“Only the Dadaists know what Dada is. And they won’t tell anyone.” – With these words, the Dadaists introduced their founding hour on a February evening in 1916 in Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire. Today, 100 years later, what Dada was is no longer a secret. Advertorial Article Parallax Article In Zurich, people are aware of the importance of this international […]
“Only the Dadaists know what Dada is. And they won’t tell anyone.” – With these words, the Dadaists introduced their founding hour on a February evening in 1916 in Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire. Today, 100 years later, what Dada was is no longer a secret.
And it is also easy to say what Dada is today – at least from a restoration perspective: Dada art is fragile and particularly endangered. This is because the artistic techniques of 100 years ago and the use of everyday materials have left their mark on the works of art.
Endangered cultural assets
“The Dada artists placed little value on age-resistant materials,” says Maria Bortfeldt, paper conservator at the Berlinische Galerie. She was not only concerned with their works in the run-up to the anniversary, as the Berlin collection includes ten early Dada collages by Hannah Höch as well as numerous other Dada works, for example by Raoul Hausmann. The museum even owns part of Hausmann’s estate, which includes material from before 1933. To mark the anniversary, the Berlinische Galerie, together with the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, is showing the exhibition “Dada Africa” – the world’s first synopsis of Dada art and the African works that influenced the European artists.
Due to the problematic state of preservation of the Dada works, the Berlinische Galerie is perfecting its facsimile process. “We work with large-format cameras and Cruse scanners. Experts measure the color values precisely so that we get perfect files. Of course, we only use archival-quality paper for printing,” explains Maria Bortfeldt. This work is time-consuming, but the facsimiles are the only chance for lending and exhibiting particularly sensitive works. For the Dada anniversary exhibitions, however, the Berlinische Galerie only lends originals. In recent years, Hannah Höch’s scrapbook with many photographic illustrations and her 900-page address book have already been minimally restored.
But not every stabilizing change is good for the artworks, explains conservator Jean Rosston from the Kunsthaus Zürich: “Sometimes you have to weigh up whether a historical framing or the aesthetically pleasing, original mounting with acidic paper is of greater value than extending the lifespan through conservation interventions.”
Dada and Zurich
These considerations are more relevant than ever in Zurich, as the local Kunsthaus is also taking part in the anniversary with its Dada collection – with restoration projects and a comprehensive digitization of its Dada holdings. This consists of 24 paintings and sculptures, 180 works in the Graphic Arts Collection and 550 works on paper, including letters, books, magazines, flyers and postcards. 473 Dada works were scanned – mostly from both sides, as the reverse side contains “annotations by the artist, references to the place of production, layout instructions for book templates, additional drawings, notes and references, sketches, designations, stamps, old numbers or signatures”, says conservator Jean Rosston.
Beforehand, each individual work had to be examined by a conservator. This is a major effort, because “it is the sheer quantity, their very different condition and the fact that they turn out to be a Pandora’s box when treated”, which makes the work correspondingly time-consuming. “Special attention has to be paid to fragile structures, age-weakened bonds and unstable layers of paint,” says Rosston.
From Zurich to New York
On May 1, 2016, the exhibition “Dadaglobe. Reconstructed” ends at the Kunsthaus Zürich and moves on to the Museum of Modern Art in New York from June. With this exhibition, the Kunsthaus Zürich concludes a major project by Dada founding member Tristan Tzara, who in 1921 planned a collaborative work, a book designed and written by all Dada artists. To this end, he had more than 30 colleagues – including André Breton, Max Ernst, Hannah Höch, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Hans Arp – contribute texts, collages, drawings and poems. The book was never published and the artistic contributions were included in a wide variety of collections. For “Dadaglobe. Reconstructed”, the curators have traced the works scattered all over the world and brought them together for the exhibition.
“Dada Africa”: Zurich, Museum Rietberg March 18 to July 17; Berlin, Berlinische Galerie, August 5 to November 7.
“Dadagolobe. Reconstructed”: New York, MoMA, from June 2016.
Further information on events and exhibitions can be found at www.dada100zuerich2016.ch.
