Picture Assignment: Raoul Hausmann

            Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971) was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on the European Avant-Garde in the aftermath of World War I.
            After seeing Expressionist paintings in Herwarth Walden's gallery Der Sturm in 1912, Hausmann started to produce Expressionist prints in Erich Heckel's studio, and became a staff writer for Walden's magazine, also called Der Sturm, which provided a platform for his earliest polemical writings against the art establishment. In keeping with his Expressionist colleagues, he initially welcomed the war, believing it to be a necessary cleansing of a calcified society, although being an Austrian citizen living in Germany he was spared the draft.
            The following quotation had a great meaning to his life "It was like a thunderbolt: one could – I saw it instantaneously – make pictures, assembled entirely from cut-up photographs. Back in Berlin that september, I began to realize this new vision, and I made use of photographs from the press and the cinema." Hausmann, 1958^[7]

            The photomontage became the technique most associated with Berlin Dada, used extensively by Hausmann, Höch, Heartfield, Baader and Grosz, and would prove a crucial influence on Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitsky and Russian Constructivism. It should also be pointed out that Grosz, Heartfield and Baader all laid claim to having invented the technique in later memoirs, although no works have surfaced to justify these claims.

"The Eclipse of the Sun," George Grosz, 1926

This picture has a lot meaning into it. All the colors makes it seem so classic and illuminating. The picture incorporates a lot in it, for example the sun, that is basically a symbol of life and the daylight of our lives, it is eclipsed by a dollar sign, a symbol of greed. The donkey has blinders on shows the mass ignorantly. A small child is kept underneath them signifying the ignoring future generations. The guy in the suit saying something to the general, it looks like gossiping. 

"Dada Conquerors," Raoul Hausmann,  1920

This paing by Raoul Hausmann reflects the social conditions in which it is produced. The isolation in expressionist art suggests a sense of isolation felt by individuals in modern society. This picture reflects how man are portrait as regular man not this type of arrogant rich man. The word "dada" is supposed to be a nonsense word, a word with no meaning. Dadaism as an artistic movement is supposed to play up the meaninglessness and absurdity of life–key nihilist themes. I think the definition of dada contradicts the meaning that this picture has. The colors makes it more interesting and all the items reflects what every man like and are passionate about. Man are being played as regular individuals part of society.

"Trench Warfare," Otto Dix, 1932

When I looked at this picture, the first thing that came into my mind was "this is very sad and disgusting". The only thing that this picture reflects is sadness. There are people in the middle of the picture, surrounded by blood and destruction. At the same time, the colors especially the darkness of this picture makes it more interesting and fascinating.