Christian Schad (21 August 189425 February 1982) was a German painter and photographer. He was associated with the

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

and the

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in ) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against German Expressionism, expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunsthalle' ...

movements. Considered as a group, Schad's portraits form an extraordinary record of life in Vienna and Berlin in the years following

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

.CHRISTIAN SCHAD AND THE NEUE SACHLICHKEIT, March 14-June 9, 2003

Neue Galerie New York The Neue Galerie New York ( German for "New Gallery") is a museum of early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design located in the William Starr Miller House at 86th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City. Established in 2001, ...

Life

Schad was born in

Miesbach Miesbach () is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany, and is the capital of the Miesbach (district), Miesbach district. The district is at an altitude of 697 metres above sea level. It covers an area of approximately 863.50 km2 of alpine ...

Upper Bavaria Upper Bavaria (, ; ) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany. Geography Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered on the city of Munich, both state capital and seat of the district gove ...

, to a prosperous lawyer who supported him for nearly half his life.

Michael Kimmelman Michael Kimmelman (born May 8, 1958) is the Architecture criticism, architecture critic for ''The New York Times'' and has written about public housing and homelessness, public space, landscape architecture, community development and equity, infr ...

(March 28, 2003)
Uneasy Intimations of Disaster
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. He studied at the art academy in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

in 1913. A "self-inflicted heart defect" allowed the

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

to flee to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in 1915 to avoid service in

, settling first in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

sharing his apartment with Walter Serner, with whom he launched ''Sirius'', a literary review. He was witness of the foundation of Dada at the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916. But he did show little interest in Dada, which he conceived as a "child of expressionism", and moved to Geneva in the very same year. In 1919 he created early photograms on printing-out-paper later called ''Schadographs''. From 1920 to 1925, he spent some years in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. Having married Marcella Arcangeli, the daughter of a Roman professor, he settled in Naples where he attended painting and drawing courses at the art academy. In 1927 the family emigrated to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. His paintings of this period are closely associated with the

movement. In the late twenties, he returned to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and settled there. Schad became interested in

Eastern philosophy Eastern philosophy (also called Asian philosophy or Oriental philosophy) includes the various philosophies that originated in East and South Asia, including Chinese philosophy, Japanese philosophy, Korean philosophy, and Vietnamese philoso ...

around 1930, and his artistic production declined precipitously. After the crash of the New York stock market in 1929, Schad could no longer rely on his father's financial support, and he largely stopped painting in the early 1930s Schad's art was not condemned by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

in the same way that the work of

Otto Dix Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and Printmaking, printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Alon ...

George Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

Max Beckmann Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, drawing, draftsman, printmaker, sculpture, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the m ...

, and many other artists of the

movement was. In 1937, the Nazis included Schad in the ''Great German Art'' exhibition, their ''antidote'' to the '' Degenerate Art'' show. Recent research revealed that Christian Schad arranged with the Nazi in his own way entering the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) in 1933. Schad lived in obscurity in Germany through the war and after it. After the destruction of his studio in 1943 Schad moved to

Aschaffenburg Aschaffenburg (; Hessian: ''Aschebersch'', ) is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg, despite being its administrative seat, is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg. Aschaffenburg belonged to the Archbishopric ...

. The city commissioned him to copy

Matthias Grünewald Matthias Grünewald ( – 31 August 1528; also known as Mathis Gothart Nithart) was a German Renaissance painter of religious works who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th cent ...

's Virgin and Child (Stuppach, parish church), a project on which he worked until 1947. When his Berlin studio was destroyed in aerial bombing, his future wife Bettina saved the artworks in a spectacular action and brought them to him to Aschaffenburg. An initially provisional arrangement turned into a stay of four decades. Schad continued to paint in the 1950s in the Magic Realist style and would return in the 1960s to experiments with photograms. Schad's reputation did not begin to recover until the 1960s, when a couple of shows in Europe dovetailed with the rise of

Photorealism Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can b ...

. Schad died in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

on 25 February 1982.

Work

According to the five volumes of catalogues raisonnés Schad's oeuvre is distinguished in five group of works: painting, photography, Schadographs, graphic works, drawing and watercolors.

Painting

Schad's works of 1915–1916 show the influence of

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

and

Futurism Futurism ( ) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the ...

.Michalski 1994, p. 42. During his stay in Naples in Italy in the 1920s he developed a smooth, realistic style that recalls the clarity he admired in the paintings of

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

. Upon returning to Berlin in 1927 he painted some of the most significant works of the New Objectivity. They are characterized by "an artistic perception so sharp that it seems to cut beneath the skin", according to Wieland Schmied, who calls Schad the "prototypical possessor of the 'cool gaze' which distinguishes this movement from earlier forms of realism".

