Books about Raoul Hausmann

Raoul Hausmann, 1886-1971: Der deutsche Spiesser argert sich (German Edition) by Raoul Hausmann 

(1994)

Raoul Hausmann: Musee d'art moderne de Saint-Etienne, 10 mai-17 juillet 1994, Musee departemental de Rochechouart, 15 novembre-30 decembre 1994 (French Edition) 

by Raoul Hausmann (1994)

Scharfrichter der burgerlichen Seele: Raoul Hausmann in Berlin 1900-1933 : unveroffentlichte Briefe, Texte, Dokumente aus den Kunstler-Archiven der Berlinischen Galerie (German Edition)

 (1998)

Hannah Hoch und Raoul Hausmann: Eine Berliner Dada-Geschichte (Paare) (German Edition) by Karoline Hille (2000)

inspiration

the OPTOPHONE

Not just an artist, Hausmann was an inventor as well, designing machines designed to transform sound into form and vice versa.  Stemming from the opto phonetic series of work came years of trial and error to create the optophone in the 1920's.  The optophone is a device that, by translating printed characters into arbitrary sounds, enables a blind person to interpret printed type.

ABCD

ABCD is a self-portrait as well as an advertisement created in the 20's.  Hausmann's face is a cut out and an announcement of his performance of a phonetic poem he was to do. The letters VOCE, which are italian for voice, appear inside what looks like an ear, and the letters ABCD, a prototypical poem, are clinched in the artist's teeth.

ABCD Hausmann 1920's

photograph of originial

Hausmann's photomontages capture my attention and inspire me.   It is a way to express yourself in a completely different way then painting or drawing.  you're coming up with new ways to arrange already existing images to create something, sometimes, beyond imaginable.

Hausmann and Hoch: Dadda leaders

These videos have a lot of good images of Hausmann and Hoch's work.  Both inspire me because of their barrier breaking ideas and actions and rebellious "dong give a damn what anyone thinks" attitude.  They set out to drop jaws, inspire, and push the limits, and created great works along the way.

montage of Hausmann's work


montage of Hoch's work

Hoch was famous for a lot of her Dadda Dolls.

Opto phonetic poems: Hausmann and more

This link brings you to a video of a modern dadaist poem, and example of what Hausmann was doing with opto phonetic poems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHr6gWFFa0U&feature=related

august sander, image from one of Hausmann's live Opto phonetic poems

1946 recording of Hausmann's opto phonetic poem

this clip, although recorded in 1946, was a poem from Hausmann's 1918 piece. 
Working at Der Sterm, he got a chance to experience Futurist poetry which possibly played a big role in his direction towards these sound-poems.  He smashed up languages, isolated syllables, re arranged letters, words, sounds, exclamations in different and absurd ways, almost like a new language of sound, but without meaning.  Hausmann created a new, un-familiar and strange accoustic experience for listeners. 
He pushed these sound-poems further by creating what is known as Opto phonetic poster poems.  Hausmann printed the text from these poems on large scale paper.  He gave his sound a visual form.

His most famous poster poem is "fmsbwtozaupggiv-..?mu".  created in 1918, and recited at a Prague Dadda soiree in 1921. It is two lines of letters and punctuations, printed and spoken to create a new sound and experience.

Hausmann's famous Opto phonetic poster poem

The Spirit of Our Age

Hausmann manufactured several reliefs and assemblages. His most well known is Der Geist Unserer Zeit - Mechanischer Kopf  which is translated to "The Spirit of Our Age -  Mechanical Head".  Its base is  from a wig-making dummy and includes many utensils used to measure, including a ruler, pocket watch mechanism, typewriter, camera segments and a crocodile wallet.

created in 1920

 Although seemingly simple, the idea of this piece isn't to be complex, but to express Hausmann's thoughts and emotions.  To spark interest, and create controversy.  I see the head as symbolic of the technological advances of his time.  What things were being used on a daily basis and how this technology was possibly consuming peoples' lives.  Much like the i-phone, or computers, or even self parking cars.  He also brought photomontage to a 3-D perspective.

Dada Soiree

This poster is an advertisement for one of the many Dada Soirees in which Hausmann attended.  It uses a variety of typefaces along with illustrations (or cuts) much like symbols and markings found in today's symbol typefaces such as wing dings.  This technique was new, innovative and dynamic, and went against the normal grid and process of letterpress.

Hausmann Biography III: Two women and his camera.

