Zurich, masks
illustration – like his collage and textile
were an important feature alongside
output – of Hans Arp’s quest for
E1 (CAT. 2.15) sound poems, music and dance. Hugo
innovative artistic formats. The title of E5 (CAT. 2.7) Ball recalled his first performance
the work is crucial, because it influ-
with a mask: it “dictated a quite definite
UNKNOWN ARTIST ences the way we perceive it. The YASUTAKA attitude verging on pathos, if not mad-
BEAK MASK term bird mask encourages the viewer
HANNYA MASK, EDO PERIOD ness” (1927). This seemingly magical
19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY to recognise eye and beak amid the
amorphous geometry.
LATE 18TH CENTURY power it can generate establishes an
Côte d’Ivoire, Dan region | Wood |Museum
important parallel to non-European
Japan, Ôno-shi | Fukui prefecture, wood with
Rietberg Zürich, RAF 423, Paul Guillaume, Han practices involving masks.
painted frame | Museum Rietberg Zürich, RJP
Coray Collection
4046, gift of the Swiss-Japanese Society
E3 (CAT. 3.4)
The Dan are a complex ethnic group Hannya masks are used in Japan’s old-
UNKNOWN ARTIST
with many branches, primarily settled est form of theatre, Noh (literally
along the western Ivory Coast and
CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF
YASUA MASK “talent, skill”), with its history of over
in Liberia. The diversity of social struc- 600 years. The highly stylised acting
tures and cultures in these areas LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH
was originally only performed by
resulted in the evolution of different CENTURY men. The mask represents the resent-
types of mask. One striking variation ful spirit of a woman who has re-
Côte d’Ivoire, Guro region | Wood | Museum
on the classical Dan mask is the Rietberg Zürich, RAF 506, Paul | Guillaume, turned to the mortal world. In Japa-
part-human and part-animal gagon, a Carel Van Lier, Han Coray, nese tradition, horns symbolise female
beak mask with bird-like features and Kunstgewerbemuseum der Stadt Zürich
jealousy, while the golden eyes and
a curving jaw. It was used into the 20th teeth suggest supernatural powers.
century as a humorous accompani- Marcel Janco’s Dada masks remind­ed
ment to dance performances, a func- Hugo Ball of the masks used in Japa-
tion that distinguished it sharply from nese and Ancient Greek theatre.
customary war masks.
E7 (CAT. 2.4) F1 (CAT. 3.21) F2 (CAT. 3.23) tells how the Earth and all the crea-
tures on it were created by so-called
UNKNOWN ARTIST UNKNOWN WORKSHOP UNKNOWN ARTIST totems, the wooden sculpture impres-
GROTESQUE FACE WITH BOW OF A WAR CANOE MASK sively depicts a metamorphosis be-
MALICIOUS GRIN 18TH CENTURY EARLY 20TH CENTURY tween human, reptilian and avian
FIRST HALF OF 20TH CENTURY forms. It was made on the banks of the
New Zealand, Maori | Wood | Museum Rietberg Côte d’Ivoire, Bete/Guro region | Wood, Sepik, the longest river in New Gui-
Zürich, RPO 12, W.O. Oldman, Museum für monkey skin, plant fibres, metal pigments |
Switzerland, Lötschental | Wood, painted, fur, nea, and used as a clan emblem for
Völkerkunde Berlin, Arthur Speyer, purchased Musée du quai Branly, Paris, 73.1988.2.1,
animal teeth | Museum Rietberg Zürich, RSz 2, inaugurating houses and canoes, but
with funding from Eduard von der Heydt Tristan Tzara Collection
before 1937/38 probably Max Wydler, Zurich;
subsequently Eduard von der Heydt, gift of
also at gatherings to celebrate the
Eduard von der Heydt This delicate 18th-century carving The mask displayed here was part end of mourning.
depicts the bows of a Maori warship. of an extensive collection of non-Euro-
This mask from Wiler, a village in the The ornamentation consists of inter- pean artefacts put together by Tristan
Swiss valley of Lötschental, was pri- twining figures. Maori art is produced Tzara. Exactly when the artist began
marily worn at the carnival preceding within a context of honouring ances- building his exquisite collection of
Lent. The malicious grin and the fur tors, although there is no religious sig- African and Oceanic works is unclear.
back of the mask suggest that it was nificance to the Maori song Toto Waka Tzara’s passion for collecting was in-
worn by the most distinctive character (audio exhibit) used by Tristan Tzara. spired by his own interest in ethnologi-
in this local ritual: the Tschäggätta. These heavily rhythmic lines were cal sources and his exploration of
Traditionally this mystical figure would sung when hauling a canoe over dry modern art. The collection was broken
roam the streets, filling the hearts land. up and auctioned off in 1988.
of villagers with fear and horror. As
tastes changed, the physiognomy
had become increasingly grotesque.
There is no evidence of a direct link F3 (CAT. 3.22)
with Janco’s mask (E6), but they share
a common inspiration. Just as the UNKNOWN ARTIST
Dadaists sought to shatter bourgeois CROCODILE SCULPTURE,
conventions with their art, the masks CLAN EMBLEM
worn on Fasnacht give free rein to an EARLY 20TH CENTURY
alternative world, allowing people to
escape the narrow strictures imposed Papua New Guinea, Middle Sepik | Wood, with
by civilised etiquette with its perceived natural pigments | Musée du quai Branly, Paris,
70.2010.32.1, Tristan Tzara | Collection
excesses.
Tzara may have had this unusual carv-
ing from his own collection in mind
when he wrote in 1928 that the “basic
forms of fish, star and reptile, elusively
associated with the human forms
of statues,” were characteristic of Oce-
anic art. Reflecting the creation myth
of indigenous Oceanic peoples, which
SECTIONS G/H/I/J G1 (CAT. 5.14) From an Ethnographic Museum (G5).
The third mask features in a work

