Dada Magazines

Dada Magazines
ii
Dada Magazines
The Making of a Movement
Emily Hage
BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS and the Diana logo are
trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2020
Copyright © Emily Hage, 2020
Emily Hage has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. xii constitute
an extension of this copyright page.
Cover design: Ben Anslow
Cover image © Top left: Bulletin Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Paris, 1920,
front cover, letterpress, 14 13/16 x 10 7/8 in. (37.6 x 27.7 cm).
International Dada Archive, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
Top right and bottom left: Dada 3, ed. Tristan Tzara, 1917,
Mouvement Dada, Zurich, p. 13, c. 1917, 13 ¼ x 9 11/16 in. (33.7 x 24.6 cm).
Bottom right: Der Dada 3, ed. George Grosz, John Heartfield, and
Raoul Hausmann, 1920, Malik-Verlag, Berlin, p. 4, 9 1/16 x 6 ⅛ in. (23 x 15.6 cm). International Dada
Archive, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for,
any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given
in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher
regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have
ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hage, Emily, author.
Title: Dada magazines : the making of a movement / Emily Hage.
Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021. | Outgrowth
of the author’s thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Pennsylvania, 2005, under
the title: New York and European Dada art journals, 1916-1926. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020029944 (print) | LCCN 2020029945 (ebook) | ISBN
9781501342660 (hb) | ISBN 9781501342684 (epdf) | ISBN 9781501342677
(ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Dadaism. | Dadaism–Periodicals.
Classification: LCC NX456.5.D3 H34 2021 (print) | LCC NX456.5.D3 (ebook)
| DDC 709.04/062–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029944
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029945
ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-4266-0
ePDF: 978-1-5013-4268-4
eBook: 978-1-5013-4267-7
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com
and sign up for our newsletters.
For Kathleen and Richard Hage
vi
Contents
List of Illustrations viii

Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 1
1 An Extraordinary Opportunity to Be Denounced as a Wit:
How Magazines Launched “Dada,” 1916–1917 25
2 “Every Page Must Explode”: Manipulating the Magazine Medium,
1918–1920 57
3 Printing Artworks, Exhibiting Ephemera: Dada Journals
and Exhibitions, 1920–1921 91
4 “Be on Your Guard, Madam”: New York Dada and the
Magazine as Readymade, 1921 127
5 Contingency and Continuity: Dada Magazines and the
Expanding Network, 1922–1926 157
Epilogue: Magazines to Zines: Echoes of Dada in 1970s America 199
Bibliography 209
Index 224
Illustrations
Plates
1 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag,

front cover
2 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag,
front cover
3 Dada 3, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1918, Mouvement Dada,
front cover
4 Der Dada 3, ed. George Grosz, John Heartfield, and
Raoul Hausmann, Berlin, 1920, Malik-Verlag, p. 16
5 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919,
Mouvement Dada, limited issue front cover
6 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919,
Mouvement Dada, limited issue front cover
7 Bleu 3, ed. Gino Cantarelli, Mantua, 1921, front cover
8 “Jugoslavenski, da da, DA DA, DA, DA …: U Osijeku,
Royal-kino dne 20. viii. matinée u 1/2 11 sati., Vinkovci:
Stamparija D. Gruić, 1922,” Poster for Dada event, Zagreb, 1922
9 75 HP, ed. Ilarie Voronca, Victor Brauner, Bucharest, 1924,
front cover
10 75 HP, ed. Ilarie Voronca, Victor Brauner, Bucharest, 1924, p. 9
Figures
I.1 Dada-Jok, ed. Ljubomir Micic, Zagreb, 1922, front cover 2

I.2 Tristan Tzara stationery: Mouvement Dada, Paris, 1920, letterpress 5
I.3 Merz 1, ed. Kurt Schwitters, Hanover, 1923, p. 10, letterpress 6
I.4 Hannah Höch with Raoul Hausmann, untitled collage on trial
print of Der Dada 1, on cardboard, c. 1920 11
1.1 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag, front
cover 28
Illustrations ix
1.2 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag, front
cover 29
1.3 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag, p. 20 30
1.4 Gino Cantarelli, “Costellazione,” manuscript/mock-up of poem
published in Dada 2, 1917 32
1.5 Dada 2, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1917, p. 8 33
1.6 Noi 1, ed. Enrico Prampolini, Rome, 1917, front cover 39
2.1 391 8, ed. Francis Picabia, Zurich, 1917, front cover 58
2.2 Dada 3, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1918, Mouvement Dada,
front cover 66
2.3 Der Dada 3, ed. George Grosz, John Heartfield, and Raoul
Hausmann, Berlin, 1920, Malik-Verlag, p. 4 68
Hausmann, Berlin, 1920, Malik-Verlag, p. 16 69
2.5 Dada 3, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1918, Mouvement Dada, p. 13,
c. 1917 70
2.6 Der Dada 2, ed. Raoul Hausmann, Berlin, 1919, p. 6 72
2.7 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919 73
2.8 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919,
second front cover 74
2.9 Dada 4–5, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919, Mouvement Dada,
limited issue cover 75
2.10 Dada 4–5, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919, Mouvement Dada,
limited issue cover 78
2.11 Der Dada 2, ed. Raoul Hausmann, Berlin, 1919, front cover 80
2.12 Johannes Baader, “Collage Dada (Raoul Hausmann),” c. 1919,
Kunsthaus Zurich 81
3.1 Postcard from Tristan Tzara, Gino Cantarelli, and Otello Rebacci to
Francis Picabia, July 1920 93
3.2 Installation view, Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (“First
International Dada Fair”), Berlin, Summer 1920 98
3.3 Installation view, Salon Dada Exposition Internationale
(“International Exhibition”), Paris, 1921 100
3.4 Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (“First International Dada Fair”)
catalog, ed. John Heartfield and Wieland Herzefelde, Berlin, 1920,
Otto Burchard and Malik-Verlag 102
3.5 Salon Dada, Exposition Internationale (“International Exhibition”)
catalog, Paris, 1921, front cover 103
x Illustrations
3.6 391 14, ed. Francis Picabia, Paris, 1920, p. 4 105

3.7 Die Schammade, ed. Max Ernst and Johannes Baargeld, Cologne,
1920, Schloemilch-Verlag, p. 8 107
Hausmann, Berlin, 1920, Malik-Verlag, front cover 108
3.9 Bleu 3, ed. Gino Cantarelli, Mantua, 1921, front cover 110
3.10 Bleu 2, ed. Gino Cantarelli, Mantua, 1920, p. 3 112
3.11 Bulletin Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Paris, 1920, front cover, letterpress 114
3.12 Dada Augrandair: Der Sängerkrieg Intirol (“Dada Outdoors: The
Singers’ War in the Tirol”), ed. Tristan Tzara and Max Ernst, Paris,
Au Sans Pareil, 1921, p. 4 115
4.1 The Blind Man 1, ed. Henri Pierre Roché, Beatrice Wood, and
Marcel Duchamp, New York, 1917, front cover 135
4.2 New York Dada, ed. Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, New York,
1921, front cover 137
4.3 Man Ray, “Belle Haleine,” (photo of Marcel Duchamp), 1921 138
4.4 Vanity Fair, ed. Frank Crowninshield, New York, November
1920, p. 67 139
4.5 Vanity Fair, ed. Frank Crowninshield, New York, November
1920, p. 121 140
1921, p. 2 141
1921, p. 4 142
4.8 Vanity Fair, ed. Frank Crowninshield, New York, November 1920,
p. 49 143
1921, p. 1 145
4.10 Vanity Fair, ed. Frank Crowninshield, New York, November 1920,
p. 23 146
4.11 Rogue, ed. Louise and Allen Norton, New York, 1915 147
5.1 Dada Tank, ed. Dragan Aleksic, Zagreb, 1922, front cover 164
5.2 Dada Jazz, ed. Dragan Aleksić, Zagreb, 1922, front cover 165
5.3 “Jugoslavenski, da da, DA DA, DA, DA …: U Osijeku, Royal-kino
dne 20. viii. matinée, 1922,” Poster for Dada event, Zagreb, 1922 166
5.4 Mécano 2, ed. Theo Van Doesburg, Leiden, 1922, inside pages,
unfolded 170
Illustrations xi
5.5 Mécano 1, ed. Theo Van Doesburg, Leiden, 1922, inside pages,
unfolded 171
5.6 G 1, ed. Hans Richter, Berlin, 1923, front cover 174
5.7 G 3, ed. Hans Richter, Berlin, 1923, p. 48 177
5.8 Merz 2, ed. Kurt Schwitters, Hanover, 1923, p. 23 181
5.9 Merz 6, ed. Kurt Schwitters, Hanover, 1923, pp. 8–9 182
5.10 75 HP, ed. Ilarie Voronca, Victor Brauner, Bucharest, 1924,
front cover 183
5.11 75 HP, ed. Ilarie Voronca, Victor Brauner, Bucharest, 1924, p. 9 186
E.1 The NYCS Weekly Breeder, ed. Tim Mancusi, San Francisco, 1973,
The Bay Area Dadaists 200
E.2 The West Bay Dadaist, vol. 1, no. 2, ed. Arthur Cravan (Charles
Chickadel), San Francisco, June 1973, Trinity Press/Foundling
Publications, front cover 201
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the many people who helped bring about the completion of this
book, which began as a dissertation.
I am very grateful to my dissertation committee at the University of
Pennsylvania, including Karen Beckman Redrobe and Liliane Weissberg, and in
particular Christine Poggi and Michael Taylor, who guided and challenged me
throughout the research and writing process from its earliest stages and helped
me complete this project through their support and encouragement.
My research took me to many archives around the world, and I am especially
appreciative of the hospitality and insights offered by Michel and Anne Sanouillet,
as well as Rudolf Kuenzli and Timothy Shipe at the International Dada Archive
at the University of Iowa, starting at the very beginning of this endeavor. I am
indebted to Timothy Shipe for generously giving me images of the magazines
in the Iowa collection. My thanks also to Helen Adkins, Henri Béhar, William
Camfield, and Didier Ottinger for taking the time to meet and talk with me
about the project.
The librarians and archivists at the following libraries and archives patiently
helped me find the materials I was seeking and more: the Spencer Collection
at the New York Public Library, the Archives of American Art, the Beinecke
Library at Yale University, the Berlinische Galerie, the Bibliothèque Kandinsky,
Centre de documentation et de recherche du Musée national d’art moderne
at the Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou, the Bibliothèque
Littéraire Jacques Doucet, the George Grosz Archives, Akademie der Künste
and the Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Getty Research
Institute, the Musée Départemental, Rochechouart, the New York Public
Library, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as the libraries at the University
of Pennsylvania and Saint Joseph’s University.
Several fellowships enabled me to complete the research and writing of the
book: the Penfield Scholarship, the School of Arts and Sciences Fellowship,
and the Mellon Regional Faculty Fellowship of the Penn Humanities Forum at
the University of Pennsylvania, the Getty Library Research Grant at the Getty
Research Institute, the Dissertation Fellowship in American Art from the
Acknowledgments xiii
American Council of Learned Societies and the Terra Foundation, as well as the
Summer Research Grant from the Saint Joseph’s University.
I have written articles on Dada magazines, including the Germanic Review,
Dada/Surrealism, and The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies, and I am
grateful to the readers of these articles for their suggestions and for pointing
me to additional relevant sources, which helped to advance my thinking on the
project significantly.
I am thankful that I had the opportunity to present many of the ideas in
this book as papers, including papers at the annual conferences of the College
Art Association, the Modern Language Association, the Modernist Studies
Association, and the International Association of Word and Image Studies, as
well as the Territories of Artists’ Periodicals symposium at the University of
Wisconsin, Green Bay, the symposium “Mediamorphosis: Print Culture and
Transatlantic Public Sphere(s), 1880–1940,” and the Second Conference of the
Modernist Magazine Project at the University of Sussex. The feedback I received
at these events helped me to expand and sharpen my analysis of Dada magazines
and Dadazines.
Many thanks to my colleagues at Saint Joseph’s University, in particular
Susan Fenton, for making it so that I had the time I needed to finish this
project. Many individuals have kindly read and offered valuable feedback on
parts of this book. They include the members of the Interdisciplinary History
Writing Workshop at Saint Joseph’s University—Amber Abbas, Jay Carter,
Christopher Close, Catherine Hughes, Susan Liebell, Elizabeth Morgan, Rich
Warren, and Brian Yates—as well as Eric Bulson, Lori Cole, Jonathan Eburne,
Alexander Eisenschmidt, Steve Hammer, Kevin Hatch, Marius Hentea, Jennie
Hirsh, Melissa Kerin, Kostis Kourelis, Meredith Malone, Kirsten Olds, Adrian
Sudhalter, and Jacqueline Van Rhyn.
I am also thankful to the anonymous reviewers of this book, who took the
time to read earlier versions, and to Bloomsbury Visual Arts editors Margaret
Michniewicz, Frances Arnold, and James Thompson. Thanks, too, to Holly
Tasker, for helping me gather images and the rights to reproduce them.
For the encouragement and many kinds of support needed to complete a
project of this scope I am deeply grateful to my friends, some of them mentioned
above, as well as Anne Morrow, my siblings—Cecilia, Stephen, Margaret,
Theresa, Peter, Mary, Joe, John, Rachel, Lucy, and Kristin—and my parents,
Richard and Kathleen Hage. And, of course, thank you to Jules, Eddie, Ian—and
Miller.
xiv
Introduction
In 1922, Croatian painter and writer Branko Ve Poljanski published an anti-

