Customer Reviews

Christian Schad and the Neue Sachlichkeit

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I've always been interested in this period between the world wars in Germany and Particularly like the work of George Grosz. I've only just discovered Christian Schad but "Christian Schad and the Neue Sachlichkeit" gives a good idea of the times, the machine age and moral vacuum that followed the end of the first world war. There's a really good selection of drawings, prints and paintings with his history and background and I recommend it to anyone who is also interested in this period of art in Germany.

The term "Neue Sachlichkeit" (New Objectivity) was first used in connection with a 1925 exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim. That exhibition exhibited those artists who had `remained true to positive, concrete reality.Those artsts included The remarkable Christian Schad along with Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, and George Grosz.

If the works of Christian Schad as portrayed and discussed in this excellent monograph seem cold, intense, distant and uninviting then perhaps it was the new Objectivity that was forward looking enough to anticipate the horrors that became the signature for German society of WW II.

Any reference to the `cabaret set' made so popular with Christopher Isherwood's `Berlin Stories' and as later transformed to the stage and film could not escape the use of Schad's imagery as he portrayed the element of society that looked decadent and would remain isolated as the world outside Germany began to crumble.

Christian Schad (1894-1982) paintings are sharp-focused, mysteriously erotic portraits epitomizing the decadent glamour of the Weimar era. Considered as a group, Schad's portraits form an extraordinary record of life in Vienna and Berlin in the years following World War I. Yet even when his paintings are apparently at their most objective, there is nevertheless a complex theater of illusion at play. Born in Munich, Schad moved to Zurich in 1915 to escape enlistment in the German army. He soon gained entree to the international circle of pacifist artists and writers gathered there, which included Hugo Ball and Hans Arp. The most fruitful results of this period of experimentation were the small abstract photograms Schad made in 1919, called Schadographs. The intense beauty of these luminous, poetic works results from the play between word and image and the artist's insistence on aesthetic criteria, both in his choice of objects and in his approach to composition.

This fine book prepared and authored by Jill Lloyd and the brilliant Michael Peppiatt explores this time frame and the art movement New Objectivity with candor and fine research. The reproductions of Schad's works are brilliantly colorful and clearly defined, allowing the viewer to see past the surface of what appears to be superficial art and records the melancholy mixture of elegance and decadence that characterized this class of lost souls Grady Harp, November 11

excellent book wit a good balance of price and quality, with this book you have a great week-end !