DADA
UNKNOWN WORKSHOP she produced in 1940, also exhibited
PENDANT, IKHOKO here, called Never Keep Two Feet
EARLY 20TH CENTURY On the Ground (G3).

MAGIC Democratic Republic of Congo, eastern

Pende Region | Ivory | Museum Rietberg Zürich,
RAC 851
G3 (CAT. 5.11)
Ivory pendants for necklaces remained
HANNAH HÖCH
Dada contributed many new forms of expression to 20th century very popular with the Pende people
in the south-west of the Congo until
1889–1978
art. Collage and assemblage (collage of objects) established an NEVER KEEP TWO FEET ON
the country’s independence. They
artistic principle which still holds currency today: combining things THE GROUND
were worn as symbols of belonging
which did not originally belong together to generate meaning. and of resistance against the colo- 1940
nial power Belgium. These figurative
Hannah Höch began developing the technique of collage from pendants are not portraits of indivi-
Collage, photomontage | Institut für
Auslandsbeziehungen e.V., Stuttgart, 1982/286
1918, together with Raoul Hausmann. In the mid-1920s she started duals, but are derived from various
on her series From an Ethnographic Museum, which consists of characters in a rich tradition of masks.
twenty works. Most of the illustrations which the artist cut out and
G4 (CAT. 5.6)
glued together were taken from the art magazine Der Querschnitt
(The Cross Section), and they include non-European art belonging G2 (CAT. 5.12) MASTER OF BUAFLE
to the collector Eduard van der Heydt. For the first time, these MASK WITH HORNS, GU
works from Africa, Asia and Oceania are now shown in dialogue HANNAH HÖCH
19TH CENTURY
1889–1978
with their function as motifs in Hannah Höch’s collages.
UNTITLED (FROM AN Southern Guro region, Côte d’Ivoire | Wood |
Museum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 466 | Purchased
Through this work, Hannah Höch put up early resistance to the ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM) by Paul Guillaume, later Han Coray Collection
1929
images of women and stereotypes of exoticness being conveyed
Research has now refuted the as-
by newspapers and magazines. Her collages seem grotesque Collage | Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe,
sumption that African art reflected the
Hamburg
on first sight, but they are critical reflections on prevailing ideas in style of an ethnic group rather than
society about itself and the Other. One hallmark is the compo- The little sculpture (G1) was depicted specific individual expression. In fact,
sitional harmony between things assumed to be opposites: in this alongside two Pende masks in the the maker of this gu mask has actu-
January 1925 issue of Der Querschnitt. ally been identified. We do not have
way Hannah Höch affirms equality between different manifesta-
Hannah Höch made use of all three the exact name, and so the creator
tions of culture. motifs, but in different contexts. She is designated by museums as “the
incorporated one figure into Grief, Master of Buafle”, based on the area
which she dated 1925. The second re- where he operated near the town of
production was included in the collage
shown here, taken from Höch’s series
Buafle (Côte d’Ivoire). Hallmarks of his G6 (CAT. S. 192) G8 (CAT. 5.17) G10 (CAT. 5.4)
style are the curvaceous profile with
the high forehead, the slanting eyes HANNAH HÖCH HANNAH HÖCH HANNAH HÖCH
and the lipless mouth with its faint 1889–1978 1889–1978 1889–1978
smile. J.B. AND HIS ANGEL MONUMENT II: VANITY UNTITLED (FROM AN
1925 (FROM AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM)
MUSEUM) 1929
Collage on card | Berlinische Galerie |
G5 (CAT. 5.5) Purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB, 1926
Collage/facsimile | Kupferstichkabinett SMB,
Berlin, 1979
Berlin
Photomontage with collage on tinted paper |
HANNAH HÖCH Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg
1889–1978 In this collage Hannah Höch combines
MONUMENT I: FROM AN the reproduction of the ornate flute
G7 (EX CAT.) attachment (G9) with part of a North-
ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM
G9 (CAT. 5.3) West American totem pole and a
NO. VIII HANNAH HÖCH fragmented naked woman’s torso. It
1924–1928 1889–1978 UNKNOWN WORKSHOP may seem like a grotesque construct,
Collage on card | Berlinische Galerie |
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN FLUTE ATTACHMENT but it reflects the artist’s desire to
Purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB (FROM AN ETHNOGRAPHIC EARLY 20TH CENTURY challenge categories like “us/them”
and the Department of Science and Art, MUSEUM NO. XII) or “male/female”, opening up new
Berlin, 1973
1927 Papua New Guinea, Sepik, Yuat district | perspectives on reality.
Wood, mother-of-pearl, seed, hair, plant
The figure in Monument I has been Collage on card | Berlinische Galerie |
fibre, pigments | Musée du quai Branly, Paris,
placed on a plinth, which could be 71.1960.112.6.1, J. F. G. Umlauff, Eduard von
Purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB
der Heydt, Charles Ratton, Claudius Cote
taken as alluding to a new appro- and the Department of Science and Art,
GV1 (CAT. 5.19)
Berlin, 1973
ach to presenting African, Asian and
This carving from the Yuat district
American artefacts in ethnographic HANNAH HÖCH
In several of her collages for the series on the River Sepik was a head stopper
museums of the day. The motifs for
From an Ethnographic Museum, designed for a long bamboo flute. 1889–1978
this collage have been compiled
from three sources: the head of the
Hannah Höch combines pictorial These instruments were usually played ALBUM (SCRAPBOOK)
elements of non-European sculptures at initiation ceremonies, as their music 1933
figure is formed by the trimmed
with fragments from the bodies of signalled the presence of ancestors.
reproduction of a gu mask, and the
contemporary white-skinned individu- The flutes were also exchanged by clan Collage on magazine pages, 57 sheets (114
torso derives from a statue of the pages) | Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with
als. Although some of these elements members seeking to promote their
goddess Toëris in Thebes. These two funding from Stiftung DKLB, Berlin, 1979
are unmistakable male or female, status and alliances through ritual ties.
fragments were cut from illustrations
Höch’s figures are androgynous hy- Hannah Höch’s preferred artistic for-
in the magazine Der Querschnitt in
brids and they challenge the gender mat was the collage. Her scrapbook
1924 and 1925. The figure’s left leg
roles of her day. is a unique work in her œuvre. Over
belonged to the popular film star Lilian
Harvey, whose photograph appeared 400 photographic reproductions from
in the Berliner Illustirte Zeitung in July very different periodicals have been
1928. accumulated on its 114 pages. Höch
ordered and composed them over
double pages according to thematic
references such as nature, techno- H1 (CAT. 5.8) The well-known Easter Island figures H5 (CAT. 5.15)
logy, sport, dance, cinema, New Wo- are colossal sculptures up to 20
man or ethnology and also in formal UNKNOWN ARTIST metres tall which follow a clear typolo- HANNAH HÖCH
aesthetic clusters. The album is a HELMET MASK BO NUN gy. They were arranged in strict order 1889–1978
picture archive, a book of ideas and AMUIN WITH COSTUME on hills or by the coast to mark places WITH CAP: FROM AN
a mounted experiment all in one. FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY of worship and burial. These impo- ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM
sing works, like the much smaller
NO. XI
Côte d’Ivoire, Baule mask, Guro costume | wooden carvings, depict gods and
Wood, plant fibre | Museum Rietberg Zürich, ancestors.
1925
GV2 2015.190, collected by Hans Himmelheber,
Collage on card | Berlinische Galerie |
donated by Barbara and Eberhard Fischer
Purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB
DER QUERSCHNITT There are very few full mask costumes and the Department of Science and Art,
FOUNDED BY ALFRED in Western collections today. In most H3 (CAT. 3.5) Berlin, 1982