Dada magazine, Dada-Jok, which translates to “Yes Yes No” and “Dada No.”
Besides paradoxically capturing the absurdity Dadaists prized, the publication
looks like a Dada review, with jumbled graphic design and incongruous images,
and its anti-Dada rhetoric recalls Dada antics: “I am a Dadaist, because I am
not!” (Figure I.1).1 Indeed the extent of its parody makes one wonder if it is,
effectively, Dada, despite its maker’s motives.2 Either way, Dada-Jok shows
that in the early twentieth century, even Dada’s detractors, including also
the editors of the anti-Dada journal, Non: Critique individualiste, anti-dada
(“No: Individualist Anti-Dada Critique”) (edited by René Edme and André
du Bief, Paris, 1920), understood that periodicals were the primary means of
responding to the increasingly pervasive Dada movement.3
Dada enthusiasts had been hijacking this print type since 1916 to launch
their movement and spread its range. Dada magazines—Dada, Die Schammade,
Mécano, Dada Tank, New York Dada, among others—made Dada what it was:
heterogeneous, transnational, nonhierarchical, multilingual, and radically
contingent. In large part because of these publications, Dada’s influence extends
beyond the early 1900s through a wide range of artistic currents, from Mail
Art and Fluxus in the late twentieth century to Dirty New Media and “glitch”
art in the twenty-first. Like the Dadaists, such collectives formed broad nets of
communication while also sabotaging celebrated, ever-more-expedient means
of connecting.4
In 1916, amid the tumult and destruction of the First World War, a motley
collection of artists, writers, and performers famously found each other in
neutral Zurich and began putting on performances and exhibitions at the cafe
they called the Cabaret Voltaire. These Dadaists, as they came to be known—
Tristan Tzara, Emmy Hennings, Hugo Ball, Hannah Höch, Sophie Taeuber-
Arp, Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp, and Richard Huelsenbeck, among others—
spawned Dada centers throughout Europe and beyond into the early 1920s.
2 Dada Magazines
Figure I.1 Dada-Jok, ed. Ljubomir Micic, Zagreb, 1922, front cover (photo of
reprint in Ranko Horetzky, Darko Simicic, Graham McMaster, Ljubomir Micic, Zenit,
Svetokret, Dada jok, Dada tank, Dada jazz, 1921–1926 [Zagreb: Horetzky, 2008]).
Confronting nationalism and rationality with transnationalism and absurdity,

they made numerous major contributions to the history of art, among them
collage, montage, the readymade, sound poems, chaotic graphic design, and a
large media network in which magazines played a major part, as detailed below.
Introduction 3
Through these efforts, they capsized entrenched expectations of art’s originality,

singularity, single, exalted authorship, presence, and fixed meaning as well as
single authorship and the notion of the artist as a genius in ways that continue
to inform artistic practices.5
Dada holds an exceptional position in the history of the avant-garde.6 Besides
helping to advance art developments in individual countries, it stands out as
what David Hopkins and Michael White call “the avant-garde’s paradigm case,
with many of its characteristics taken to their extreme in Dada.”7 These include
the Dadaists’ circulation of manifestoes and periodicals, public provocations,
iconoclasm, and linking of artistic and political radicalism.8 The degree to which
they manipulated the mass media, too, distinguishes them and sets a precedent
for those who followed.9 Dada has a complex, unprecedented relationship
with other avant-garde groups. Particularly early on, Expressionism, Cubism,
and Futurism greatly informed Dadaists’ paintings, drawings, collages,
essays, and poems (later Dadaists allied their creative ambitions with those of
Constructivists). But more than this, the Dadaists, notably, also framed work
by representatives of these movements, along with their own, under the “Dada”
label, as they encouraged idiosyncratic interpretations of “Dada.” Dada thereby
assumed a “meta” role of sorts that is distinct from that of other twentieth-
century collectives. On a fundamental level, then, its members reinvented what
it means to be an art movement, promoting extreme diversity under the single
“Dada” banner and refusing to define the word. Timothy Benson observes,
“Perhaps Dada’s most persistent procedure or ‘move’ is that of naming so many
things besides itself, as itself, resulting in a myriad of meanings for the word
‘Dada’ so pervasive that it seems to undo the entire mechanism of meaning.”10
Geographically unmoored, the word belongs to no language and, because of its
simplicity, to all languages, thereby defying traditional notions of membership
and categorization.11
Dada was extraordinary in its transnationalism and networked nature;
it spread to a wide geographical region and was radically diffuse and
nonhierarchical.12 Dada was an active, growing complex of interrelated
individuals, artworks, writings, and publications, without any fixed centers.
It popped up in several cities simultaneously—in today’s well-known Dada
centers like New York, Zurich, Paris, Berlin, Hanover, and Cologne, along
with ones like Zagreb, Bucharest, and Mantua—and scholars are increasingly
recognizing these nodes.13 The Dadaists’ peripatetic, nomadic, transitory,
expatriate existence—necessitated by the war and a reaction to the nationalism
that sparked it—added to Dada’s multiplicity. Most individuals who gathered
4 Dada Magazines
in Zurich were expatriates and had ties to artists and writers from their
native cities and elsewhere, and they and later affiliates were constantly
moving around.14 As T. J. Demos points out, “Geo-political dislocation—
from both national geography and nationalist ideology—is fundamental to
Dada’s identity.”15 Additionally, individual affiliates, besides expressing their
own eccentric readings of Dada, worked in assorted capacities, as writers,
editors, performers, visual artists, curators, and editors. Dada encompassed
both men and women, some of whom engaged with and questioned gender
conventions.16 Dada exhibition practices, too, reconceived conventions
of display and expectations of what qualifies as worth exhibiting, as recent
studies have pointed out, with an emphasis on the International Dada Fair
in Berlin.17 Finally, Dada encompassed a mix of visual artists, writers, and
performers, who collaborated with one another, yielding a robust legacy in
visual art, literature, music, theater, film, and photography.18
Dada Magazines: A New Vision of Dada
The dozens of magazines the Dadaists produced between roughly 1916 and 1924
not only manifested but also engendered these central Dada contributions. A
photo of Tzara posing with Dada 3 and 6 and Tzara’s 1920 stationery, which
lists selected journals (Dada, DdO4H2, Littérature, M’amenez’y, Proverbe, 391,
and Z), are but two obvious indicators of their centrality (Figure I.2).19 In the
first two decades of the twentieth century, wartime conditions imposed strict
restrictions on travel and correspondence and forced museums and galleries
throughout Europe to close, severely limiting opportunities for artists to exhibit
or to see each other’s latest creations in person. Though subject to censorship,
Dada magazines were a central and effective means of introducing other
artists and the general public to the movement and linking Dadaists to each
other. Amid the tumult of the war, despite differences between them and often
contradictory content, these publications offered a sense of continuity; journals
are serial, at least in implication.20 Today they are invaluable records of Dada
activity, containing not only Dada artworks but also Dada writings and records
of Dada performances. Dada reviews were the primary venue for Dada art,
and sometimes their pages are the first, and even only, place where they can be
found. The most famous example is The Blind Man (edited by Marcel Duchamp
and Man Ray, New York, 1917), which serves as our only record of Duchamp’s
famous “Fountain,” but these publications also turn up all-but-unknown pieces
Introduction 5
Figure I.2 Tristan Tzara stationery: Mouvement Dada, Paris, 1920, letterpress,
10 5∕8 × 8 ¼ in. (27 × 21 cm). Merrill C. Berman Collection.
by well-known Dadaists, such as a drawing by Hannah Höch in the first issue of

Merz (edited by Kurt Schwitters, Hanover, 1923–1932) (Figure I.3).
The magazines were the lifeblood of the movement’s far-reaching media
network, and thus analyzing them nuances and improves our grasp of
various Dada characteristics. Besides reflecting Dada’s transnationalism
6 Dada Magazines
Figure I.3 Merz 1, ed. Kurt Schwitters, Hanover, 1923, p. 10, letterpress, 8 7/8
× 5 11/16 inc. (22.5 × 14.4 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections,
University of Iowa Libraries © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG
Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Introduction 7
and diversity, they are uniquely positioned to capture Dada’s broad scope
without losing sight of its specificity, as each issue presents sometimes dozens
of images and texts by at least as many contributors. Single issues present a
wide range of contributions reflecting disparate interpretations of Dada,
coming from individuals in several countries. We find multiple languages—
including French, German, English, Dutch, Croatian, and Romanian—among
many cities, even across enemy borders, which attest to Dada’s far-flung
locations.21 Their pages showcase contributions from Expressionists, Cubists,
Futurists, Constructivists, as well as Dada enthusiasts’ works inspired by these
movements.
Allowing the periodicals to guide the conversation contributes to Dada
scholarship’s effort to acknowledge Dada’s extraordinary geographical breadth.
Reviews from cities such as Zagreb, Mantua, and Bucharest call attention to the
movement’s multicentered nature and demonstrate that it extended far beyond
Dada centers typically covered. Incorporating these cities also recommends
an extension of the chronological bounds of Dada beyond 1922. Furthermore,
publications like Dada Tank, Bleu, and 75 HP support scholarship that integrates
Dada and Constructivism and complicate the usual linking of Dada to French
Surrealism.22 The magazines make room for more individuals than many Dada
accounts allow, including women—such as Céline Arnauld, Angelika Hoerle,
and Katherine Dreier—thus contributing to the growing recognition of the full
range of Dada membership and expression.
More than just enriching our reading of Dada, however, the magazines also
proffer a revised understanding of the movement. We discover it as a collective—
of artists, writers, and performers, and also editors—borne of chaos and forged
in the print shop for unseen audiences by an ad hoc assortment of editors and
contributors, one that grew in many cities simultaneously via a network made
up of people but also, critically, journals.23 These publications also propose a new
understanding of the role of periodicals generally.
The magazines made Dada what it was, something that becomes evident
when we recognize them as active agents within the movement. Both the
Dadaists and their journals were dynamic players that inflected one another
through their overlapping interactions and exchanges to create the diasporic,
composite network that was Dada. More than simply neutral ferries carrying
reproductions from one place to another, Dada periodicals were active, creative
venues.24 Turning to them out of necessity, Dadaists soon realized all that they
had to offer. These individuals made journals, which, in turn, empowered and
encouraged their makers to do things they would not otherwise have done.25 In
8 Dada Magazines
explaining the effects of objects on people, Bruno Latour offers the following
example: “You are different with a gun in hand; the gun is different with you
holding it.”26 Similarly, the Dadaists were “different” with magazines in their
hands and they were “different” with the Dadaists adopting and exchanging
them. Their relationship was integrated; Dada would not have happened without
what both the Dadaists and the journals brought to the table.27
One of the main ways these periodicals shaped Dada has to do with Dada’s
unusual notions of membership. Being a part of Dada did not entail pledging
commitment to any set of beliefs, as noted earlier, but it did require editing or
contributing to a Dada magazine. Although some individuals whose works
they featured did not wish to be associated with the movement, one could not
effectively claim allegiance to the group without in some way being involved
in a Dada periodical. Dadaists’ dependence on them was fundamental to the
creation of the diffuse, multifarious collective that was Dada.
The journals not only broadcast the group as an established collective, they
effectively made it so by displaying their works and giving them a name. One of
Dada’s characterizing features is that, as mentioned above, they adopted a name
without defining it. The magazines were the vehicle through which they did this.
They forced readers to piece together what “Dada” meant without any consistency
in texts and images, communicating, ultimately, that this very indeterminacy
was Dada. Their production and distribution yielded a sense of affiliation
and identity based on diversity and distance rather than on conformity and
proximity. These reviews multiplied Dada’s diffuseness and encouraged it.
Dadaists, like others before them and since, understood the printed medium
as a requisite part of establishing a movement. However, rather than using one
or two reviews to promote their ideas, as most artists did, individual Dadaists
made their own, inspiring dozens of titles, each of which spurred divergent
responses, thereby multiplying interpretations of Dada. We can think of them as
meeting places, each one capable of collecting and redistributing Dada practices
and definitions, however varied. Multiple and composite, a single review could
combine materials by figures living in many cities under the “Dada” label.28
Editors gathered submissions from various locations worldwide; single issues
traveled to many cities. This compilation and distribution compounded Dada’s
diversity.
Diasporic from the start, Dada’s distinctly networked and transnational
nature would not have been possible without the journals. Scholars have noted
how they formed a network, what Leah Dickerman calls their “media network,”
functioning “as both conduit of ideas and images and site of practice.”29 Benson
Introduction 9
cites periodicals as one of the ways that “Dada moved from a single site or
place to multiple sites within a widening cultural and geographical space.”30 A
growing body of writings on magazine networks is using digital technologies
to generate big data and map associations among the players involved.31 Kurt
Beals’s “Dada Networks Project,” for example, gives visual form to the web of
connections the journals and their contributors formed, through collaboration,
exchange, and by being printed in a same issue. As Beals writes, in reflecting on
the results of his graphs, “If we’re trying to identify movements using network
analysis, we’re better off looking not at the movements’ members, but at their
magazines.”32 Dada Magazines concurs and proposes that these publications not
only facilitated this network but also shaped it and were active agents within it,
creating simultaneous, overlapping connections.
This print medium and Dadaists’ reliance on it not only showcased but also
determined the Dadaists’ questioning the very definition of art. Knowing that
audiences would see their works first, and often exclusively, in periodicals,
artists began creating pieces specifically for their pages, favoring media and
styles made for duplication. This reconception prompted Dada drawings,
collages, montages, and lively page designs.33 It also encouraged Dadaists and
their audiences to approach artworks not as discrete, fixed objects but rather
as multiplied images in motion, constantly changing as they moved from city
to city, publication to publication, three dimensions to two, excerpted and
combined with other images and with words.34
Literature on Dada Magazines and Book’s Approach
The large number of studies on Dada speak to its ongoing resonance.35

