Dada Bodies: Between Battlefield and Fairground

277 Pages·2019·94.841 MB·English

by  Elza Adamowicz

A
d
a
m
o
w
sd Representations of the human form are central to ic sd
z
n Dada, whether iconoclastic or grotesque, assembled n
from disparate elements or reduced to a fragment.
u u
e They can be read as a subversion of the classical body e
o or a response to bodies mutilated by war, but they o
r always defy a single, cohesive explanation. r
ig This is the first study to focus critical attention on D ig
r Dada’s limit-forms of the human image. It confronts r
di them not as organic, integrated unities but as fictional di
a constructs, revealing how they operate as a reflection a
f of the disjunctive, dehumanised society of war-torn a f
Europe while simultaneously promoting the blueprint
od of a possible future body. Through detailed analyses od
n of works by Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Hannah Höch, d n
a Marcel Duchamp and others, the book offers an a
original and lively survey of the topic, informed by
b b
d recent theoretical and critical perspectives. a d
The result is a reassessment of Dada, which is shown
l l
e to occupy an ambivalent space between the battlefield e
fi – in the satirical exposure of ideological lies – and the b fi
a fairground – in the playful manipulation of the body a
e through laughter, dream and dance. e
l l
o
t Dada bodies takes an international and interdisciplinary t
dt perspective, encompassing the movement’s various dt
a a
centres and diverse media. Richly illustrated with colour
d
b images of the works discussed, it will appeal to scholars b
and students of European cultural history, art and
an literature, as well as the interested general reader. an
i
e e
e
e e
Elza Adamowicz is Professor Emerita of French Literature
Dw Dw
and Visual Culture at Queen Mary University of London
s
t t
Cover image: Hannah Höch, Die Süsse (The Sweet One).
e e
Museum Folkwang, Essen. © DACS, London, 2017.
B B
Elza
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Adamowicz
Dada bodies
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Dada bodies
Between battlefield and fairground
Elza Adamowicz
Manchester University Press
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Copyright © Elza Adamowicz 2019
The right of Elza Adamowicz to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 5261 3114 0 hardback
First published 2019
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any
external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee
that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
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Man lost his divine countenance, became matter, chance, an aggregate animal,
the lunatic product of thoughts quivering abruptly and ineffectually.
Hugo Ball (1996: 223)
When we have broken with the old world and are not yet able to form the new
world, satire, the grotesque, caricature, the clown and the doll appear; and the
profound meaning of these forms of expression, by showing their marionette-
like quality and their apparent and real solidification, will make us feel and
guess another life.
Raoul Hausmann (1921: 285)
Le corps humain est un champ de guerre où il serait bon que nous revenions.
Antonin Artaud (1946)
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Contents
List of figures page viii
Acknowledgements xv
1 Introduction: spare parts 1
2 Zurich Dada: between gas mask and carnival dance 22
3 Shooting the classical body 46
4 Hybrid bodies (I): the impossible machine 70
5 Hybrid bodies (II): the grotesque 92
6 Performance spaces: fairground, cabaret, exhibition 115
7 Death and rebirth: corpse or chrysalis 141
8 Fluid bodies, shifting identities 164
9 Dada’s Africa 192
10 Limit-bodies 207
11 Conclusion: exquisite corpses 230
Bibliography 240
Index 253
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Figures
All dimensions are given in centimetres.
1.1 Max Ernst, Jeune chimère (Young Chimera, c.1921), collage, gouache