FLECHTHEIM cases only the wooden headgear has The element linking these two colla-
been preserved. In Africa they are MAN RAY
ges is a helmet mask from the Baule
Published by H. von Wedderkop | summer
as much a part of traditional perfor- 1890–1976 region which was illustrated in the
1924, no. 2/3; January 1925, no. 1; summer
1925, no. 6; October 1929, no. 10, Berlin: mance as the music, movement FISHERMAN’S IDOL January 1925 issue of Der Querschnitt.
Propyläen-Verlag | Berlinische Galerie | and audience interaction. The helmet 1926 (The artist later dated the work to
Purchased from the Berlinische Galerie’s own mask bo nun amuin (“bush gods”)
budget 1924, but this needs correcting.) Un-
was made by the Baule people of Wes- Cork | Galerie 1900–2000, Paris, David
and Marcel Fleiss Collection like the usual full-figure depictions
tern Africa. Although it has horns in the series From an Ethnographic
From 1924 Hannah Höch worked on
and ears, it does not represent an Museum, the focus here is on the
a collage series which she called
animal; instead, the mask is asso- physiognomy. The heads have been
From an Ethnographic Museum. The
ciated with supernatural forces and H4 (CAT. 5.7) put together from different faces
growing academic interest in other
masculinity. Performances with and merged with fragments of the
forms of art and culture, a conse-
these masks were fear-inspiring spec-
quence of colonialism, had infected HANNAH HÖCH West African mask. Symbols of
tacles during which, for example, power from different cultures – here
not only art scholars but also ethno-
disobedient women and young men
1889–1978
logists. The modern mass media were FROM AN ETHNOGRAPHIC the cap from a soldier’s uniform,
would be disciplined. there the sacred helmet mask reserved
publishing a wealth of articles and MUSEUM NO. X
photographs on ethnological themes, for Baule men – are placed in parallel.
1925
providing the artist with an abundance
of visual material for her collages. H2 (CAT. 3.6) Collage on card | Berlinische Galerie |
Purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB,
Berlin, 1979
UNKNOWN ARTIST
ANCESTRAL FIGURE
19TH CENTURY
Chile, Easter Island | Wood, shell | Museum
Rietberg Zürich, RPO 309, collected in situ
by Walter Knoche 1911, gift of Eduard von der
Heydt
I1 (CAT. 5.1) seum of Decorative Arts in Berlin J2 (EX CAT.) J4 (EX CAT.)
(now Martin-Gropius-Bau). The baron
UNKNOWN ARTIST purchased two items from the se- RAOUL HAUSMANN RAOUL HAUSMANN
TORSO OF THE GODDESS ries From an Ethnographic Museum 1886–1971 1886–1971
UMA for which the artist had used repro- UNTITLED (FIGURE, UNTITLED (GODDESS UMA,
LATE 9TH/EARLY 10TH ductions of works from his collection. CAMEROON/GRASSFIELDS, CAMBODIA, PROBABLY FROM
CENTURY MASTER OF BAMUM, 18TH THE TEMPLE OF PRASAT
OR 19TH C., FROM THE VON ANDET, PRE-ANGKOR
Cambodia, Khmer empire | Sandstone |
Museum Rietberg Zürich, RHI 5, gift of Eduard J1 (EX CAT.) DER HEYDT COLLECTION) PERIOD, LATE 7TH C., FROM
von der Heydt, previously C.T. Loo, Paris 1930S THE VON DER HEYDT
RAOUL HAUSMANN COLLECTION)
The torso is from one of the temples Glass negative, new print/inkjet, 2016 |
1886–1971 Musée départemental d’art contemporain, 1930S
in the famous city of Angkor, once the
capital of Khmer kings in Cambodia.
UNTITLED (SEATED Rochechouart
Glass negative, new print/inkjet, 2016 |
The sculpture probably depicts the FIGURE WITH SHACKLE Musée départemental d’art contemporain,
goddess Uma, whose name translates FROM THE VON DER Rochechouart

as “mother of all the world”. HEYDT COLLECTION) J3 (CAT. 5.20)

