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Lot Essay
A painter and graphic artist, Christian Schad holds an important place in the history of photography because of his Schadographs, the first photograms made in the spirit of the 20th century. These small, cameraless images, composed of scraps of material from everyday life, extended the Dadaists' interest in collage. They are extraordinarily rare.
From July-December 1919, influenced by the Zürich Dadaists, Schad began making these small collages using an assortment of tickets, feathers, fabric, newsprint and torn paper. He arranged the small scraps meticulously on photographic paper, pressed them under glass and allowed the image to develop in natural light. Schad made 32 prints during these few months, a number of which, including this one, were sent to Tristan Tzara (who called them 'Schadographs') by the Dadaist writer Walter Serner. Tzara published one in the March 1920 issue of Dadaphone and retained the group after publication. He loaned several from his collection to the 1936 Museum of Modern Art, New York exhibition, Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism.
Other Schadographs can be found in museum collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; 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.
From July-December 1919, influenced by the Zürich Dadaists, Schad began making these small collages using an assortment of tickets, feathers, fabric, newsprint and torn paper. He arranged the small scraps meticulously on photographic paper, pressed them under glass and allowed the image to develop in natural light. Schad made 32 prints during these few months, a number of which, including this one, were sent to Tristan Tzara (who called them 'Schadographs') by the Dadaist writer Walter Serner. Tzara published one in the March 1920 issue of Dadaphone and retained the group after publication. He loaned several from his collection to the 1936 Museum of Modern Art, New York exhibition, Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism.
Other Schadographs can be found in museum collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; 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.