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Lot Essay
'For me Italy opened my eyes both to what I wanted to do and to what I could do. Nowhere is the difference between art and kitsch so self-evident as in Italy. There are many great paintings by great artists on view there... The art is old, but this old art is often newer than the new art... In Italy, I found my way' (Christian Schad, 'Mein Lebensweg', foreword to exh. cat. Christian Schad, Galerie Würthle, Vienna, 1927).
Café d'Italia is one of the seminal early works of the Neue Sachlichkeit that came to define the oeuvre of Christian Schad. Painted after the artist's return to Germany from Italy in 1920, it is one of the seventeen works recorded by Thomas Radzka from the artist's time in Munich in the early 1920s, approximately one third of which were destroyed during the Second World War. Most of these were portraits, commissions on which Schad relied financially but which did not allow him to pursue the artistic innovations of his previous year of travel. In spirit, style and composition, however, the present oil belongs to the series of works painted in Naples and perfectly expresses the vitality that had overwhelmed the artist and his friend and fellow former Dadaist Walter Serner when they arrived in Naples and which ultimately persuaded Schad to stay. Both Schad and Serner were inspired by the vibrant life and nightlife of the city, the memory of which pulsates in the dramatic contrasts of light and of white backs, throats and chests set against the black dinner jackets of the male guests at the Café d'Italia.
Anticipating the hard, bohemian atmosphere of his Berlin paintings, Schad depicts the interior of the nightclub from within the crowd. Typical of these works is the way the eyes of the figures never meet those of the viewer, particularly the gaze of the beautiful, dark-haired girl which is tilted towards something or someone else. In a sea of otherwise faceless men the recognisable features emerge of Schad's friend Serner, but his attention is fixed on the woman by his side.
Café d'Italia is one of the seminal early works of the Neue Sachlichkeit that came to define the oeuvre of Christian Schad. Painted after the artist's return to Germany from Italy in 1920, it is one of the seventeen works recorded by Thomas Radzka from the artist's time in Munich in the early 1920s, approximately one third of which were destroyed during the Second World War. Most of these were portraits, commissions on which Schad relied financially but which did not allow him to pursue the artistic innovations of his previous year of travel. In spirit, style and composition, however, the present oil belongs to the series of works painted in Naples and perfectly expresses the vitality that had overwhelmed the artist and his friend and fellow former Dadaist Walter Serner when they arrived in Naples and which ultimately persuaded Schad to stay. Both Schad and Serner were inspired by the vibrant life and nightlife of the city, the memory of which pulsates in the dramatic contrasts of light and of white backs, throats and chests set against the black dinner jackets of the male guests at the Café d'Italia.
Anticipating the hard, bohemian atmosphere of his Berlin paintings, Schad depicts the interior of the nightclub from within the crowd. Typical of these works is the way the eyes of the figures never meet those of the viewer, particularly the gaze of the beautiful, dark-haired girl which is tilted towards something or someone else. In a sea of otherwise faceless men the recognisable features emerge of Schad's friend Serner, but his attention is fixed on the woman by his side.