1930S
Glass negative, new print/inkjet, 2016 |
UNKNOWN ARTIST J5 (CAT. 5.21)
I2 (CAT. 5.2) Musée départemental d’art contemporain, SEATED FIGURE WITH
Rochechouart
SHACKLE RAOUL HAUSMANN
HANNAH HÖCH Raoul Hausmann’s interest in non-
19TH CENTURY 1886–1971
1889–1978 European art began around 1915 UNTITLED (INFRARED
Democratic Republic of Congo, Bena Kanioka
UNTITLED (FROM AN during his Expressionist period, re- region | Wood | Museum Rietberg Zürich, PHOTOGRAPH OF AN
ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM) mained with him throughout his Dada RAC 305, Charles Vignier, Charles Ratton, gift OBJECT IN THE VON DER
of Eduard von der Heydt
1930 years, and is also reflected in his HEYDT COLLECTION)
photographic œuvre, initiated in 1928.
Not much is known about the nature 1930S
Collage | Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, It is unclear how the opportunity
Hamburg of this figure or its background. Glass negative, new print/inkjet, 2016 | Musée
arose for him to use works from Von
The neatly styled hair and upright pos- départemental d’art contemporain,
der Heydt’s collection, some of which
Hannah Höch took the illustration ture suggest a person of standing. Rochechouart
had already been reproduced in
showing the torso of the goddess The figure has therefore been inter-
Einstein’s book on African sculpture,
Uma from the October 1929 issue of preted as a captive dignitary. Carl
as a motif for his photographic
Der Querschnitt. In her collage she Einstein included the work in his se-
combines naked divinity with the mo-
experiments.
minal book on African sculpture J6 (EX CAT.)
dern physique of a stereotype known along with a reproduction.
as New Woman. The collector Eduard UNKNOWN ARTIST
von der Heydt noticed this collage HEAD MASK NYANGBAI
by Hannah Höch at the first exhibition 19TH CENTURY
devoted to photomontage as an art
Guinea, Toma region | Wood, painted
form, staged in 1931 in the former Mu- black | Museum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 21, gift
of Eduard von der Heydt
SECTION K K1 (CAT. 4.12) 1919, together with “Propagandada”
George Grosz, he took on the edi-

DADA
GEORGE GROSZ torship of a socially critical magazine
1893–1959 which annihilated bourgeois ideolo-
AND JOHN HEARTFIELD gies in “bloody earnest”. The satirical

REBELLION
1891–1968 magazine was banned after just six
issues.
THE BOURGEOIS
PHILISTINE HEARTFIELD
GONE WILD (ELECTRO-
MECHANICAL TATLIN K3 (CAT. P. 22)
Dada was not a style. It was an artistic attitude. Wherever the SCULPTURE)
international Dada movement emerged between 1916 and 1920 RICHARD HUELSENBECK
1922/23, it developed specific local traits. In Zurich the Dadaists’ 1892–1974
Reconstruction by Michael Sellmann 1988 |
stage performances were creatively intoxicating, while Club Dada Dummy, revolver, bell, knife and fork,
DADA MANIFESTO
in Berlin was a more political affair. Here too, the poetic verbal “C”, “27”, false teeth, Order of the Black Eagle, APRIL 1918
EK II, Osram lightbulb | Berlinische Galerie |
attacks launched at Dada soirées were accompanied by drum- Purchased with project funding from the Leaflet | Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with
beats, but in Berlin the principal forms of expression were collage Department of Cultural Affairs, Berlin, 1988 funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs,
Berlin, 1978
and assemblage. Text and image denounced self-righteous bour-
geois morality as well as the nationalism and militarism which
persisted after the First World War. K2 (CAT. 4.4)

Carl Einstein, author of the pioneering volume of African sculp- DER BLUTIGE ERNST:
ture, joined the Dada movement in Berlin for a while. He contri- WEEKLY MAGAZINE FOR
buted appeals and manifestos, and worked with George Grosz to POLITICAL SATIRE
publish a weekly called Der blutige Ernst (Bloody Earnest). Dada CARL EINSTEIN AND
GEORGE GROSZ (ED.)
in Berlin culminated in the First International Dada Fair in the
TRIANON-VERLAG, BERLIN
summer of 1920. Starting with the unconventional hanging, the 1919
show framed a space for a sensual experience of the Dada
Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with funding
message: “Open your mind at last! Free it up for the demands from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Berlin,
of the age!” 1979

After Carl Einstein confronted the

aesthetic challenges of the day with
his views on African art, the art
historian believed that artistic revo-
lution would inevitably trigger political
revolution. Einstein briefly joined
the Dada circle in Berlin. In November
K4 (CAT. 4.19) K6 (EX CAT.) K8 (CAT. 4.7) products”. They avoided the term “art”,
as it was associated with a bourgeois
PRINTED SHEET FROM SCHALL UND RAUCH ROBERT SENNECKE convention about what it ought to
DADACO, PAGE VIII EDITOR-IN-CHIEF HEINZ 1885–1940 be and how it should be made. The
1919–1921 HERALD, BERLIN UNTITLED (FIRST arrangement drew no distinctions
1920, NO. 5 (APRIL) INTERNATIONAL DADA between originals and reproductions,
Mechanical press | Berlinische Galerie | amateur and professional, everyday
Purchased with funding from the Department FAIR, BERLIN)
Magazine, printed paper | Berlinische Galerie | utensils and paintings. The confusing
of Science and Art, Berlin, 1977
Purchased with funding from the Department of 1920 diversity of exhibits made the “Dada
Cultural Affairs, Berlin, 1979
(Room 1, Margarete Herzfelde at the table) | Fair” a unique spatial installation,
Vintage print, silver gelatine paper | Berlinische deliberately designed to disorientate
Galerie | Purchased with funding from Stiftung viewers and encourage them to re-
K5 (CAT. 4.15) DKLB, Berlin, 1979
K7 (EX CAT.) visit old habits.
GEORGE GROSZ
1893–1959 ROBERT SENNECKE
“DAUM” MARRIES HER 1885–1940 K9 (CAT. 4.6) K10 (EX CAT.)
PEDANTIC AUTOMATON FIRST INTERNATIONAL DADA
“GEORGE” IN MAY 1920, FAIR, BERLIN ROBERT SENNECKE UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER
JOHN HEARTFIELD IS VERY 1920 1885–1940 UNTITLED (FIRST
GLAD OF IT. (META-MECH. UNTITLED (FIRST INTERNATIONAL DADA
CONSTR. AFTER PROF. R.
(Large format with John Heartfield and INTERNATIONAL DADA FAIR, BERLIN: WIELAND
Hannah Höch’s Dada dolls) | Vintage print,
HAUSMANN) silver gelatine paper | Berlinische Galerie | FAIR, BERLIN) HERZFELDE WITH
1920 Purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB, 1920 “MONTAGE OF MOVABLE
Berlin, 1979