Particularly since the 1960s, scores of biographical and thematic essays,
monographs, and catalogs on Dada have appeared, some with discussions
of Dadaists’ publishing activity and responses to mass culture. In the period
surrounding the 2005–2006 exhibition on Dada at the National Gallery of
Art in Washington, DC, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Museum of
Modern Art in New York—where the installation and related publications
offered many new approaches and insights into the movement—there was a
surge of Dada scholarship.36 More recent sources—such as Virgin Microbe:
Essays on Dada, Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round So Our Thoughts Can
Change Direction, Dadaglobe Reconstructed, Dada’s Boys: Masculinity after
Duchamp, and A Companion to Dada and Surrealism—investigate many of
10 Dada Magazines
Dada’s most distinguishing and enduring qualities, such as its transnationalism

its diasporic, nomadic nature, its networked structure, and its engagement with
gender issues.37
Dada and periodical studies scholars acknowledge that Dada magazines are
important. Yet there is a mistaken tendency to think that we know all there is to
know about them. Dawn Ades’s seminal catalog, Dada and Surrealism Reviewed
(1978), provides an important, detailed account of the context and content of the
reviews. It has been the authoritative source on Dada and Surrealist periodicals for
decades. Analyses of specific titles—Michel Sanouillet’s intensive studies of Dada
and 391 and more recently Sophie Seita’s volume on Blind Man, for example—
offer a wealth of information and insight into their given titles.38 Ades’s The Dada
Reader: A Critical Anthology provides very useful, first translations of journal
texts and short accounts of select titles, and earlier catalogs, such as Raimund
Meyer’s Dada Global, featuring Dada ephemera, provide rare documentation.39
The ambitious and invaluable multivolume Oxford Critical and Cultural History
of Modernist Magazines speaks to the magnitude and geographical range of
art serials, including Dada ones, between 1880 and 1960.40 Discussions of the
reviews’ importance in forming the Dada network, mentioned above, also are
evidence of scholarly attention to these publications.
Building on and complementing these sources, Dada Magazines delves into
production and distribution and offers critical analysis of the journals as a
whole—how they functioned and how they molded the movement—highlighting
their distinctive nature and capturing their collective significance to the history
of art and the history of periodicals. In this way, it assumes an approach similar
to that of Ann Ardis, who considers links between magazine contributions as
well as what she calls their “external dialogics,” namely distribution, geography,
and interactions with other titles.41 Dada Magazines does not attempt to offer a
comprehensive, detailed account of the publications. Rather, focusing on select
titles, it provides a theoretical framework for tracing their active part in Dada,
an analysis that ultimately strengthens our grasp of the history of magazines and
their potential for shaping art movements and reshaping perceptions of art.
This book employs a materialist approach, detailing how the Dadaists
negotiated censorship and other wartime obstacles to fund, compile, print, and
disseminate the reviews, using evidence such as postmarks, stamps, censors’
marks, marginal notations, as well as page proofs and correspondence. It is based
on direct observation of as many original issues as possible, found in archives
throughout the United States, Germany, France, and Switzerland. Reprints are
very helpful for basic information, and certain websites offer an abundance of
historical and bibliographical information on them: references to reproductions
Introduction 11
of and writings on each one, for instance.42 However, it was imperative for me to
consult original issues and to analyze their physical characteristics, as paper color
and thickness, print quality, ink registers, dimensions, and page order vary, even
in the same issue, bringing to light the unique histories of these multiples. Such
characteristics reveal how the magazines traveled and how the Dadaists even
cut up their publications, sometimes using them as the backing for new collages
(Figure I.4). For example, a rejected proof for Der Dada 1 served as the support
for a collage by Höch, now at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin. In her collection
of journals most have shapes cut out of them that she used for her collages. Select
digital reproductions capture some of this kind of valuable evidence of Dadaists’
art-making process and treatment of their magazines, but facsimiles do not.
By engaging the material and varying qualities of the reviews, Dada Magazines
offers both a more carefully trained and a broader, contextualized view of Dada,
while inviting other studies of periodicals to do the same.
The Dadaists engaged the journals as works of art in their own right, where
the Dadaists began experimenting with the medium. Analyzing the design of
Figure I.4 Hannah Höch with Raoul Hausmann, untitled collage on trial print
of Der Dada 1, on cardboard, c. 1920, 11 2⁄5 × 17 ⅓ in. (29 × 44 cm). Hannah Höch
Archiv, Berlinische Galerie © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-
Kunst, Bonn.
12 Dada Magazines
pages and issues in their entirety calls attention to how the Dadaists engaged
them more than just blank vehicles for showcasing preexisting compositions
long before the inventive periodicals of late twentieth century, often lauded as
the first to engage print media in this way. Scholarship generally prizes Dada
journals for their role in disseminating Dada ideas, and many studies depend on
them as sources of single texts and images. However, scholars often mine them,
extracting specific texts and images out of context, thereby losing sight of their
artistic merits.43 By training its attention on the journal pages, Dada Magazines
puts such contributions into the context of the publication as a whole, where in
some cases people first encountered them, thereby enriching our appreciation of
Dada journals as constituting a major Dada artistic contribution.
The magazines hold an important place in the history of graphic design. They
spawned the Dadaists’ celebrated innovations in typography and layout that
sabotaged legibility, a provocative, political gesture at a time of fervent attempts
to streamline communication technologies, which had become weaponized
in this first mechanized war. Although Dada typography and layout are well
known, they are surprisingly under-examined. Besides brief mentions of some
of the Dadaists’ more daring journals, the most sustained examination of Dada
typography, by Johanna Drucker, focuses on Tzara alone.44 Moving beyond
typographical subversions in single poems, Dada Magazines scrutinizes entire
spreads, tracing how recipients adopted similar graphic tactics experiments in
their own publications.
Periodical studies scholars Robert Scholes, Mark Morrisson, Clifford
Wulfman, and Eric Bulson have pointed out how journals—inexpensive,
accessible, multiple, and distributed widely—were instrumental to artists’
identification of themselves and others as modernists. This field of research is
primarily concerned with literary reviews, but a growing set of sources, most
notably The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, cited
above, spotlight art journals.45 Discerning the combined significance and impact
of the Dada reviews as a discrete group responds to this body of literature, calling
out Dada’s influential role in periodicals history.
Writing about magazines is a messy enterprise. The sheer number of
texts, images, and contributors, and the multiyear print span of most titles
make structuring analysis of them challenging. Organized thematically and
chronologically, Dada Magazines highlights the momentum and changes of the
group starting in 1916 and the constant exchanges spurred by the journals that
enabled Dada to branch out in several directions simultaneously. These traits
often go overlooked in texts that (understandably) try to make sense of Dada by
Introduction 13
assessing each Dada city separately.46 The book’s chronological framework means
that discussion of lesser-known Dada centers like Zagreb and Bucharest does
not come until the end of the book, running the unfortunate risk of suggesting
that the earlier ones take priority over those that came out later. While it is true
that Dada and Der Dada, two of the first to promote Dada, were vital to the
movement’s direction, later ones like Dada Jazz, Mécano, and 75 HP are critical
to telling the story of Dada, as well.
What is a Dada magazine? To be Dada, journals need only to identify
themselves as such. Publications not intended as Dada reviews, like Blind
Man, come into the fold too because of how influential they ended up being to
the Dada network. I use the terms “magazine,” “review,” “serial,” “periodical,”
and “journal” interchangeably, though not all titles came out in serial form;
a fair number were only single-issue despite some editors’ aspirations. The
publications analyzed here were ephemeral and shared some basic shared
characteristics, besides their asserted affinity to Dada: a combination of
materials from various contributors, advertisements (mock or otherwise),
updates on members, and announcements of others. Yet at the same time,
they assumed different identities. Framed as periodicals almost from the very
beginning, they took on additional guises available to this medium: as strategy
for launching a multifaceted movement, creative exhibition venues, models for
three-dimensional exhibitions, a readymade, and a site for merging multiple
artistic currents and extending Dada.
Chapter Descriptions
Each chapter of Dada Magazines focuses on the titles that best exemplify each
of the journals’ identities. Chapter 1, “An Extraordinary Opportunity to Be
Denounced as a Wit: How Magazines Launched ‘Dada,’ 1916–1917,” investigates
how the first Dadaists and their journals introduced and shaped Dada. Besides
borrowing from Richard Huelsenbeck’s mockery of Tzara’s efforts, the chapter’s
title draws out the reviews’ agency.47 Hugo Ball’s Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich, 1916)
and Tzara’s Dada (Zurich, Paris, 1917–1921) promoted “Dada,” though there was
no specific style or platform behind the word. These publications—multipaged,
multiauthored, hybrid, mechanically reproduced, and transportable—challenged
people to discern the meaning of Dada without any consistency in texts and
images. Chapter 1 demonstrates that early Dada editors and reviews together
established a radically new kind of collective while also gaining them entry into
14 Dada Magazines
an avant-garde network. It traces how Tzara framed Cabaret Voltaire, originally

conceived as an anthology, as a periodical, the first of many instances in which
the Dadaists took advantage of the malleability of the medium. Although the
focus of the chapter is on Cabaret Voltaire and Dada, it also discusses other
journals participating in the web of connections among artists and helping to
promote Dada in Italian cities such as Rome, Bologna, Naples, and Mantua as
well as in New York, where such consequential publications as 291, The Soil, and
Blind Man were coming out.
In 1918, more and more Dadaists edited magazines, realizing their potential
as creative, primary artistic sites and as ersatz, transportable, reproduced,
reoriented, and thus as a fundamentally new kind of exhibition venue capable
of enlarging the network and expanding its artistic practices. Scholars, chiefly
Howardena Pindell and Gwen Allen, have pointed out how later twentieth-
century periodicals worked as alternative types of exhibition spaces.48 Chapter 2,
“‘Every Page Must Explode’: Manipulating the Magazine Medium, 1918–1920,”
reveals how Dada journals, specifically Dada 3, Dada 4–5, and the first two
issues of Der Dada, anticipated this function decades earlier. This chapter, whose
title derives from Tzara’s directive in his famous 1918 Dada manifesto, probes
the Dadaists’ graphic design techniques, which exposed the fallacy of claims
to transparent transmission. Chapter 2 dialogues with media theory to explore
how in adopting the periodical, the Dadaists interrogated media technologies
of the time that were simultaneously trying to eliminate interference and
inadvertently invite new ways of creating noise. It argues that the significance and
pervasiveness of the journals affected the type of artworks Dadaists generated,
steering them toward more easily reprinted media and framing artworks not
as singular objects but as multiple, two-dimensional, ephemeral, black-and-
white, morphing images in circulation. The chapter also weaves in discussion of
present-day derivations of the Dadaists’ challenge, specifically Dirty New Media
and glitch art.
The third chapter, “Printing Artworks, Exhibiting Ephemera: Dada Journals
and Exhibitions, 1920–1921,” builds on Chapter 2 by investigating the interlocking
histories of Dadaists’ magazines and their scandalous exhibitions after the war.
It focuses on four notable shows: “Dada-Vorfrühling” (“Dada Early Spring”) in
Cologne, Berlin’s “Erste Internationale Dada-Messe” (“First International Dada
Fair”), Julius Evola’s “Esposizioni Dada” (“Dada Exhibition”) in Rome, and
“Salon Dada Exposition Internationale” (“Salon Dada International Exhibition”)
in Paris. The chapter contends that Dada reviews informed the group’s exhibition
practices, chiefly the exhibition of reproductions, overlapping and combining
Introduction 15
pieces, demanding audience interaction, and exposing the venue as anything

but a neutral backdrop. At the same time, despite the Dadaists’ production of
exhibition catalogs, journals continued to expand the Dada network and to
proffer several advantages to Dadaists. Whereas those in Paris and Berlin used
them mainly to settle scores, new enthusiasts took advantage of them to brand
themselves as Dadaists by printing writings and images alongside those of
established Dadaists.
Chapter 4, “‘Be on Your Guard, Madam’: New York Dada and the Magazine
as Readymade,” spotlights Duchamp and Man Ray’s New York Dada (New York,
1921). The title comes from Tzara’s Dada “Authorization,” published in New York
Dada, granting mock permission for its editors to call their publication “Dada.”49
After exploring Katherine Dreier’s notable efforts to bring Dada to the United
States as co-founder of the Société Anonyme, Inc., the chapter argues that this
publication functioned as a readymade, an everyday object reframed as a work of
art. For their bid for Dada membership, Duchamp and Man Ray appropriated a
commercial, ever more popular, female-targeted print type, the women’s glossy.
They effectively yanked this publication type out of commercial circulation,
appropriated it as an art form, and then recirculated it. Rather than moving in
only one direction, from the everyday to the artistic realm, the magazine was
capable of going in the other direction, as well: toward the wider context enabled
by print media.
Chapter 5, “Contingency and Continuity: Dada Magazines and the
Expanding Network,” completes the arc begun in Chapter 1 by investigating
how new Dada reviews in Zagreb, Bucharest, Leiden, Bucharest, Hanover, and
Berlin perpetuated Dada in the 1920s by widening the multicentered network
of exchange begun in 1916. Artists in these cities—Theo Van Doesburg, Hans
Richter, Dragan Aleksić, Kurt Schwitters, Victor Brauner, and Ilarie Voronca—
who had depended on journals to learn about Dada, began making their own.
Dada Tank, Dada Jazz, Mécano, G, Merz, and 75 HP spurred Dadaists to enlarge
and further diversify the network, thus enabling Dada to negotiate a place for
itself during a period of crisis for the movement and the avant-garde overall.
Audiences were starting to associate Dada with specific characteristics, an “ism”
that could be packaged and surpassed. The magazines, however, dodged this fate
by facilitating Dada’s ongoing contingency, its transformations and attachments
to other artists. Just as the first Dada journals combined Cubism, Expressionism,
and Futurism, later, in the early 1920s, publications carried on the practice of
mixing “schools” on their pages, this time chiefly Dada and Constructivism.
At the same time, the journals did what they had always done: they reframed,
16 Dada Magazines
reinvented, and perpetuated Dada as a strategy for aggregating heterogeneous

materials, a strategy that required magazines.
Dada Magazines concludes with an epilogue, “Magazines to Zines: Echoes of
Dada in 1970s America.” It introduces the Bay Area Dadaists, a Mail Art group
with links to Fluxus, who made “Dadazines” in the 1970s and included Anna
Banana, Bill Gaglione, and Tim Mancusi. These all-but-unexamined amateur,
small-circulation publications (West Bay Dadaist and New York Correspondence
School Weekly Breeder, e.g.) merge past and present by combining excerpts from
reproductions of Dada journals and from 1970s magazines and newspapers,
reaching across long distances to forge a transnational network. This chapter
puts these publications in the context of other periodicals of the time, including
those in the San Francisco area and Fluxus and Mail Art periodicals. By drawing
out the connections between the zines and Dada magazines, it emphasizes the
importance of the Dada journals in the reception of Dada in the late twentieth
century and today.
The adaptability, transportability, and accessibility of self-publishing shaped
one of the most radical movements of the twentieth century. Exchanged in
person, over enemy borders, and across the Atlantic, Dada journals facilitated
the simultaneous, multicountry growth of Dada and directly affected the
creative output of this distinctively diverse network of visual artists, writers, and
performers in ways that anticipated later artists’ publications by decades.50 From
their beginnings in Zurich, the Dadaists seized upon magazines to disseminate
and expand Dada. The magazines, in turn, helped them to reinvent what it meant
to be an art movement. These publications no longer play the active roles they
once did, but delving into their production and circulation helps them speak for
themselves and advances a fresh perspective on the individuals and periodicals
that forged a network that continues to inspire artists today.
Notes
1 Branko Ve Pokjanski, Dada-Jok, insert in Zenit, 2, 7, 1922, trans. Maja Starćević