Schadographs

In 1919, while living in Geneva, Schad created his own version of shadowgraphs respectively ''

photogram A photogram is a Photography, photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The usual result is a negative shadow im ...

s'' exposing flat objects and detritus on printing-out paper in a copy frame to the sun. His friend Walter Serner was excited about the disruptive power of the depicted negative shadows considering the tiny paper works as an "intrusion of pure technics into art". Christian Schad offered these "composition photographiques" for publication among others to

Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, c ...

, who finally published in March 1920 a reproduction in th
Dadaphone
the seventh edition of his Dada magazine. The reproduction entitled ''ARP et VAL SERNER dans le crocodarium royal de Londres'' precedes the publication of similar approaches by

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...

and

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by Constructivism (art), con ...

at least by two years. It took more than ten years before another of these works by Christian Schad was published as "collage photographique" in George Hugnet's essay on Dada in 1932. Today the name ''Schadograph'' is established, which was introduced by Tristan Tzara for his courtesy in 1937 for the exhibition ''Fantastic Art, Dada'' at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York lending 7 ''Schadographs'' and one woodcut by Christian Schad. Interestingly, Christian Schad did forget about his photographic compositions. In 1919/20 he did send to Tristan Tzara all 28 original exemplars known today, who never returned them and did not inform Schad either about succeeding exhibition activities as at the MoMA in 1937 and later. In the mid-1950s the Frankfurt-based art critic Godo Remshardt turned Schad's attention to his forgotten works. In 1960 he was approached by

Helmut Gernsheim Helmut Erich Robert Kuno Gernsheim (1 March 1913 – 20 July 1995) was a historian of History of photography, photography, a Collecting, collector and a photographer. Early life and education Born in Munich, Germany, he was the third son of the ...

to provide a remake of his early Schadographs, which was published in 1962 as "replika" in his book ''Creative Photography''. As printing-out paper weren't available anymore at that time Christian Schad had to switch from the sun to the dark room creating the replikas on developing paper. He realized numerous of these late ''Schadographs'' among other for an album in 1978 dedicated to Aloysius Bertrand's poetical prose

Gaspard de la Nuit ''Gaspard de la nuit'' (subtitled ''Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand''), M. 55 is a suite of piano pieces by Maurice Ravel, written in 1908. It has three movements, each based on a poem or ''fantaisie'' from the collection '' ...

.Schad, Christian: Das Portfolio 'Gaspard de la nuit oder Die Hochzeit der Romantik mit dem Geiste Dadas' – 20 Schadographien zu den Prosagedichten von Aloysius Bertrand (1807-1841), edited by Kunstkabinett G. A. Richter, Stuttgart 1978.

Recognition

Schad's works are now part of the collections of, among others, the

, New York; the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

, London; and the

Neue Nationalgalerie The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its sculpt ...

, Berlin. The first retrospective dedicated to him in the United States was held at the Neue Galerie, New York, in 2003. In 2002 Schad's second wife Bettina founded the Christian Schad Foundation in

. The estate consist of over 3,200 works, which are exhibited in a changing selection and in a breadth that is unique worldwide at the Christian Schad Museum in

, which was planned to open in 2018 and was finally inaugurated in June 2022.

Notes

References

*Heesemann-Wilson, Andrea (1978). ''Christian Schad, Expressionist, Dadaist und Maler der Neuen Sachlichkeit – Leben und Werk bis 1945'', Göttingen (dissertation) *Villodre, Nicolas (1981). ''Schadographie, Rayographies, Photogrammes – la photographie sans prise de vue dans la production artistique des années vingt.'' Paris (dissertation, vol 1) *Neusüss, Floris M.; Heyne, Renate (1990). ''Das Fotogramm in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts'', Cologne, DuMont. *Michalski, Sergiusz (1994). ''New Objectivity''. Cologne: Benedikt

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt Taschen and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Tasch ...

. * Rosenblum, Naomi (1997). ''A World History of Photography'', 3rd edition. Abbeville Press *Schad, Nikolaus; Auer, Anna (1999): ''Schadographien – die Kraft des Lichts'', Passau: Klinger. *Schmied, Wieland (1978). ''Neue Sachlichkeit and German Realism of the Twenties''. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. *Stremmel, Kerstin, & Grosenick, Uta. (2004). ''Realism''. Köln: Taschen. *Roth, Tim Otto Roth (2015). ''Eine "Laune der Kunstgeschichte" - die Schadographien.'' in: ''Körper. Projektion. Bild – eine Kulturgeschichte der Schattenbilder''. Paderborn: Fink 2015. *Adkins, Helen; Otschik, Ines (2019). ''Christian Schad - catalogue raisonné, Volume 3 Schadographs''. ed. by Christian-Schad-Stiftung Aschaffenburg, Köln (Wienand).

External links

Christian Schad Museum Aschaffenburg, GermanySome of Christian Schad's work
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schad, Christian 1894 births 1982 deaths People from Miesbach (district) 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters German Expressionist painters German modern painters Dada Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German dadaists