Watercolour, pencil, pen and ink and collage on

The participants from left to right: Hannah FIGURES” BY OTTO DIX)
watercolour board | Berlinische Galerie, BG-G
Höch, Otto Schmalhausen, Raoul Hausmann, 1920
John Heartfield with child, Otto Burchard,
7582/95 | Purchased with funding from Stiftung
Margarete and Wieland Herzfelde, Rudolf
DKLB, Berlin, 1995 Vintage print, silver gelatine paper | Berlinische
Schlichter, N.N., Johannes Baader | Vintage
Galerie | Purchased with funding from Stiftung
print, silver gelatine paper | Berlinische Galerie,
Preussische Seehandlung, Berlin, 1999
BG-FS 077/94,1 | Purchased with funding
from Stiftung DKLB, Berlin, 1979

The First International Dada Fair, held

from 1 July to 25 August 1920 at
Dr Otto Burchard’s art dealership in
Berlin, was the biggest event staged
by Dadaists to present their work
in the visual arts. 28 participants from
different Dada hubs such as Zurich,
Paris, Cologne and Berlin showed no
fewer than 174 so-called “Dadaist
K11 (CAT. 4.8) K13 (CAT. 4.11) K14 (CAT. 4.5) sing slogans, but the images and
texts arranged around one other here
ROBERT SENNECKE JOHN HEARTFIELD DADA ALMANAC take critical stock of contemporary
1885–1940 1891–1968 RICHARD HUELSENBECK society. One theme is the quelling
UNTITLED (HANNAH HÖCH BOOK COVER FOR RICHARD (ED.) of the Spartakus uprising by commu-
AND RAOUL HAUSMANN AT HUELSENBECK: “AFRIKA IN nists and other left-wingers; another
Commissioned by the Central Office of the are the national elections and the first
THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SICHT” (A TRAVEL JOURNAL German DADA Movement | Erich Reiss Verlag,
women to enter parliament. Friedrich
DADA FAIR IN BERLIN) ABOUT FOREIGN COUNTRIES Berlin, 1920 | Berlinische Galerie, BG-HHC
Ebert and Gustav Noske, the President
535/79 | Purchased with funding from the
1920 AND ADVENTUROUS Museumsfonds of the Senator for Cultural and Defence Minister of the fledgling
PEOPLE) Affairs, Berlin, 1979 Weimar Republic, are figures of fun,
Vintage print, silver gelatine paper | Berlinische
Galerie, BG-FS 077 | Purchased with funding 1928 posing in swimming trunks as if caught
from Stiftung DKLB, Berlin, 1979 The Dada Almanac edited by “World on holiday.
Paper on card | Zürcher Hochschule der Dada” Richard Huelsenbeck con-
Künste, Museum für Gestaltung, Graphic
tains four texts specifically designated
Collection
as songs from Central and Southern
K12 (CAT. 4.14) The writer Richard Huelsenbeck, Africa found and translated by Tristan
who wrote an early historiography of Tzara.
FIRST INTERNATIONAL Dada in 1920 in his book En avant
DADA FAIR Dada (K18), turned his back on the art
JOHN HEARTFIELD, world in the early 1920s. He had a
K15 (CAT. 4.3)
WIELAND HERZFELDE (EDS.) medical training and sailed around the
African continent as a ship’s doctor,
Exhibition catalogue, Der Malik-Verlag, Berlin, later publishing his pessimistic travel
HANNAH HÖCH
July 1920 | Berlinische Galerie | Purchased from
journal Africa in Sight. Much of the 1889–1978
the Berlinische Galerie’s own budget, 1986
work is devoted to fullsome criticism DADA-RUNDSCHAU
of colonialism and its consequences. 1919
Collage, gouache and watercolour on
cardboard | Berlinische Galerie | Purchased
with funding from the “Der Tagesspiegel”
press foundation, Berlin, 1986