in Between Worlds: A Sourcebook of Central European Avant-Gardes, 1910–1930,
ed. Timothy O. Benson and Éva Forgács (Los Angeles and Cambridge, MA: Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, MIT Press, 2002), 345. Dada-Jok measures about
9¾ × 13¾ (25 × 35 cm), is eight pages long, and costs 4 denari. Although Dada-Jok
advertises a second issue, it never materialized.
2 Laurel Seely Voloder and Tyrus Miller, “Avant-garde Periodicals in the Yugoslavian
Crucible,” in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines,
Introduction 17
Europe 1880–1940, vol. III, part II, ed. Peter Brooker, Sascha Bru, Andrew Thacker,
and Christian Weikop (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 1115.
3 Non was edited by René Edme and André du Bief, and it came out in Paris in 1920.
4 For more on Fluxus and Mail Art, see the epilogue. For more on Dirty New Media
and glitch art, see Chapter 2.
5 As Rudolf Kuenzli argues, “Fiercely anti-authoritarian and anti-hierarchical,
dada questioned the myth of originality, of the artist as genius … Surrealism,
Constructivism, Lettrism, Situationism, Fluxus, Pop and Op Art, Conceptual
Art and Minimalism: most twentieth-century art movements after 1923 have
traced their roots to Dada.” Rudolf Kuenzli, “Survey,” in Dada, ed. Rudolf Kuenzli
(London and New York: Phaidon Press Ltd, 2006), 14.
6 The essays in Richard Sheppard, Modernism—Dada—Postmodernism (Evanston,
IL: Northwestern University Press, 2000) position Dada in relation to the avant-
garde, including essays on Dada’s connection with Futurism and Expressionism.
7 David Hopkins and Michael White also point out that “in Germany [Dada] is
positioned as the link between Expressionism and the Neue Sachlichkeit, in
France it is seen as proto-Surrealist, while in America Dada is considered the
transformative agent which opened the country to European modernism.” David
Hopkins and Michael White, “Introduction,” in Virgin Microbe: Essays on Dada,
ed. David Hopkins and Michael White (Evanston: Northwestern University Press,
2014), 3.
8 Ibid.
9 He writes, “Dada artists and writers were among the first to intervene in mass
media: indeed interventions made up much of their activity.” Kuenzli, “Survey,”
Dada, 15.
10 Timothy O. Benson, “Dada Geographies,” Virgin Microbe, 15. For more on
nomination and its implications, see Benson, “Dada Geographies,” Virgin Microbe,
17–20.
11 Hugo Ball, diary entry, April 18, 1916, in Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary by
Hugo Ball, ed. John Elderfield, trans. Ann Raimes (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London:
University of California Press, 1996), 63.
12 As Benson puts it, “While Dada’s operations were not contingent on any one
ideology, [its] social geography was driven by the pursuit of various ostensible
meanings, most notably the quest for internationalism.” Benson, “Dada
Geographies,” Virgin Microbe, 20. Adrian Sudhalter’s book on Dadaglobe, too,
brings light to a major manifestation of the Dadaists internationalist ambitions.
Adrian Sudhalter, ed., Dadaglobe Reconstructed (Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess,
2016). Le Bon’s exhibition and catalog in Paris in 2005 presented the movement as
a network rather than as collection of Dada cities. Laurent Le Bon, ed., Dada (Paris:
Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2005).
13 See, for example, Krzysztof Fijałkowski, “Dada and Surrealism in Central and
Eastern Europe,” 161–76; Majella Munro, “Dada and Surrealism in Japan,” 144–60, in
18 Dada Magazines
A Companion to Dada and Surrealism, ed. David Hopkins (Chichester, West Sussex,
Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016); Gerald Janecek and Toshiharu Omuka, ed.,
The Eastern Dada Orbit: Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Central Europe and Japan, vol.
IV, Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, ed. Stephen Foster (New York: G.K.
Hall and Co., 1998); Tom Sanqvist, Dada East: The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006). Various essays in The Oxford Critical and
Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, cited throughout the book, also address its
wide geographical range. The following study also expands the geographical reach
of Dada studies: Ralf Burmeister, Michaela Oberhofer, and Esther Tisa Francini,
eds., Dada Africa: Dialogue with the Other (Berlin: Berlinische Galerie Museum für
Moderne Kunst, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2016).
14 In Zurich, Tzara came from Bucharest, for example, Richard Huelsenbeck came
from Berlin, Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings came from Munich via Berlin. Other
authors who speak to the importance of exile and movement among the Dadaists
include Michael White, “Dada Migrations: Definition, Dispersal, and the Case
of Schwitters,” in Hopkins, A Companion to Dada and Surrealism, 54–69. As he
mentions, other sources on this topic include Debbie Lewer, “The Avant-garde
in Swiss Exile 1914–20,” in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist
Magazines, vol. III, Europe 1880–1940, ed. Peter Brooker, Sascha Bru, Andrew
Thacker, and Christian Weikop (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 1034; T. J.
Demos, The Exiles of Marcel Duchamp (Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press,
2007) and T. J. Demos, “Zurich Dada: The Aesthetics of Exile,” in The Dada
Seminars, ed. Leah Dickerman (Washington, DC: Center for Advanced Study in the
Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, 2005), 10.
15 T. J. Demos, “Circulations in and around Zurich Dada,” in “Dada: A Special Issue,”
October 105, ed. Leah Dickerman (2003): 148.
16 Sources on the role of gender in the Dada movements include Naomi Sawelson-
Gorse, ed., Women in Dada (Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 1998);
Irene Gammel, Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity: A Cultural
Biography (Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press, 2003); Ruth Hemus, Dada’s
Women (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009); many sources by
Amelia Jones, including Amelia Jones, “Equivocal Masculinity: New York Dada
in the Context of World War I,” Art History 25, no. 2 (April 2002): 162–205 and
Postmodernism and the En-gendering of Marcel Duchamp (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1994). Additional sources include David Hopkins, Dada’s Boys:
Masculinity after Duchamp (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007);
Isabel Wünsche, “Exile, the Avant-Garde, and Dada: Women Artists Active in
Switzerland during the First World War,” in Marianne Werefkin and the Women
Artists in Her Circle, ed. Tanja Malycheva and Isabel Wünsche, vol. III, Avant-Garde
Critical Studies, ed. Ferd Drijkoningen, Klaus Beekman, and Geert Buelens (Leiden
Introduction 19
and Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2017), 48–67; Patricia Allmer, “Feminist Interventions:
Revising the Canon,” in A Companion to Dada and Surrealism, 366–81.
17 Two such sources include Bruce Altshuler, Salon to Biennial, Exhibitions That Made
Art History, vol. I (London, New York: Phaidon, 2008) and Adam Jolles, “Artists
into Curators: Dada and Surrealist Exhibition Practices,” in A Companion to Dada
and Surrealism, 211–24.
18 White and Hopkins, “Introduction,” Virgin Microbe, 3.
19 Ribemont-Dessaignes’s DdO4H2, Céline Arnauld’s M’amenez’y, Paul Éluard’s
Proverbe, and Paul Dermée’s Z were never realized.
20 Adrian Sudhalter, in her analysis of Francis Picabia’s journal, 391 (Barcelona, New
York, Zurich, Paris, 1917–1924) says that it offered “the promise of continuity, the
expectation of a next issue.” She adds, “To publish 391 during the war years was to
establish a site of continuity, to place a stake against an ever-changing backdrop.”
Adrian Sudhalter, “War, Exile, and the Machine,” in Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are
Round So Our Thoughts Can Change Direction, ed. Anne Umland and Catherine
Hug (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2016), 67.
21 As Dickerman notes, “Dada was notably diffuse, with activities in a handful of
city centers created by a network of itinerant, often politically displaced, artists of
diverse nationalities.” Leah Dickerman, “Dada Gambits,” “Dada: A Special Issue,”
October 105, 8. T. J. Demos writes, “Geopolitical dislocation—from both national
geography and nationalist ideology—is fundamental to Dada’s identity.” T. J.
Demos, “Circulations: In and around Zurich Dada,” October 105, 148.
22 David Hopkins’s A Companion to Dada and Surrealism (2016), David Hopkins,
Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2004), and Dawn Ades, Dada and Surrealism Reviewed (London: Arts Council of
Great Britain, 1978) are three examples of this linking of Dada and Surrealism.
Hopkins points out that the linking of Dada and Surrealism is really only relevant
in the context of Paris. See David Hopkins, “Introduction,” in Dada and Surrealism:
A Very Short Introduction (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004),
np and “Dada and Surrealism: A Historical Overview,” 26–8. Others include the
seminal exhibition and catalog, Alfred H. Barr, ed., Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism
(New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1936), as well as C. W. E. Bigsby, Dada and
Surrealism (London: Methuen, 1972); William Rubin, Dada, Surrealism and Their
Heritage (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1969).
23 As Sudhalter says of Picabia, her essay “recasts Picabia as a publisher, editor,
and point person of the international avant-garde first, and as a painter second.
It pictures him in the print shop, with the repetitive rhythms of the churning
machinery as a backdrop, selecting and organizing content for publication and
providing mock-ups to typesetters and printers for execution, and asks how such
practices may have affected his approach to painting.” Sudhalter, “War, Exile, and
the Machine,” in Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round, 67.
20 Dada Magazines
24 Here I am borrowing from Bruno Latour’s formulation of actor-network theory

(ANT). In Latour’s analysis of technology, or “technical means” and their role
in society, he uses the example of the gun to explain the relationship between
animate and inanimate entities. Responding to arguments about guns in America,
Latour claims, “It is neither people nor guns that kill”; responsibility comes from
both. Bruno Latour, “On Technical Mediation: Philosophy, Sociology, Genealogy,”
Common Knowledge III, no. 2 (Fall 1994): 34.
25 Latour writes, “In addition to ‘determining’ and serving as a ‘backdrop for human
action’, things might authorize, allow, afford, encourage, permit, suggest, influence,
block, render possible, forbid, and so on.” Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social:
An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005),
83.
26 Latour, “On Technical Mediation,” 31–3.
27 Ibid., 32.
28 Borrowing from actor-network theory, we can understand the Dadaists and
magazines as having an integrated relationship. See Bruno Latour, “On Technical
Mediation,” 31–3.
29 Leah Dickerman, “Dada Gambits,” October 105, 8. Eric Bulson, too, emphasizes the
connecting qualities of magazines: “The little magazine is to the modernist network
what the wires are to the radio, telephone, and telegraph.” Eric Bulson, Little
Magazine, World Form (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017), 34. Matthew
Witkovsky writes that the Dadaists “created an operational network, a new kind
of artistic formation that is de-centered, dispersed, and yet moves roughly in
synch.” Matthew Witkovsky, “Pen Pals,” in The Dada Seminars, ed. Leah Dickerman
(Washington, DC: Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, The National
Gallery of Art, 2005), 270.
30 Benson, “Dada Geographies,” Virgin Microbe, 22.
31 See, for example, J. Stephen Murphy, “Introduction: Visualizing Periodical
Networks,” Journal of Modern Periodical Studies 5, no. 1 (2014): vi. For more on
literature regarding periodicals and networks, see Faye Hammill and Mark Hussey,
Modernism’s Print Cultures (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2016), 92–104.
32 Kurt Beals, “Redefining Dada: The Avant-Garde Movement as Network,” presented
at the 2016 Conference of the German Studies Association.
33 Adrian Sudhalter references the influence of editing on Dadaists’ artworks in her
discussion of Picabia. Sudhalter, “War, Exile, and the Machine,” in Francis Picabia:
Our Heads Are Round, 67.
34 This notion of constantly moving and changing art objects is manifest in Tzara’s
never-completed Dadaglobe, as well. See Sudhalter, “How to Make a Dada
Anthology,” in Dadaglobe Reconstructed, 47.
35 In addition to the sources cited above, Stephen Foster’s ten-volume series,
Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, from 1996 to 2005, is a major source of
Introduction 21
information on the movement, as is Robert Motherwell, ed., The Dada Painters