The late 20's brought on a new wave for Hausmann.  He began working systematically with photography and established himself as a fashionable society photographer.  He also began his new life with his new wife, painter Hedwig Mankiewitz.  The pair welcomed a third into their relationship, Hausmann's new love, Vera Broido.  They lived a ménage à trois lifestyle in Charlottenburg.  Vera was the subject for many of his nude photographs throughout their relationship.

vera broido (one of hausmann's photos)

Hausmann main focus was photography, producing portraits, nudes, and landscapes.   Unfortunately, the trio was forced to run when the Nazis had seized power in January of 1933 to Ibiza. The photographs he produced focused on ethnographic and architectural motifs of old Ibiza.  In 1944, Hausmann and his wife Hedwig moved to Limoges, where he lived in a secluded manner for the rest of his life.  Raoul Hausmann died February 1, 1971.

photos hausmann took of pre modern Ibiza

Hausmann Biography II: AWAY with EXPRESIONISM, LONG LIVE DADDAISM!!!

Hausmann enrolled at Arthur Lew-Funcke's art school, one of many Berlin private art schools.  From 1908 and 1911 he worked on his first typographical designs as well as glass window designs, and studied anatomy and nude drawing. 

Although married with a child, Hausmann began a very intense love affair with fellow Daddaist artist, Hanna Hoch, in 1915.  it was said to be an "artistically productive but turbulent bond".  They continued their relationship, traveled and inspired each other till it was ended in 1922.  Hoch was supposedly deeply in love with Hausmann, even though rumor is that he was an abusive man, and would not divorce his wife for Hoch.

 

portrait of hannah hoch, 1916, by Hausmann

In 1916, Hausmann met the two men whose radicalism helped build his idea of a new beginning, these men were, psychoanalyst Otto Gross (an anarchist and early disciple of Siegmund Freud, who considered psychoanalysis to be preparatory work for a revolution), and  the radical writer Franz Jung (and avid reader of Walt Whitman and student of Gross).  Driven and inspired by these men and their ideas, "Hausmann understood himself to be a pioneer for the birth of the new man. The notion of destruction as an act of creation was the point of departure for Hausmann's Dadasophy, his theoretical contribution to Berlin Dada".

Hausmann was one of a group of young radicals that began to form the basis of Berlin Dada in 1917.  and was part of the foundation of the "Club Dada" and the publication of the first "Dadaist Manifesto" in 1918.   In 1919 Hausmann also edited the journal Der Dada, which was a periodical containing drawings, poems and satires, which were in different typesets of opposing fonts and signs.

cover of Der Dada, with poem and design by Hausmann, 1919

Hausmann pushed the boundaries of what people considered art, and greatly contributed to the Dada style, helping to continually broaden it.  He incorporated his passion of writing and his views on the world in his art and constantly blurred the lines between visual art, poetry, music, and dance.
In 1918 Hausmann began a technique called photomontage, which incorporated collage elements into his work, influenced by previously seen war photomontages he came across on his travels.  He used this process as a tool of satire and political protest.  And, which many of his great works derive from.  Hausmann later embraced and helped pave the way for something called "optophonetic" poems.  These poems were a new idea of combining sound poetry and visual poetry.  An abstract poem.

Also in 1918, Hausmann published his manifesto.  The views and opinions of Expressionism and Daddaism.  He no longer was influenced nor impressed with Expressionism, although it was the art in which he started.  In his manifesto, "Synthetic Cino of Painting", Hausmann bashes Expressionism and suggests that the process, goal, and art of Daddaism greatly surpasses Expressionists' and their  "exploitation of so called echoes of the soul".   He felt this art was simple, arrogant and over dramatized.  This rage against Expressionist painting and the people who supported it, led to his photomontage "The Art Critic".

The Art Critic, 1919, Hausmann

Raoul Hausmann Biography I: Convinced follower of Expressionism, and leader of Daddaism.

Hausman, vienna born, and german raised; was very interested in the Expressionist movement.  After seeing expressionist paintings in 1912 at Herwarth Walden's gallery (which was called Der Sturm), Hausmann started to produce expressionist prints in Erich Heckel's studio.

Psychogramm, 1917 (One of Hausmann's expressionist paintings)

  Along with his drive for painting, philosophy and literature sparked Hausmann's interest as well.  This interest led him to write and publish several articles and poems in cultural magazines, one of which included Walden's magazine Der Sturm, where Hausmann actually held a steady job for a while.  Hausman published for other magazines "Die Aktion" until he came across the Dadaist thinking and ideas, and contemporary literature in 1917.  The next year, some of the first Dada soirées took place, and Hausman was one to participate.

*On a side note, Hausmann did marry.  He met Elfride Schaeffer, a violinist, who he married in 1908, and gave birth to their daughter Vera.


>>>Dada Soirees were exhibitions of Dada art by artists who's new wave thinking and ideas were not accepted in the art world.  they included live performances and already completed art.  There are still organizations today that keep the Soiree Dada movement alive.

http://www.wneptheater.org/_html/dadaneueweltaffen.html