The technique known as the photogram, a unique photographic print made without the use of a negative or a camera, was employed by the pioneers of photography in the 19th century and is now perhaps most often associated with Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy, who began their experiments in 1922. The German painter, graphic artist and photographer Christian Schad used this method as early as 1919, however, while he was immersed in the Zürich Dada movement. In its pure play of tone and form, and its erratic shape, Schadograph No. 17 is a kind of puzzle that calls to mind the Cubist paintings of Schad's contemporaries Braque and Picasso, Arp's biomorphic wood reliefs, and the energy of Futurism. The overlapping layers of words, phrases and fragmented letters are Dada poetry made visual. Schad described his intuitive, spontaneous compositions as 'immaterial collages,' a 'game of planes and forms.' Like the collages of Kurt Schwitters, Schad's photograms are composed from found objects, discarded materials such as torn paper, fabric and newsprint. In order to achieve his photographic results, Schad placed his chosen objects on top of photographic paper, under a sheet of glass to hold them in place, and then exposed the assemblage to light. Whereas collages retain such physical ingredients, however, the photogram leaves only their mysterious traces in varying densities and layers of light, and reversal of tones, in the surface of the photographic emulsion. Tristan Tzara, author of the 1918 Dada Manifesto and a previous owner of this Schadograph, was a key figure in placing Schad's photograms firmly in the history of Dada art and is credited with coining the term 'Schadograph' for these elusive, tiny objects. Tzara had been introduced to Schad's photograms by the German critic and writer Walter Serner, with whom Schad founded the influential Dada journal Sirius in Zürich in 1915. Hoping that Tzara would publish some of Schad's photograms, Serner carried a group of them to Paris to show Tzara, who reproduced one in the March 1920 issue of his review Dadaphone. In 1936 Tzara loaned seven Schadographs to Alfred Barr for his ground-breaking exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. In his catalogue notes Barr states, ''Schadograph' is a term invented by Tzara, 1936.' Schadograph No. 17, on offer here, was included in this legendary installation. Only some 30 early Schadographs are known to exist, and very few remain in private hands. The majority can be found in museum collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Gilman Paper Company Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Kunsthaus Zürich.

CHRISTIAN SCHAD (1894-1982)

Untitled, Schadographie Nr. 17, 1919

Details

CHRISTIAN SCHAD (1894-1982)
Untitled, Schadographie Nr. 17, 1919
gelatin silver printing-out print (photogram)
image (irregular): 2¼ x 3¼in. (5.8 x 8.3cm.)
mount: 5 x 6 3/8in. (12.6 x 16.2cm.)

Provenance

Tristan Tzara, Paris;
Arnold Crane, Chicago;
Private Collection;
with The Mayor Gallery, London;
to the present owner

Literature

Christian Schad. 1894-1982, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1997, cat. no. 137, p. 72; Schad and Auer, eds., Schadographien: Die Kraft des Lichts, Dietmar Klinger Verlag, 1999, p. 44

Exhibited

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, 1936;
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Dada 1916-1923, 1953 (Organized by Marcel Duchamp);
Wuppertal, von der Heydt-Museum, Schadographien 1918-1975: Photogramme von Christian Schad, March 1975;
Zürich, Kunsthaus, Anwesenheit bei Abwesenheit: Fotogramme und die Kunst des 20 Jahrhunderts, March-May 1990;
Zürich, Kunsthaus; Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Emden, Kunsthalle, Christian Schad, 1894-1982, August 1997-April 1998

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