and Poets: An Anthology (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1981 [1951, 1967]). For histories of
literature on Dada, see Hopkins and White, “Introduction,” Virgin Microbe, 4–5;
Hopkins, “Introduction,” A Companion to Dada and Surrealism, 2–4; Rumold,
“Dada: A Critical History of the Literature in Germany and Central Europe” and
Michel Sanouillet, “Dada: A Critical History of the Literature in France and the
United States,” both in Dada: The Coordinates of Cultural Politics, ed. Stephen
Foster, in Crisis and the Arts, ed. Stephen Foster, 197–221, 223–60.
36 Leah Dickerman, ed., Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris
(Washington, DC and New York: National Gallery of Art in association with
Distributed Art Publishers, 2005); Dickerman, The Dada Seminars, Dickerman,
“Dada: A Special Issue,” October 105; Le Bon, Dada, Anne Umland and Adrian
Sudhalter with Scott Gerson, Dada in the Collection of the Museum of Modern
Art (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2008). Sources published since the
exhibition include Sanouillet, Dada in Paris, 2009, the translation of Dada à Paris
(1965), Dawn Ades, The Dada Reader: A Critical Anthology (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2006); Marc Dachy, Dada: The Revolt of Art (New York: Abrams,
2006); Matthew Biro, The Dada Cyborg: Visions of the New Human in Weimar
Berlin (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009).
37 David Hopkins and Michael White, eds., Virgin Microbe: Essays on Dada (Evanston:
Northwestern University Press, 2014); Umland and Hug, eds., Francis Picabia;
Sudhalter, ed., Dadaglobe Reconstructed; Hopkins, Dada’s Boys; David Hopkins,
ed., A Companion to Dada and Surrealism (Chichester, West Sussex, Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell, 2016).
38 Michel Sanouillet and Dominique Baudouin, eds., Dada: réimpression intégrale et
dossier critique de la revue publiée de 1917 à 1922 par Tristan Tzara II (Nice: Centre
du XXe siècle, 1976–1983); Michel Sanouillet, ed., 391; revue publiée de 1917 à
1924 par Francis Picabia (Paris: Le Terrain Vague, 1960–1966); Michel Sanouillet,
Francis Picabia et 391 (Paris: E. Losfeld, 1966); Sophie Seita, “The Blind Man Sees
the Fountain: New York Dada Magazines in 1917: An Introduction,” The Blind Man
(Brooklyn: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2017). Other sources include Michel Sanouillet,
Dada in Paris, revised and expanded by Anne Sanouillet, first English-language
edition, trans. Sharmila Ganguly (Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 2009);
Andreas Berns, New York Dada Magazines, 1915–1921 (Forschungsschwerpunkt
Massenmedien und Kommunikation an der Universitätsgesamthochschule des
Saarlandes: Siegen 1986); G: An Avant-Garde Journal of Art, Architecture, Design,
and Film, 1923–1926, ed. Detlef Mertins and Michael W. Jennings, trans. Steven
Lindberg and Margareta Ingrid Christian (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute,
2010); Sherwin Simmons, “Neue Jugend: A Case Study in Berlin Dada,” in A
Companion to Dada and Surrealism, 38–53.
22 Dada Magazines
39 Ades, The Dada Reader: A Critical Anthology, 2006. The catalogs include
Raimund Meyer, Dada Global (Zurich: Limmat Verlag, 1994); Giovanni Lista,
Arturo Schwarz, and Rosella Siligato, eds., Dada: l’arte della negazione (Rome: De
Luca, 1994); Dada Artifacts (Iowa City: The University of Iowa Museum of Art,
1978); Le Bon, Dada (2005).
40 Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker, eds., The Oxford Critical and Cultural History
of Modernist Magazines (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, 2012, 2013).
41 Ann Ardis, “Staging the Public Sphere: Magazine Dialogism and the Prosthetics of
Authorship at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” in Transatlantic Print Culture,
1880–1940: Emerging Media, Emerging Modernism, ed. Ann L. Ardis and Patrick
Collier (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 38.
42 Examples include the University of Iowa’s International Dada Archive (http://sdrc.
lib.uiowa.edu/dada/collection.html); Monoskop, “Avant-Garde and Modernist
Magazines” (https://monoskop.org/Avant-garde_and_modernist_magazines);
“Little Magazines & Modernism. A Select Bibliography,” a site maintained by
Suzanne W. Churchill, Associate Professor of English, and hosted by Davidson
College; Dada Companion (http://www.dada-companion.com/journals/). Until
very recently, “Dada and Modernist Magazines” (http://www.dada-companion.
com/journals/) was a major site for information on Dada magazines.
43 In his important book on Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain,” for instance, William
Camfield points out that its appearance in a magazine allowed more people to see it
than had seen it during the Independents’ exhibition. He refers to The Blind Man as
a document that can help uncover the history of “Fountain.” William A. Camfield,
Marcel Duchamp: Fountain (Houston: The Menil Collection, Houston Fine Arts
Press, 1989), 37, 29.
44 Johanna Drucker, The Visible Word: Experimental Typography and Modern Art,
1909–1923 (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), 193–222.
Other sources include Stephen Bury, ed., Breaking the Rules: The Printed Face of
the European Avant Garde 1900–1937 (London: British Library, 2007), 164; Judi
Freeman, The Dada and Surrealist Word-Image (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County
Museum of Art; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989).
45 Robert E. Scholes and Clifford Wulfman, Modernism in the Magazines (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2010); Sean Latham and Robert Scholes, “The Rise
of Periodical Studies,” PMLA 121, no. 2 (2006): 517–31; Mark S. Morrisson, The
Public Face of Modernism: Little Magazines, Audiences, and Reception, 1905–1920
(Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2001); Bulson, Little Magazine. Other
sources include Suzanne W. Churchill and Adam McKible, eds., Little Magazines
and Modernism: New Approaches (Burlington: Ashgate, 2007); Ann E. Gibson,
Issues in Abstract Expressionism: The Artist-Run Periodicals (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI
Research Press, 1990); Pamela Franks, ed., The Tiger’s Eye: The Art of a Magazine
Introduction 23
(New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery: Distributed by Yale University Press,
2002); Gwen Allen, Artists’ Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art (Cambridge:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2011). Another useful source on
artists’ periodicals that calls for more research on the topic is Trevor Fawcett and
Clive Phillpot, eds., The Art Press: Two Centuries of Art Magazines: Essays Published
for the Art Libraries Society on the Occasion of the International Conference on Art
Periodicals and the Exhibition, the Art Press at the Victoria and Albert Museum (Art
Documents Number One) (London: The Art Book Company, 1976).
46 Examples include Foster’s series, Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, in which
most volumes are devoted to a particular city or region, as well as Dickerman,
Dada, 2005, and Rudolf Kuenzli, ed., Dada (London and New York: Phaidon Press
Ltd, 2006).
47 Richard Huelsenbeck, En Avant Dada: A History of the Dada Movement, 1920
(Hamburg: Edition Nautilus, 1984), 26.
48 Howardena Pindell, “Alternative Space: Artists’ Periodicals,” Print Collectors
Newsletter 4 (September–October 1977).
49 Tristan Tzara, “Authorization,” in New York Dada, ed. Marcel Duchamp and Man
Ray (1921), 2.
50 Examples of conceptual artists’ periodicals include Aspen (Phyllis Johnson, 1965–
1971, New York) and Avalanche (Liza Béar and Willoughby Sharp, 1970–1976).
For more on these and other late-twentieth-century periodicals, see Allen, Artists’
Magazines.
24
1
An Extraordinary Opportunity to Be
Denounced as a Wit: How Magazines
Launched “Dada,” 1916–1917
In 1920, German Dadaist Richard Huelsenbeck recalled,

Tristan Tzara was devoured by ambition to move in international artistic circles
as an equal or even a “leader.” He was all ambition and restlessness … And
what an extraordinary, never-to-be-repeated opportunity now arose to found
an artistic movement and play the part of a literary mime! … What a source of
satisfaction it is to be denounced as a wit in a few cafés in Paris, Berlin, Rome!1
Intended to insult, Huelsenbeck’s words capture Romanian poet Tristan Tzara’s

drive to launch an art movement in the midst of war. In 1916, when the First
World War had been underway for almost two years, a small cluster not involved
in the fighting—including Huelsenbeck, Tzara, Emmy Hennings, Hugo Ball,
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Marcel Janco—congregated in neutral Zurich and put
on performances at a café they called the “Cabaret Voltaire.”2 In 1916 and 1917,
these figures, soon known as the Dadaists, also issued magazines, starting with
Cabaret Voltaire, followed by Dada. These publications were their tickets into
avant-garde circles in other cities despite travel and exhibition restrictions. They
also enabled those involved to forge and propagate Dada even as the rampant
nationalism around them exposed the dangers of forming a collective identity.
But at the same time, the journals enabled their makers to mock the very idea
of unifying around any single doctrine and to frustrate attempts to pin down
what “Dada” stood for. Cabaret Voltaire and Dada 1 and 2 served as much more
than records or purveyors of events, writings, and artworks. Indeed, at first, they
were all these individuals really had. The magazines made it so that their makers
could pretend they were more than they were, as it were, and “play the part,” to
borrow from Huelsenbeck, while refusing to explain what they stood for and, in
fact, offering “nothing.” In a way, they were the manifestation of Huelsenbeck’s
26 Dada Magazines
“Erklärung” (“Declaration”), presented in spring 1916 at the Cabaret Voltaire,

which simultaneously sets up expectations and dashes hopes for a clarification:
“We want to change the world with Nothing, we want to change poetry and
painting with Nothing, and we want to end the war with Nothing.”3 Despite
and because the Zurich collective had relatively little to publicize, they made
magazines.
This chapter begins by explicating Cabaret Voltaire’s dual identity as a
cabaret-like anthology and as a periodical. German writer and dramaturg Hugo
Ball originally conceived Cabaret Voltaire (June 1916, Zurich) as a means of
broadcasting events and artistic styles and brazenly championing transnationalism
with a cabaret-like eclecticism and dynamism.4 Tzara, on the other hand, framed
Cabaret Voltaire as a distinct yet related medium, a magazine. Regardless of intent,
in both guises, it advertised Tzara’s subsequent magazine, Dada, and “Dada,” even
amid conflicting attitudes about their future.5 After introducing Tzara’s Dada,
the chapter moves on to analyze how Tzara, Cabaret Voltaire, Dada, as well as
avant-garde journals in European cities and New York promoted “Dada” without
explaining it, ultimately spurring multiple interpretations.
Cabaret Voltaire: From Anthology to Magazine
Thirty-two pages long with five hundred copies printed (by anarchist Julius
Heuberger), Cabaret Voltaire was an ambitious undertaking on Ball’s part.6 In
a June 1916 diary entry, he boasts that Cabaret Voltaire is “the first synthesis
of the modern schools of art and literature.”7 Cabaret Voltaire echoes the
variety of performances and the broad range of works adorning the Cabaret’s
walls: paintings, collages, drawings, poems, and reproductions by local and
distant artists representing Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism.8 Among the
contributions from outside of Zurich, poems by Wasilly Kandinsky and Jakob
(here “Jacob”) van Hoddis exemplify Expressionism, poems by Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti and Franceso Cangiullo speak for Futurism, and an untitled etching by
Pablo Picasso, likely published without his permission, across from Guillaume
Apollinaire’s poem, “Arbre,” illustrates Cubism (though a letter from Italian
artist and editor Enrico Prampolini to Tzara from March 17, 1917, suggests that
Picasso was not consulted).9 Alongside these pieces, Ball showed contributions
by his comrades at the Cabaret, many of which reveal their indebtedness to these
artists. On its striking cover, a thick strip of gold or silver foil (depending on the
copy) is affixed to a deep red background, overlaid by the title and an abstract
woodblock print by Arp in black ink (Figures 1.1 and 1.2).10 Inside, a sketch by
Max Oppenheimer, Arp’s and Otto Van Rees’s collages, and a tapestry by Arp
and Sophie Taeuber-Arp recall Cubist collages and Expressionist paintings.
Marcel Slodki’s woodcut is Expressionist-inspired, while Janco’s drawing for
a poster for the “Chant Nègre” (literally, “Negro Song”) (which took place on
March 31, 1916) is informed by both Cubism and Expressionism. Literary
contributions include texts by Ball, Hennings, and Huelsenbeck.11 In part to
avoid censorship, Ball produced a German and a French version of his magazine.
They are identical except for the title page and his introductory essay, originally
composed in German. But both include a mix of German, French, and Italian,
reinforcing Ball’s transnational goals.
Cabaret Voltaire captures not only the notable pluralism and dynamism
of the Cabaret Voltaire, but of cabarets in general, which Ball knew well.12 In
early twentieth-century popular culture, “cabaret” denoted a playful, intimate,
popular, if usually underground art form featuring a variety of acts. The
emerging Dadaists’ performances also invoked the German iteration of the
“Kabarett,” which was literary and artistic with a distinctive taste for parody and
dark humor.13
Eclectic and provocative, Cabaret Voltaire functioned not simply as an
anthology traditionally conceived, but also, with its assortment and sequencing
of materials, as a lively compilation akin to a cabaret. Ball’s opening essay for
Cabaret Voltaire, which begins, “When I first set up the Cabaret Voltaire,” reads
like a cabaret impresario’s opening to a show. It tells the story of how he went
about instituting the cabaret and attracting press coverage and announces the
characters within the publication and their submissions: “And, at Mr. Tristan
Tzara’s instigation, Mssrs Tzara, Huelsenbeck and Janco performed […] a
simultaneous poem of his own composition.”14 What follows is a mishmash
of many distinct kinds of contributions, each of which brings with it a distinct
mode of address and a set of references and conventions.15 The poem “L’Amiral
cherche une maison à louer” (“The admiral is looking for a house to rent”)
resembles a musical score and a photograph of Hennings’s puppets that calls
to mind puppet-theater plays (Figure 1.3). The text “Dada: Dialogue entre un
cocher et un alouette” (“Dada: Dialogue between a coachman and a swallow”),
a skit between Huelsenbeck and Tzara, reads in part like an advertisement (“the
first number of the Dada Review comes out on August 1, 1916. Cost: 1 fr”),
succeeded by a poster image and reproductions of artworks.16 The publication
thus brings together music, theater, crafts, advertising, and fine art, each eliciting
a different response from readers. Combined, they create a disjointed effect.
28 Dada Magazines
Figure 1.1 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag, front
cover, 10 5∕8 × 8 11∕16 in. (27 × 22 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections,
University of Iowa Libraries (see Plate 1).
Such dynamism in Ball’s publication usually goes unnoticed. Accounts