and ink on paper, 29 x 9, private collection. © ADAGP, Paris
and DACS, London, 2017. page 2
1.2 Francis Picabia, Portrait d’une jeune fille américaine dans l’état de nudité
(Portrait of a Young American Girl in a State of Nudity, 1915), drawing,
in 291 5–6, 4. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2017. 3
2.1 Umberto Boccioni, Carica dei Lancieri (Charge of the Lancers, 1915),
tempera and collage, 32 x 50, private collection. Photograph:
wikimedia commons. 24
2.2 Fernand Léger, La Partie de cartes (Soldiers Playing Cards, 1917), oil
on canvas, 129 x 193. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London,
2017. 25
2.3 Marcel Janco, Masque (1919), assemblage of paper, cardboard,
string, gouache and pastel, 45 x 22 x 5, MNAM, Centre
Pompidou, Paris. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2017. 34
2.4 Hugo Ball at the Cabaret Voltaire (1916). Courtesy of Kunsthaus
Zurich. 36
2.5 Sophie Taeuber, Smeraldina, from König Hirsch (1918). 38
2.6 Photograph of Sophie Taeuber dancing with Marcel Janco
mask (1916–17). Berlin/Rolandswerth: Stiftung Arp e.V. 40
2.7 Photograph of Mary Wigman, Der Zeltweg (1919). 40
3.1 Francis Picabia, La Nuit espagnole (Spanish Night, 1922), enamel
paint on canvas, 162.5 x 131. Courtesy of Museum Ludwig,
Cologne. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2017. 47
3.2 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Source (1856), oil on
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figures ix
canvas, 163 x 80, Paris, Musée du Louvre, bequest of Countess
Duchâtel. On loan to the Musée d’Orsay from 1986. 47
3.3 Francis Picabia, Tableau Dada (Still Life), Cannibale 1 (1920), 11.
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2017. 51
3.4 Francis Picabia, La Feuille de vigne (The Fig Leaf, 1922), oil on
canvas, 200 x 160, Tate London. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS,
London 2017. Photo © Tate, London, 2018. 54
3.5 Francis Picabia, cover of Littérature 2:10 (1923). © ADAGP, Paris
and DACS, London, 2017. 56
3.6 Man Ray, Le Violon d’Ingres (1924), photograph, reproduced in
Littérature 13 (June 1924), 4. © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris
and DACS, London, 2017. 58
3.7 Johannes Theodor Baargeld, Typische Vertikalklitterung als
Darstellung des Dada Baargeld (Typical Vertical Mess as Depiction of
the Dada Baargeld, 1920), photomontage on cardboard, 37 x 27.5,
Graphische Sammlung, Kunsthaus Zurich. 60
3.8 George Grosz, Der neue Mensch (New Man, 1921), watercolour,
ink and pencil on paper, 50.8 x 34.6. © Estate of George Grosz,
Princeton, NJ/DACS, London, 2017. 62
3.9 Cover of Jedermann sein eigner Fussball (1919). National Art Library,
London. 63
3.10 Max Ernst, La Santé par le sport (1920), photograph of
photomontage, Kunsthaus Zurich. © ADAGP, Paris and
DACS, London, 2017. 64
3.11 Tristan Tzara, ‘Boxe’, SIC 42–3 (March–April 1919), p. 325. 65
4.1 Francis Picabia, Fille née sans mère (Girl Born Without a Mother,
1916–17), gouache and metallic paint on printed paper, 50 x 65,
National Galleries of Scotland. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS,
London, 2017. 74
4.2 Francis Picabia, Américaine, cover of 391 6:1 (1917). © ADAGP,
Paris and DACS, London, 2017. 76
4.3 Marius de Zayas, ‘Femme’, and Francis Picabia, Voilà Elle, 291 9
(1915), 2–3. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2017. 77
4.4 Francis Picabia, Parade amoureuse (Amorous Parade, 1917), oil, gesso,
metallic paint, ink, oegold leaf, crayon on board, 96 x 73, private
collection. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London, 2017. 79
4.5 Suzanne Duchamp, Un et une menacés (Male and Female Threatened,
1916), watercolour, metal objects and string on paper, 70 x 54.5,
Fonds de dotation Jean-Jacques Lebel. © ADAGP, Paris and
DACS, London, 2017. 80
4.6 George Grosz, Daum marries her pedantic automaton ‘George’ in
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