This collage was made in autumn

1919 and was exhibited in summer
1920 at the First International Dada
Fair. Upon first sight the glued con-
struct is a confusing mix of news-
paper photos, headlines and adverti-
K16 (CAT. 5.10) K17 (CAT. 5.9) K18 (EX CAT.) K21 (EX CAT.)

UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN ARTIST RICHARD HUELSENBECK UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER

UNTITLED (MECHANICAL POWER FIGURE, NKISI 1892–1974 RAOUL HAUSMANN AND
HEAD (THE SPIRIT OF OUR N’KONDI EN AVANT DADA: A HISTORY RICHARD HUELSENBECK ON
AGE), BY RAOUL HAUSMANN) BEFORE 1892 OF DADAISM THEIR DADA TOUR IN
1919 PRAGUE
Vili, Loango, Congo | Wood, metal, glass, Die Silbergäule, Paul-Steegemann-Verlag,
textiles, plant fibres, colour pigments, resin | Hanover, 1920 | Berlinische Galerie | Private gift MARCH 1920
New print by Floris Neusüss from original glass
Musée du quai Branly, 71.1892.70.6,
negative, 2002 | Berlinische Galerie
collected by Joseph Cholet 1892 in Congo Photographic postcard, silver gelatine
paper | Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with
Assemblage, i.e. three-dimensional funding from the Department of Cultural
Minkisi (sing. nkisi) figures were used K19 (EX CAT.) Affairs, Berlin, 1979
collage, entered the 20th-century
in the Kingdom of Kongo as messen-
visual art repertoire thanks to Dada.
gers between the visible world of mor-
Raoul Hausmann’s Mechanical RAOUL HAUSMANN
tals and the invisible world of spirits.
Head (The Spirit of Our Age) is now 1886−1971
Thanks to their powers, dangers could K22 (EX CAT.)
considered a Dada icon. The con-
be averted, witches tracked down and PRÉ
cept of art as it was then known was 1920/1921
diseases cured. A figure was charged CLUB DADA
radically expanded by the use of
up with vegetable or animal sub- RICHARD HUELSENBECK,
everyday utensils, combined into a Brush and ink, printed from a cliché plate |
stances, or even imported goods. The
new form of visual communication. Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with funding FRANZ JUNG (EDS.)
body of the power figure shown here from the Department of Cultural Affairs,
The core of this assemblage is a wig- Berlin, 1979
is covered in iron nails, hammered in Woodcut, prospectus (cover page) for the
maker’s dummy with a centimetre
to seal oaths and contracts. publisher Freie Strasse, Berlin, 1918 |
scale, to which a number of objects Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with project
have been attached, not least a funds from the Department of Cultural
Affairs, Berlin, 1979
wooden ruler, a clock mechanism K20 (EX CAT.)
and the cardboard number “22”.
Like the power figure from the Congo UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER
(K17), the assemblage is more than DADA SCULPTURE BY
the sum of its parts. It has a “magic” HANNAH HÖCH
charge which makes it a “spirit of
(PHOTOGRAPH OF THE
our age”. The work belongs to the
Centre Pompidou collection in
LOST ORIGINAL)
Paris and can no longer be loaned 1919
on conservation grounds. Vintage print, silver gelatine paper | Berlinische
Galerie | Purchased with funding from the
Department of Cultural Affairs, Berlin, 1979
K23 (EX CAT.) Wieland Herzfelde and other Dadaists K27 (CAT. 4.22) K29 (CAT. 4.13)
were charged with “defamation of
HANNAH HÖCH the armed forces”. Thanks to a skilful DADAIST SOIRÉE JOHN HEARTFIELD
1889–1978 defence, they got away with paying 1891–1968
Advert/programme for an event at the
AND RAOUL HAUSMANN a fine. AND RUDOLF SCHLICHTER
Curio-Haus, Hamburg, on 18 February 1920 |
1886–1971 Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with funding 1890–1955
from the Department of Cultural Affairs,
DADA CORDIAL Berlin, 1979
PRUSSIAN ARCHANGEL
1919–1922 K25 (CAT. 4.21) 1920
Collage on a proof of the magazine “Der Dada”, (Reconstruction by Isabel Kork and Michael
year 1 (1919) | Berlinische Galerie | Purchased DADA Sellmann) | Papier-mâché on wire frame; 180
with funding from Stiftung DKLB, Berlin, 1979 K28 (CAT. 4.16) cm | Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with
Advert/programme for an event in the I. B. project funding from the Department of Cultural
Neumann Cabinet of Prints and Drawings. Affairs, Berlin, 1988
Berlin, Kurfürstendamm 232, on 30 April 1919
RAOUL HAUSMANN
| Berlinische Galerie, BG-HHC D 633/79 | 1886–1971 In the summer of 1920, visitors to
K24 (CAT. P. 154) Purchased with DKLB funds by the Senator PEOPLE ARE ANGELS AND
for Cultural Affairs, Berlin, 1979 the First International Dada Fair were
LIVE IN HEAVEN greeted by a sculpture suspended
GEORGE GROSZ 1921 from the ceiling with the revealing title
1893–1959 Prussian Archangel. The figure,
DIE GESUNDBETER (THE K26 (EX CAT.) Collage and photomontage on cardboard frame
wearing the uniform of an officer, had
| Berlinische Galerie | Purchased with funding
FAITH HEALERS), PRINT NO. from Stiftung DKLB, Berlin, 1982 descended – as the sash around
5 FROM THE PORTFOLIO RAOUL HAUSMANN its waist proclaimed – “from Heaven
“GOTT MIT UNS” 1886–1971 above”. When German troops
1918 (PUBLISHED 1920) marched off to war under the banner
Business card, [1918/19] | Berlinische Galerie | of the Prussian kings, their slogan
Photo lithograph on laid paper | Berlinische Purchased with funding from the Department of
was “God with us”. The Dada assem-
Galerie | Acquired from the holdings of the Cultural Affairs, Berlin, 1979
Department of Science and Art, Berlin
blage is a bitter satire on unbroken
German nationalism and the power of
In his portfolio of nine prints entitled the military. The pig’s face is a pro-
Gott mit uns (God with us), George vocative touch. It exposes what men
Grosz settled accounts with the incor- on the battlefield had demonstrated:
rigible militarism that still prevailed their bestial nature. The swinish snout,
in Germany after the Great War. The in the Dadaists’ opinion, was the true
skeleton examined by stethoscope face of the age.
has been certified “KV” – fit for war –
by a military doctor. When they went
on show at the First International Dada
Fair, these prints – like the Prussian
Archangel (K29) – were considered so
seditious that Grosz, publisher
 Media partners:

KÖSTLICHES
BERLIN 2016/17

NEU

Copy: kwasny221/Fotolia; Philipp Külker/ Cover: David von Becker

Von Biergarten bis Streetfood – die spannendsten
Neueröffnungen und besten Adressen der Stadt!

Versandkostenfrei bestellen unter

tazplan_dadafrika62x90.qxp_Layout 1 19.07.16 12:19 Seite 1
www.zitty.de/shop

An English Companion

DADA AFRICA Are you looking

Anbieter: ZEIT Kunstverlag GmbH & Co. KG,

DIALOGUE WITH THE OTHER
5 AUGUST – 7 NOVEMBER 2016 for freedom

Buceriusstraße, 20095 Hamburg

A partnership between the Berlinische Galerie,
Berlin’s public museum of modern art, photography and architecture, mit Il barbiere 2x
di Siviglia Vor
and the Museum Rietberg in Zurich ST
WELTKUN EI
KOSTENFR

This exhibition was funded by

der Morgenröte?
Guter Plan!
taz Plan für Musik, Kino, Bühne und Kultur.
Die WELTKUNST, das Kunstmagazin aus dem Hause
The patrons are His Excellency Dr Otto Lampe, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany der ZEIT, bietet opulent bebilderte Kunstgeschichten
16 Seiten Kultur & Programm für Berlin immer von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Für Kunstkenner und
in Switzerland and in Liechtenstein and Her Excellency Christine Schraner Burgener, Swiss
donnerstags in der taz. Bestellen Sie unser unver- alle, die es werden wollen. Entdecken Sie WELTKUNST,
Ambassador in the Federal Republic of Germany bindliches taz-Miniabo: 5 Wochen taz für 10 Euro indem Sie zwei Ausgaben kostenfrei bestellen:
inkl. einer deutschsprachigen Le Monde diplomatique.
Translation: Kate Vanovitch www.weltkunst.de/weltkunst-gratis
Exhibition Architecture: david saik studio www.taz.de/abo [email protected] | +49-40/55 55 78 68
Bestellnr.: 1542085
Design: Thoma+Schekorr taz Verlags- und Vertriebs GmbH, Rudi-Dutschke-Str. 23, 10969 Berlin
Public Relations: Artefakt Kulturkonzepte