typically prioritize the stage over the page, valuing it as a source of images
and writings, a record of Dada events, and demoting its reproductions to
mere “reminders,” “relics of actions,” and “incomplete documentation.”17
In his famous book, Lipstick Traces, for example, Greil Marcus compares the
Zurich Dada events and Cabaret Voltaire, concluding, “Whatever happened in
Zurich in the spring of 1916 […] it wasn’t in the archives.”18 Yet the cabaret-like
heterogeneity of Cabaret Voltaire renders it interactive, demanding that readers
shift approaches with each type of text or image they encounter.
Cabaret Voltaire’s graphic design is rather restrained compared to later Dada
publications. The irregular spacing in Gino Cantarelli’s poem, “Costellazione,” in
Dada 2, is among the more daring elements, the result of Tzara’s and Heuberger’s
attempts to reproduce the poem according to Cantarelli’s mock-up, in which some
Figure 1.2 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag, front
cover, 10 5∕8 × 8 11∕16 in. (27 × 22 cm). Spencer Collection, New York Public Library
(see Plate 2).
lines begin far to the right of the page, and random elements, like the exclamation
point, float in space (Figures 1.4 and 1.5).19 In Cabaret Voltaire images are in
shades of black and gray on glossy stock paper and take up an entire page. For
the most part, texts and images appear separately from one another and the font
type and size change hardly at all throughout the issue. The staid typography and
layout, however, actually heighten the absurdity of the publication’s content. For
instance, the lines from Tzara’s poem, “La revue Dada 2”—“there is a young man
who is eating his lungs / then has diarrhoea [sic] / then lets out a luminous fart”—
appear in soberly arranged serif typeface.20 Content and formatting conspire to
prevent the reader from perusing passively and relying on visual cues, evoking
the deadpan humor characteristic of Dada performances.
Cabaret Voltaire played a primary role in relation to Spiegelgasse 1 in another
way, too: it likely gave the space its name. Ball and his cohorts did not call their
30 Dada Magazines
Figure 1.3 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag, p. 20, 10 5∕8
× 8 11∕16 in. (27 × 22 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections, University
of Iowa Libraries.
venue the “Cabaret Voltaire” when they established it in February 1916. As late
as April 1916 Ball referred to it simply as the “Kneipe,” or pub, and the periodical
De Nieuwe Amsterdammer’s account of events on Spiegelgasse refers to it as the
“Künstlerkneipe ‘Voltaire’” or the “Voltaire” art pub.21 It was not until Ball’s
publication came out that the place took on the appellation, “Cabaret Voltaire”
with any consistency, further bolstering the prominence of Cabaret Voltaire in
proffering an identifying label for the events taking place in Zurich.
Promoting a Movement: Cabaret Voltaire
Despite Ball’s intentions, Cabaret Voltaire also publicized “Dada,” Tzara’s serial,
Dada, and thus ultimately the movement. In April 1916, while Cabaret Voltaire
was still in preparation, Ball, Tzara, and their affiliates decided to collaborate
on a second publication. Conflicts over what to call it manifested ongoing,
competing opinions about their identity or even the desirability of having
a single identity. Ball resisted, as he put it, “turn[ing] a whim into an artistic
school.”22 It was in coming up with the magazine’s title that they decided on
the word, “Dada,” and Cabaret Voltaire, as it turned out, proved to be its initial
advocate.23 In a June 1916 entry in his journal, Tzara enthusiastically describes
Ball’s publication as introducing Dada: after noting the date, price, printer, and
contributors to Cabaret Voltaire, he declares, in a manner seemingly inspired by
the playful tapping at a typewriter, “DaDada d a d a dadadadadada dialogue the
new life.”24
“Dada” appears fifteen times in Cabaret Voltaire, and in each case, it is
identified with the journal, linking Ball’s publication to Tzara’s. Ball’s essay on
the first page announces Dada: “The review will be printed in Zurich and will
bear the name ‘DADA.’ (‘Dada’) Dada Dada Dada.”25 In the French version,
the very end of the text, “Dada Dada Dada,” stands out because it takes up an
entire line just beneath the drawing of Ball. By presenting Dada, Cabaret Voltaire
suggests that it was itself the first of the Dada series, and started to function in
this role, since it anticipated the next publication, a defining characteristic of a
serial. The most extensive reference to Dada occurs in the bilingual (German
and French) “Dada: Dialogue entre un cocher et un alouette” (“Dada: Dialogue
between a Coachman and a Swallow”), which publicizes the first issue of Dada.
The dialogue reads, in part:
Huelsenbeck (coachman): … What does your song tell me about the Dada
magazine?
Tzara (swallow): Because the first number of the Dada Review comes out on
August 1, 1916. Cost: 1 fr. Editorial and administration: Spiegelgasse 1, Zurich;
it has nothing to do with the war and is an attempt at a modern international
activity hi hi hi hi.
Huelsenbeck (coachman): Oh yes, I saw that … Dada emerged from the body
of a horse as a basket of flowers. Dada burst like a boil from the chimney of a
skyscraper, oh yes, I saw Dada—as the embryo of the purple crocodile flew his
cinnabar tail ….
Olululu Olululu Dada is great Dada is beautiful.26
32 Dada Magazines
Figure 1.4 Gino Cantarelli, “Costellazione,” manuscript/mock-up of poem published

in Dada 2, 1917, 2 pages. 8 ¾ × 14 1∕3 in. (22.3 × 14.3 cm), p. 1 of 2. Dossiers Tristan
Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, Photo by Suzanne Nagy.
Figure 1.5 Dada 2, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1917, p. 8, 14 2⁄5 × 9 in. (29 × 23 cm).
This exchange, besides expressing irrationality, humor, transnationalism,

multilingualism, and disregard for effective communication, demonstrates
Tzara’s inventive use of advertising strategies to endorse his magazine and
“Dada” without explaining what it means.
Cabaret Voltaire’s multiple references to Dada betray a certain cohesion that
Ball resisted and Tzara endorsed. This difference between the two men relates
to what type of publication they understood Cabaret Voltaire to be. Though
34 Dada Magazines
today categorized as a Dada journal, since its inception it also has been referred
to as an anthology. An anthology is a self-contained collection that gathers or
commemorates contributions made earlier. It is typically more concerned with
posterity and anticipates sitting on the shelf for long-term perusing. A magazine,
by contrast, is part of a series (at least by intention), and readers expect content
to be fresh, previously unpublished, ephemeral, and current. They must read it
quickly before the next issue arrives, when they throw the old one out.
The often-overlooked discrepancy in classifying Cabaret Voltaire stems from
internecine disagreements and shifting agendas among the earliest Dadaists
and from the agency of their publications. In his introductory essay to Cabaret
Voltaire, Ball calls it a “kleine[s] Heft,” which can be interpreted as a booklet.27
In a letter to his cousin, in the same sentence he describes it both as “ein kleines
Buch” (“a little book”) and a “Propagandaheft,” which can be understood as a
propaganda brochure or magazine.28 In the same letter he adds, “I was really
only concerned to document this Cabaret,” suggesting that he thought of it
more as an anthologizing booklet than a magazine.29 In his text describing the
publication Ball informs readers, “The next goal of the artists assembled here is
the publication of an International Review” (emphasis added), implying that he
did not perceive Cabaret Voltaire as a review.30 Yet his use of the term “heft” is
notable, as it can be translated in various ways—as a type of printed promotional
material, a booklet, or a serial. Tzara was also imprecise. In March 1917, he
explained in a letter that Cabaret Voltaire was “not a journal but a documentary
publication on the cabaret we founded here.”31
These early Dadaists valued Cabaret Voltaire as a publication that summarized
for others what they had been doing in Zurich, evident as well as in Cabaret
Voltaire’s subtitle, “Eine Sammlung Künstlerischer und Literarischer Beiträge”
(“A Collection of Artistic and Literary Contributions”) in the German version,
“Recueil littéraire et artistique” in the French. This publication type, a self-
contained compilation that gathers or commemorates contributions made
earlier, was meaningful to them, as it signaled their internationalism and
inclusivity. A few years later, Huelsenbeck reflected, “In the Cabaret Voltaire
period, we wanted to ‘document’—we brought out the publication Cabaret
Voltaire, a catch-all for the most diverse directions in art, which at that time
seemed to us to constitute ‘Dada.’”32
The selection and presentation choices that go into compiling an anthology
have imaginary and even utopian elements to them, as Walter Benjamin has
pointed out.33 The very nature of anthologies has an artificial element to
it—bringing together disparate materials toward another end. With Cabaret
Voltaire, Ball chose carefully, leaving out, for example, the Russian balalaika
ensemble performance at the Cabaret Voltaire and Hennings’s singing of

Danish folk songs. He tried to curate their activities in Zurich while putting
them in the company of avant-garde leaders of the time. Though he sought
German-reading audiences, including those in Zurich, he published more
French copies than German ones, suggesting that he also was eager to reach
French-reading international audiences. As Debbie Lewer puts it, his review
“traces a speculative and utopian mapping of an imagined international
community.”34
The format of the anthology and the Dadaists’ treatment of it were in many
ways more important than any particular content in forming their identity.
Adrian Sudhalter argues, “The Dada anthology provided a container for
heterogeneous, international contributions, though unlike its predecessors
it advocated no particular artistic style or program.”35 This characterization
applies to Cabaret Voltaire; if it has a unified message it is heterogeneity and
internationalism, and its editor did not emphasize these as forming a strong
shared identity. To the extent that Tzara understood Cabaret Voltaire as an
anthology, he considered it to be less commemorative and more active, “the
occasional, coterie, or interventionist anthology,” as Braddock puts it. Unlike
what Jeremy Braddock calls “the more expressly canon-defining modernist
anthologies,” this type not only identifies but also “interpellate[s] collective
formations in the service of the volume’s social reason for being.”36 It is a form
of “collective self-identification.”37 This definition accords with Tzara’s desire to
have the group coalesce, if only by name.
Regardless of what they called this publication, how Ball and Tzara used it
indicates how each wanted it to function. In June 1916, a month after Cabaret
Voltaire came out, the Cabaret closed, amid escalating differences about the
direction they should take. Ball, disgusted with Dada’s growing popularity, left
Zurich. In a letter to Tzara from September 27, 1916, he pans Cabaret Voltaire as
“worthless, bad, decadent, militaristic,” adding, “No more blasphemy, no more
irony … no more satire … no more intelligence. No! Enough of it.”38 Although
Ball later returned to Zurich briefly and was marginally involved in Dada
events there, his participation was minimal and unenthusiastic.39 Huelsenbeck,
similarly, expressed dissatisfaction. He objected to what he saw as the changing
attitude toward audiences that would manifest itself at the more decorous
Galerie Corray, aka the Galerie Dada, starting in January 1917.40 Huelsenbeck
disparaged the gallery as “a manicure salon of the fine arts, characterized by
tea-drinking old ladies trying to revive their vanishing sexual powers with the
help of ‘something mad.’”41 By early 1917, he was in Berlin, where he initiated a
new branch of Dada, described in the next chapter.
36 Dada Magazines
Tzara, on the other hand, wanted to make a movement and he made a serial
because he knew it was the most expedient means of doing so. Tzara understood
that having readers perceive of Cabaret Voltaire, and later Dada, as periodicals
to trade for others was critical to becoming part of the circle of the most
innovative artists and writers of the time. With this awareness of the currency
of reviews, Tzara chose not only to appropriate Cabaret Voltaire but also to
reframe and circulate it worldwide as a serial. Although he understood Cabaret
Voltaire’s power as a collection of materials, he also embraced it as the first in
a series of journals publicizing “Dada.” As noted above, by announcing Dada
and repeating “Dada” on its pages, Cabaret Voltaire implied a certain link with
Tzara’s publication. But more than this, Tzara suggested that Cabaret Voltaire
was a magazine by naming one of his poems, which is reproduced in it, “La
revue dada 2” (“Dada review no. 2”), suggesting that Ball’s publication was the
first Dada review, “Dada review no. 1,” presumably (the poem itself offers no
useful explanation in this regard).42
Consistencies in appearance and content between Cabaret Voltaire and Dada
link the two publications. In addition to maintaining Ball’s subtitle, “A Collection
of Artistic and Literary Contributions,” Dada also ties itself to its predecessor by
offering more information about the poem, “L’amiral.” The red of the first two
issues’ covers creates a visual continuity among the three Zurich publications as
well. Notably, a (negative) review of Cabaret Voltaire from Geneva regards it as
the first issue of Dada, saying that the name changed. Tzara’s response in Dada
signals another bond between the two Zurich publications.43 In these ways,
Tzara effectively serialized Cabaret Voltaire.
Promoting a Movement: Dada
In addition to organizing events at the Galerie Dada, Tzara was consumed with
publishing the first issue of Dada, which he equated with starting Dada. In
July 1917, he recorded the publication of Dada 1 in these words: “The Dada
Movement is launched.”44 Tzara rightly understood serials as the principal
means of communication and expression among vanguard artists and writers. A
spike in art magazine production occurred among members of the avant-garde
between 1910 and 1916 in Europe and the United States.45 Beginning in the mid-
nineteenth century, advances in print technology such as halftone engraving,
linotype, and standardized typewriters inspired artists to create periodicals to
propagate their ideas relatively cheaply and easily.46 Movements comprising both
writers and artists especially appreciated the value of journals for disseminating
ideas that were too new or subversive to be published in the mainstream press.
Titles include the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’s The Germ: Thoughts towards
Nature in Poetry, Literature and Art (London, 1850–1851), the Symbolists’ La
Renaissance littéraire et artistique (Paris, 1879–1891), La Revue blanche (Paris,
1891–1903), and the Jugendstil periodical Ver sacrum (Vienna, 1898–1903). In
the twentieth century, Der Sturm (Berlin, 1910–1932) and Die Aktion (Berlin,
1911–1932) endorsed German Expressionism; Lacerba (Florence, 1913–1915)
and L’italia futurista (Florence, 1916–1918), among others, represented Futurism;
and Blast: Review of the Great English Vortex (London, 1914–1915) propagated
British Vorticism.47 Magazines’ hybrid nature attracted proponents of various
artist/writer movements in Europe, as they offered an ever-easier means of
quickly expressing their creative ambitions. By 1916 there was a network of self-
edited publications that was well established, if limited by the war. These titles
reflect the push toward internationalism and new forms of artistic expression
that drove many editors of the time, such as Der Sturm editor Herwarth Walden’s
art gallery. Some periodicals were eclectic. Les Soirées de Paris (Paris, 1912–
1914) and 291 (New York, 1915–1916) display a variety of artistic currents, for
example.
While clearly in dialogue with these predecessors, Dada 1 (July 1917) and
Dada 2 (December 1917), both published by Heuberger, stand apart. Like
magazines made to promote a movement, they linked their activities with a
word, but like Les Soirées de Paris and 291 they were also decidedly eclectic. Tzara
carried on Ball’s commitment to multiplicity, but with the critical difference that
he gave this lack of unity a name: Dada. The word “Dada” printed all over these
publications signaled to readers that this eclecticism, not a certain style or set of
beliefs, was Dada.48
The first two issues of Dada proposed that variety and the absence of a
prevailing set of aesthetic principles did not obviate the creation of a new
movement and that the journal was the most effective means of realizing this
atypical model. In an undated manuscript for a speech on Dada he explains:
The name chosen for the review, finally, was Dada. Our aversion against
any dogmatism meant that the name of the review was not to lead to any
interpretation that would have led us towards a kind of systematization of our
thoughts. […] If we mockingly called our group the Dada Movement, we were
already opposed to the creation of schools, as, in any case, we wanted each one of
us to maintain his personality […] total freedom of the artist was for us a crown
virtue that we intended to defend with all our strength.49
38 Dada Magazines
Tzara seized upon the periodical to propagate unprecedented heterogeneity.

