Kirjahaku

Dada: The Collections of The Museum of Modern Art is the first publication devoted exclusively to MoMA’s unrivalled collection of Dada works. Beginning with a core group acquired on the occasion of the landmark Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism exhibition of 1936, enriched in 1953 by a bequest selected by Marcel Duchamp, and steadily augmented over the years, the Museum’s Dada collection presents the movement in its full international and interdisciplinary scope during its defining years, from 1916 through 1924. Catalyzed by the major Dada exhibition that appeared in Paris, Washington, D.C., and at The Museum of Modern Art in 2005–6, the book benefits from the latest scholarly thinking, not only as found in the exhibition’s catalogues but also in the critical responses to them, as well as in an ambitious series of seminars organized around the show. Featuring generously illustrated essays that focus on a selection of the Museum’s most important Dada works, this publication highlights works in many media, including books, journals, assemblages, collages, drawings, films, paintings, photographs, photomontages, prints, readymades and reliefs. It also includes a comprehensive catalogue of the Museum’s Dada holdings, including those in the Museum’s Archives and Library. Edited by Anne Umland and Adrian Sudhalter, members of the Museum’s Department of Painting and Sculpture, this book inaugurates an ambitious new series of scholarly catalogues on the Museum’s collection.

Carl Grossberg’s (1894–1940) painting career was bracketed by the two world wars. He drew his subject matter from “the enormous wealth of new forms in the world of technology,” recognising both its potential and its dangers. The publication examines the paintings, drawings and prints of the German New Objectivity painter in the Merrill C. Berman Collection. Long associated with the German New Objectivity movement of the 1920s, Grossberg is revered for his precise paintings of industry, devoid of human figures but vibrant with colour. His “Dream Pictures” envision industrial settings inhabited by unexpected creatures, such as monkeys, bats and birds, which act to destabilise the certainty of such materialised rationalism. This lavishly illustrated book takes an unprecedented object-based approach and focuses on the reception of the works during the artist’s lifetime. It highlights his Bauhaus training, his interrelated practices as a painter and interior designer, the centrality of commissions, and his relationship with the National Socialist regime after 1933. It is a robust study of Carl Grossberg’s work and life with a full scholarly armature including historical photographs, documents and publications.