By presenting an assortment of styles under the elusive, percussive Dada
label, the emerging Dadaists took advantage of the multipage format of the
journal to inaugurate a movement without delimiting it. Robert Delaunay’s
“La Fenêtre sur la Ville II” (“The Window on the City II”) (1912) represents
Cubism, and a watercolor by Kandinsky from the Der Sturm gallery
exemplifies Expressionism. Poems by Francesco Meriano, Alberto Savinio,
Maria d’Arezzo, Nicola Moscardelli, Cantarelli, as well as woodcuts by
Enrico Prampolini and Giorgio de Chirico’s painting, The Evil Genius of a
King (1914–1915), exemplify Futurism and metaphysical painting in Italy.
Dada 1 and 2 also include compositions by Dadaists who borrowed from
styles associated with preceding and contemporaneous artists’ groups. For
example, Arp’s collage in Dada 1, identified simply as a “painting in paper,”
and Janco’s “Construction 3,” apparently made up of wire, wood, and other
found materials, were inspired in part by Cubist works (Figure 1.6). This
diversity of texts and images implies an inclusive, internationalist attitude,
akin to Cabaret Voltaire, but Dada labels it.
Tzara’s publicizing of this simple, catchy, made-up word that conjured a
complex combination of meanings and impressions is much like those of the
most successful brands of the time (including the soap brand called “Dada,” sold
in Switzerland during the war).50 Tzara understood that by not identifying too
closely to any one “product,” Dada could encompass a broad scope of artistic
styles and social and political motivations. Equating “Dada” with his journal
without offering any clarification, he set the stage for Dada’s unorthodox
openness. Huelsenbeck acknowledged Tzara’s flair for marketing even as he
scoffed his ambition:
Tristan Tzara had been one of the first to grasp the suggestive power of the word
Dada. From here on he worked indefatigably as the prophet of the word Dada,
which only later was to be filled with a concept. He wrapped, pasted, addressed,
he bombarded the French and Italians with letters; slowly he made himself the
“focal point.”51
Neither Dada 1 nor Dada 2 explains “Dada,” but each issue mentions the
word seven times.52 The back cover of Dada 2 gives the most official impression
of Dada, listing the Zurich publications under the heading, “Mouvement Dada”
(Dada Movement). Readers find no evidence of what, if anything, these works
have in common, much less how they relate to “Dada.”
Figure 1.6 Noi 1, ed. Enrico Prampolini, Rome, 1917, front cover, c. 1917. Getty
Research Institute, Special Collections (85-S1332).
40 Dada Magazines
Dada was a parody of the kind of publication expected of an emerging

movement, a single periodical dictating and showcasing specific beliefs and
aesthetics. Rather than completely shunning this requirement, the Dadaists took
it on, only to highlight how fundamentally different their project was. In this
way, Dada sparked an entirely novel kind of movement, one that paradoxically
ridiculed the very idea of a modern art movement.
With Dada they also set themselves apart, distinguishing Dada as a “meta”
movement of sorts rather than advancing any specific manner of painting or
writing. As Dada scholar Michel Sanouillet puts it,
[Tzara] always strongly believed that Dada was essentially different: other isms
were meant to structure and base in history some form of ideology, theory or
aesthetic system …. Dada, on the contrary, is what Duchamp called a “Prime
Word,” one which can be divided only by itself and by unity.53
They came up with the name “Dada,” as Arndt Niebisch puts it, “to subvert and
distort the contemporaneous system of isms, and not to become one of them.” He
adds, “Dada does not appear as an additional art movement, but as indefinable
noise.”54
The magazines engendered this distinctive characteristic. To understand how
they did so, it is helpful to think of Dada as analogous to photography, as André
Malraux describes it in his formulation of the “museum without walls.”55 Here
photography allows for the placing of any object of any period, style, or medium
alongside another. Similarly, in the earliest days of Dada, Tzara welcomed a wide
range of works and his magazines used photography to reproduce many artists’
styles next to one another. Using Malraux’s formulation, the Dada journal was the
museum, and “Dada” an umbrella term for anything goes. As mentioned above,
the 1916 and 1917 issues of Dada primarily include Expressionist, Futurist, and
Cubist works. They also show pieces by individuals who would come to be known
as Dadaists, but readers did not identify them with yet another movement because
Dada had not yet become associated with a set of characteristics. Dada journals
showed that Dada was unlike the other collectives represented. By combining
a variety of artistic currents without asserting any specific characteristics, they
ensured the group’s contingency and allowed them to remain agile and relevant.
But more than just anthologizing publications, Cabaret Voltaire and Dada
functioned as serials independent of their editors’ original intentions. They
offered an “extraordinary, never-to-be-repeated opportunity,” for the small
Zurich assembly to join the transnational network made up of avant-garde
editors, writers, visual artists, and, critically, their magazines.
Joining the Magazine Network: Cabaret Voltaire and Dada
Locally, Cabaret Voltaire was for sale at the “Grosse Soirée der Künstlergesellschaft
Voltaire” (“Great Soirée of the Voltaire Artists’ Society”) on May 31, 1916, just a
few weeks before the cabaret closed.56 A Zurich bookstore, the Bookworm (Zum
Bücherwrum), also sold copies.57 But beginning in 1916 Tzara co-opted Cabaret
Voltaire and Dada as easily exchanged venues for advertising their nascent
movement well beyond the confines of Zurich’s city limits. He mailed copies
to artists and writers in New York and European cities who were editing and
contributing to each other’s reviews, promising to publish contributions and
advertisements for recipients’ journals and asking for the same in return.58 Tzara
wanted them to know about what they were doing and he wanted contributions.
Although there were no new acolytes immediately, he managed to spread the
word and make connections that would prove fruitful in the United States, Italy,
and France, while Huelsenbeck led the charge in Germany.
Letters played a complementary role, but whereas they forged individual,
one-to-one connections with members of the avant-garde, with a magazine
the Zurich artists demonstrated their efforts, and they did so in a much more
public way, to many readers at the same time. Magazines can combine various,
even contradictory, texts and images.59 Recognizing that his involvement in
Cabaret Voltaire and Dada gave him some leverage, Tzara swapped journals and
submissions with other editors. The Dada publications ultimately splintered
dependence on a centralized place, expanding the cabaret’s range substantially
and enabling Tzara and those around him to access local and transnational,
present and distant, contemporary and future readers. By asking others to
advertise Dada, reproduce works by himself and others in Zurich, and send
contributions for his magazine, Tzara succeeded in ingratiating himself into
avant-garde periodicals circles. Cabaret Voltaire and Dada allowed them to
demonstrate that they were a transnational association that encompassed
many different kinds of visual art and writings. They also made their many
contributors aware of one another and exposed an even broader audience to
these contributors’ works.
Tzara was largely successful. One of the first people he sent Cabaret Voltaire to
was the famous poet and editor of the magazine Les Soirées de Paris, Guillaume
Apollinaire, in Paris. This copy made it into the hands of prominent art dealer and
collector Paul Guillaume, who responded encouragingly.60 Guillaume spoke to
Apollinaire on Tzara’s behalf, and in December 1916, Apollinaire complimented
42 Dada Magazines
Tzara on his poetry and his work in Zurich, promising to send poems and
possibly prose.61 Tzara again wrote to Apollinaire in mid-October 1916, this time
with one of his poems and a woodcut by Janco, presumably for publication in
Les Soirées. In his letter he advocates his submissions as representative of “a new
art trend Dada, which will be a very very very very very free, brutally modern
and primitive art.”62 In the end, Tzara received nothing from Apollinaire, whose
political concerns may have overcome his desire to support Tzara.63 But sending
Cabaret Voltaire was nevertheless fruitful, as it put him in touch with Guillaume,
who paved the way for Tzara’s later move to the French capital and connected
him to other like-minded individuals like Marius de Zayas in New York, as
described below.
Tzara’s circulation of Cabaret Voltaire in Italy proved particularly
productive, attracting contributions for Dada 1 and 2 from Prampolini,
Meriano, Cantarelli, and Moscardelli, all of whom were involved in other
reviews. Their correspondence shows Tzara tapping into a shared commitment
to promoting the latest artistic developments. Italian artist Alberto Spaïni,
who participated in events at the Cabaret Voltaire, gave the Romanian poet
the addresses of Futurists and other artists and writers in Italy.64 Starting
in early 1917, Tzara sent these editors copies of Cabaret Voltaire and Dada,
asking for contributions to his new magazine and promising to do the same
in return. Prampolini, who edited Noi (“We”) (Rome, 1917–1925) with Bino
Sanminiatelli, was supportive.65 He had met Tzara in the summer of 1916,
and in a letter from August 1917, he tells Tzara that he finds Dada 1 to be
“very pleasing and interesting” and offers to find vendors for it in Rome.66 The
first issue of Noi, which came out in June 1917, features Tzara’s poem, “Froid
Jaune” (“Cold Yellow”) along with a woodcut by Arp and one by Janco that was
famously reproduced on the cover of Dada 3 in 1918. Noi also published other
Dada contributions—a poem by Tzara and woodcuts by Janco and Arp.67 The
second issue of Noi mentions Dada 1 and details its contents (in addition to
noting typographical errors in Tzara’s poem in the first issue).68 Both Tzara
and Prampolini were eager to collaborate to achieve international recognition
for themselves and for their journals.
Dada 1 includes a poem, “Walk,” by Meriano, editor of the periodical La
Brigata (Bologna, 1916–1919). This text represents extensive communication
between him and Tzara.69 It promotes Tzara’s magazine and suggests an
openness to collaboration: “Dada ultimate review of the universe / let’s see
how many we are / good evening to you, Mr. Janco / and to you, Mr. Tzara / one
/ two / four / ten / fifty / one thousand.” Meriano published an announcement
of the Dadaists’ exhibition at the Corray Gallery in the January 1917 issue
of La Brigata. He was enthusiastic about Dada (at one point he asks Tzara,
enthusiastically, “Do you want to launch the Dada movement in Italy?”), and
in June 1919 he printed a woodcut by Janco in La Brigata, a delayed but strong
example of how magazines manifested and encouraged their individual and
shared objectives.70
Most likely because he understood that to focus solely on Dada might alienate
individuals who could distribute his printed materials and thus, ultimately,
spread awareness of Dada the word, the journal, and the movement.71 Other
Italian reviews, too, showcase Tzara’s success in publicizing Dada. In 1917,
Moscardelli’s La Pagine (Naples, 1916–1917) reproduced four poems by Tzara.72
In exchange for Tzara’s Dada 1, Cantarelli sent a copy of Procellaria (Mantua,
1917–1920), which he edited with Aldo Fiozzi.73 The fourth issue (October
1917) features two poems, “Pélamide” and “Movimento Dada,” by Tzara.74 In a
letter from November 1917, Cantarelli called for solidarity among the various
avant-garde journals, including Noi, Dada, and his Procellaria.75 While these
journals never united behind any particular cause, his letter demonstrates that
he found Tzara’s promotion of Dada compatible with their own ambitions and
the centrality of periodicals for achieving them.
In exchange for this publicity, Tzara, in turn, endorsed the Italians. The first
two issues of Dada advertise their reviews.76 On September 22, 1916, De Pisis,
then living in Ferrara, initiated contact with Tzara, after seeing Savinio’s copy of
Cabaret Voltaire. In his letters he promises to publicize Tzara’s journal among
his acquaintances, and he sent Tzara three texts, two paintings, and drawings for
the next edition of Dada, as well as copies of Emporio, the book of his poems,
for Tzara to sell.77 Although de Pisis was not a journal editor, he was a regular
contributor to La Voce (edited by Giuseppe Prezzolini, Florence, 1908–1916), Le
Pagine, and La Brigata, and he encouraged their editors to back Tzara.78 Despite
Tzara’s apparent lack of enthusiasm, the two maintained ties. In one letter Tzara
asks de Pisis to help him support the “modern movement” (“le mouvement
modern”).
The magazine network extended across the Atlantic, as well, to New York,
where Tzara attempted to reach American audiences. At this early stage the
artist, gallery owner, and former editor of 291, along with Paul B. Haviland and
Agnes Ernst Meyer, Marius de Zayas, was in fact New York’s primary link to
European Dada. Following up on Guillaume’s lead, on September 30, 1916, three
months after Cabaret Voltaire came out, Tzara wrote a letter to de Zayas, who
had moved to New York from Mexico City in 1907.79 Correspondence between
44 Dada Magazines
Tzara and de Zayas in 1916 and 1917 conveys enthusiasm for supporting each
other’s efforts, which ultimately advanced Dada in New York, as explored in
Chapter 4.
De Zayas was part of the vibrant, international circle of artists in New
York, many of them congregating in the apartment of art patrons Walter and
Louise Arensberg.80 New York was a hub of periodicals production. De Zayas
published 291. Before that Man Ray put together his irreverent, and according
to David Hopkins’s “proto-Dadaist,” Ridgefield Gazook (March 1915, Ridgefield,
New Jersey) and artist Robert Coady put out The Soil (1916–1917, New York),
which mixes examples of European avant-garde art and American “art,” broadly
understood to encompass sports.81
In a letter from December 1916, Tzara promises to send de Zayas Cabaret
Voltaire, though it is uncertain if De Zayas ever received a copy.82 We do know
that de Zayas obtained Tzara’s absurdist play, La Première Aventure Céleste de M.
Antipyrine (“The First Celestial Adventure of Mr. Aspirin/Fire-Extinguisher”),
in late 1916 or early 1917.83 After receiving Tzara’s book, de Zayas replied
eagerly, promising to distribute the rest to “people interested in the modern
art movement” and to try to get New York booksellers to sell it. Tzara, in turn,
extended an invitation to de Zayas to send him woodcuts:
I’m putting out a very simple publication with wood engravings, and I would
be happy to be able to could count you (with the other advanced American
painters) among its contributors. Please send me several woodcuts; I will send
them back to you as soon as they are printed. The dimensions should not exceed
15/25.84
There is no record that de Zayas sent any contributions; it is possible that they
were confiscated in the mail. De Zayas apparently did send Tzara copies of 291
with his first letter from November 16, 1916, although Tzara did not receive them.
The two also took significant, if ultimately fruitless, steps towards organizing an
exhibition together, to take place in New York and Zurich.85 It never took place,
most likely due to obstacles in transportation, but the exchange expresses the
men’s eagerness to collaborate.
In the spring of 1917, while Tzara was still preparing Dada, Duchamp coedited
two issues of the famous two-issue review, Blind Man, with Beatrice Wood and
Henri-Pierre Roché, which coincided with the Independent Society of Artists’
famous exhibition featuring Duchamp’s readymade “Fountain” (1917).86 Given
its subsequent place of privilege in Dada studies, Blind Man deserves attention
here. When asked if this publication was Dada, Duchamp replied, “It was
parallel, if you wish, but not directly influenced. It wasn’t Dada, but it was in
the same spirit, without, however, being in the Zurich spirit.”87 Duchamp was
among the first people with whom de Zayas shared Tzara’s book. Although
today he is perhaps the best-known Dadaist, in 1917 he did not consider himself
part of Dada. In a 1945 interview with James Johnson Sweeney, Duchamp said
that his first exposure to Dada was through La Première Aventure Céleste de M.
Antipyrine. Duchamp commented on the book, “It interested us but I didn’t know
what Dada was, or even that the word existed,” adding that Picabia brought the
word to his attention.88 The cover and back page of this publication list it as part
of “Collection Dada,” although he did not know much about Dada until French
itinerant artist and editor Francis Picabia became more involved with Dada in
1918. In 1960, Duchamp explained,
Picabia, Man Ray and myself had already had some good reasons to “act dada”
without knowing the word … The Dada movement in itself, a negative protest
and a destruction of traditional values, led to a complete nihilism which may
have very well hastened my decision to stop painting around 1923.89
In another interview from the same year, Duchamp retroactively assigns their
activities the “Dada” label: “We saw the stupidity of the war. We were in a position
to judge the results, which were no results at all. Our movement [Dada] was
another form of pacifist demonstration.”90 Duchamp maintained that he and his
circle in New York had a certain connection to what he calls “the Dada spirit.”91
Blind Man does not promote Dada or feature any contributions from
Dada affiliates overseas, and its first audiences did not associate it with Dada.
Nevertheless, the second issue in particular contains evidence of what would
become Dada characteristics—an interest in cultivating a sense of scandal, in
advertising, in machines, and in challenging single authorship.92 David Hopkins
describes the second issue of The Blind Man as “a vehicle for Duchamps’ proto-
Dada questioning of art.”93 It publicized the readymade, one of the best-known
Dada strategies. It also made its way over the Atlantic. Roché sent a copy of the
second issue of The Blind Man to Apollinaire, who wrote a short description
of the journal and the scandal in an article entitled “Le cas de Richard Mutt”
(“The Richard Mutt Case”) for Mercure de France on June 16, 1918, in which
he sharply critiques the Society of Independent Artists, defending “Fountain”
as a beautiful piece.94 It is quite possible that Tzara saw this review. Though
not conceived as a Dada magazine, Blind Man came to be categorized as one,
and in 1917 it was yet another one of the titles traversing the Atlantic, linking
avant-garde artists, many of whom would come to identify with “Dada.”
46 Dada Magazines
Tzara also was corresponding with individuals in Berlin at this time, primarily
Huelsenbeck, and their letters indicate that reviews remained central to their
shared goal of advancing Dada, despite their differences. Through Huelsenbeck’s
efforts, Dada was taking on new life in Berlin. Despite his disillusionment with
Dada in Zurich, the German writer began organizing Dada exhibitions and
performances as soon as he returned to Berlin in early 1917, bringing with
him what fellow Berlin Dadaist Raoul Hausmann called “a magical word that
serve our purposes as a cloaked pretense: Dada.”95 Eager to publicize Dada in
Berlin, Huelsenbeck also sold Zurich Dada publications, including Cabaret
Voltaire, Tzara’s Monsieur Antipyrine, and his own Phantastische Gebete
(“Fantastic Prayers”), illustrated by George Grosz. He asked Tzara to market
Wieland Herzefelde and John Heartfield’s anti-war bimonthly Neue Jugend
(“New Youth”) (Berlin, 1916–1917),96 which published Huelsenbeck’s poem-
manifesto, “Der Neue Mensch” (“The New Man”).97 Requesting graphic works
and paintings for an exhibition he was planning (which did not take place),
Huelsenbeck insists, “You have to do everything in your power to support us in
this matter, since we are here giving you publicity, which can be of the greatest
use in commercial and spiritual matters for you.”98 His statement conveys how,
as the Berlin Dadaists became more established, Huelsenbeck and his circle
endorsed Zurich Dada with the expectation that the Dadaists in Zurich would
do the same for Berlin Dada.
Between 1916 and 1917, magazines transformed “Dada” from a term tied to
events in Zurich to a movement known in many European cities and in New
York. Cabaret Voltaire and the first two issues of Dada presented “Dada,” and
recipients’ periodicals endorsed it. Portable and changing, these early Dada
publications created a network that reached well beyond just a “few cafés in Paris,
Berlin, Rome.” They prepared the way for more aggressive publicizing of Dada in
journals in 1918, when the Dadaists began to realize the creative potential of the
medium. And again the magazines’ role changed, from launching a movement
and forging ties among individuals in various cities to being a venue with the
capacity not only to showcase, but also to shape the Dadaists’ artistic output.
Notes
1 Richard Huelsenbeck, “En Avant Dada: A History of Dadaism” (1920), in The

Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology, ed. Robert Motherwell (Cambridge, MA,
London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1981), 26.
2 Sources on the Cabaret Voltaire and the beginnings of Dada in Zurich include Leah
Dickerman, “Zurich,” in Dada, 18–83; Lewer, “The Avant-Garde in Swiss Exile,”
The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, vol. III, part II,
1032–56; Hans Bolliger, Dada in Zürich. Zürich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1985; Brigitte
Pichon and Karl Riha Foster, eds., A Clown’s Game for Nothing: Dada Zurich, vol.
II, Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, ed. Stephen C. Foster (New York: G.K.
Hall and Co., 1996); Astrid von Asten and Adrian Notz, eds., Genesis Dada: 110
Years of Dada Zurich (Zurich: Scheideger & Spiess, 2016); Ball, Flight Out of Time;
Michael Howard and Debbie Lewer, A New Order: An Evening at the Cabaret
Voltaire (Manchester: The Manchester Metropolitan University, 1996); Demos,
“Circulations: In and around Zurich Dada,” October 105.
3 Richard Huelsenbeck, quoted and translated in Arndt Niebisch, Media Parasites in
the Early Avant-Garde: On the Abuse of Technology and Communication (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 31.
4 Ball had been attracted to periodicals as a means of international collaboration
before this time, most immediately with the possible involvement with Der Mistral
(Hugo Kersten, Emil Szittya, Walter Serner, Zurich, 1915). Walter Serner’s Sirius
(Walter Serner, Zurich, 1915–1916), which published works by Christian Schad
and Hans Arp but also attacked Hugo Ball and Richard Huelsenbeck, also formed
an important part of the publishing context for Cabaret Voltaire. For more on
these and other avant-garde publications in Zurich as Dada took shape, see Debbie
Lewer, “The Avant-Garde in Swiss Exile 1914–20,” 1032–56.
5 Ball, April 11, 1916, Flight Out of Time, 60.
6 Cabaret Voltaire measures approximately 27 × 21.5 cm (10½ × 8½ inches). Five
hundred copies were printed. The regular edition cost two francs; issues with a
cover made of heavier stock cost three francs, and there was a discount of one franc
for copies purchased at the Cabaret Voltaire. Inside pages are glossy stock paper
with black-and-white images. Fifty of the five hundred copies of the deluxe edition
were printed. Each numbered copy featured an original print, colored by hand, and
signed. In numbers one through ten, a wood engraving by Hans Arp, in numbers
eleven through twenty, a woodcut by Marcel Janco, in numbers twenty-one through
thirty, an etching by Max Oppenheimer, numbers thirty-one through forty, an
engraving by M. Slodki, in numbers forty-one through fifty, a woodcut by Arthur
Segal. In most cases, the original print was inserted separately into the journal.
None of the copies of Cabaret Voltaire I examined included an original print, and
descriptions of additional copies do not mention an original print. Lewer points
to them as an example of the “friction between a radical and traditional aesthetic”
among Zurich Dadaists, and like some of their contemporaries, she asks if they are
dangerously aligned with bourgeois capitalism at a time when their oppositional
stance bumped up against the exigencies of starting a movement. See Lewer, “The
Avant-Garde in Swiss Exile,” 1050–1, 1055–6.
48 Dada Magazines
7 Ball, June 4, 1916, Flight Out of Time, 65. Ball approached artists he knew and asked
them for a picture, drawing, or engraving for the exhibition, and Arp helped him
gather from Munich and Paris. Ball, “Als ich das Cabaret Voltaire gründete … ,”
Cabaret Voltaire, 5, and Alastair Grieve, “Arp in Zurich,” in Dada Spectrum: The
Dialectics of Revolt, ed. Stephen C. Foster and Rudolf E. Kuenzli (Madison: Coda
Press/Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1979), 180.
8 Cabaret Voltaire came in a wrapper reading, “Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism.” A
copy including this wrapper is at the Getty Research Institute.
9 This letter contradicts the notes at the end of Cabaret Voltaire that claim that
Picasso’s drawing was reproduced with the permission of art dealer Daniel-Henry
Kahnweiler. Most likely the image was taken from Saint Matorel (1911), written
by Max Jacob with illustrations by Picasso. Enrico Prampolini to Tzara, March 17,
1917, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, Fonds Tristan Tzara, TZRC 3118. Ball
probably took Apollinaire’s poem, “Arbre,” from the March 1913 issue of the Paris
magazine Le Gay Sçavoir. See Leroy Bruenig, “From Dada to Cubism: Apollinaire’s
‘Arbre,’” About French Poetry from Dada to “Tel Quel,” ed. Mary Ann Caws (Detroit:
Wayne State University Press), 29.
10 The copy in the Elaine Lustig Cohen Collection at the New York Public Library
features a shiny silver strip of foil; copies at the Kunsthaus in Zurich and the
International Dada Archive in Special Collections at the University of Iowa Libraries
have a gold piece of paper. The alignment of the drawing differs between the two,
but in both cases, the drawing projects out on the right, beyond the strip of paper,
indicating that the strip of paper was attached to the cover before the printing.
11 Cabaret Voltaire presents a list of works shown at the Cabaret, many of which
appear in the journal. These include one of two drawings of Arp by Amedeo
Modigliani, Filippo Tomasso Marinetti’s “Dune,” Franceso Cangiullo’s “Addioooo,”
Slodki’s woodcut, and a collage by Otto van Rees. The catalog lists four etchings by
Picasso, numbered I through IV, one of which is reproduced in Cabaret Voltaire.
Cabaret Voltaire, 32.
12 A former dramaturg at the renowned Kammerspiele in Munich, Ball became more
familiar with cabaret and variety shows in the fall of 1915 as a pianist at a small
variety theater in Zurich, where he also developed and dramatized several short
plays for the ensemble. For more on this and other biographical information on
Ball, see Emmy Hennings, “Foreword to the 1946 Edition,” in Ball, Flight Out of
Time, xlvii and xlix–lxiv.
13 For more on the cabaret tradition, see Lisa Appignanesi, The Cabaret (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2004), and Cabaret Performance, vol. I: Europe 1890–1920:
Sketches, Songs, Monologues, Memoirs, ed. Laurence Senelick (New York: PAJ
Publications, 1988). My thanks to Nicola Behrmann and Tobias Wilke for their
insights and recommendations regarding my discussion of Cabaret Voltaire in “A
‘Living Magazine:’ Hugo Ball’s Cabaret Voltaire” Germanic Review 91, no. 2 (Fall
2016): 395–414.
14 “Und durch die Initiative des Herrn Tristan Tzara führten die Herren Tzara,
Huelsenbeck und Janco … sowie eine Poème simultan eigener Composition … ”
“Als ich das Cabaret Voltaire gründete … ,” 5.
15 Approaching the journals from a semiotics framework, we can define modes of
address as how the relationship between addresser and addressee is constructed in
a text, including how placement, formatting, degrees of directness and formality,
point of view, tone, references, language, and content communicate with readers.
Daniel Chandler identifies three factors: textual context, social context, and
technological constraints. For more on modes of address, see Daniel Chandler,
Semiotics: The Basics (London/New York: Routledge, 2002), 190–4.
16 Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara, “Dada: Dialogue entre un cocher et un
alouette,” Cabaret Voltaire, 31, trans. Christina Mills, in Dada Reader, 28.
17 According to Gundolf Winter, for example, they were “only a part of those live
images that the cabaret itself produced as communicative works of art, for the
moment, accidentally, irrepeatably.” Gundolf Winter, “Zurich Dada and the Visual
Arts,” A Clown’s Game for Nothing: Dada Zurich, 144.
18 Notably, Marcus bases this interpretation on a microfilm copy of the anthology,
which yields a more removed interaction than handling the actual object affords.
Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge,
MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1990), 188. This prioritization
of performance over print repeats in accounts of Zurich Dada. See, for instance,
Annabelle Melzer, Latest Rage the Big Drum: Dada and Surrealist Performance (Ann
Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1980), 36; Katherine Weinstein, “Subversive Women:
Female Performing Artists in Zurich Dada” (PhD diss., Tufts University, 2001), 15;
Michael Kimmelman, “‘Dada’ at MoMA: The Moment When Artists Took over the
Asylum,” The New York Times (June 16, 2006).
19 Gino Cantarelli to Tristan Tzara, February 24, 1917, Dossiers Tristan Tzara,
Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, TZRC 676.
20 “il y a un jeune homme qui mange ses poumons / puis a la diarrhée / puis il fait
un pet lumineux” Tristan Tzara, “La revue Dada 2,” Cabaret Voltaire, 19, trans.
Michelle Owoo, in Dada Reader, 24.
21 Hugo Ball, Letter to Maria Hildebrand, April 13, 1916, in Emmy Hennings Dada, ed.
Christa Baumberger and Nicola Behrmann (Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2015),
155; Adrianus Baltus van Tienhoven, in De Nieuwe Amsterdammer, quoted in
Emmy Hennings Dada, 161. In an article published on April 26, 1916, the Züricher
Post refers to the cafe appropriated by Ball and his cohorts as “Cabaret Voltaire.” L.
E., Züricher Post (April 26, 1916), quoted in Emmy Hennings Dada, 156.
22 Ball, April 11, 1916, Flight Out of Time, 60.
23 Richard Huelsenbeck, “Dada Lives,” Transition 25 (Fall 1916), 77–8; Ball, April 18,
1916, Flight Out of Time, 63.
24 Tristan Tzara, “Zurich Chronicle 1915–1919,” trans. Manheim, The Dada Painters
and Poets, 236.
50 Dada Magazines
25 Ball, “Als ich das Cabaret Voltaire gründete … ,” 5. Emphasis mine.

26 “ … Huelsenbeck (cocher): … Was sagt mir Dein Gesang von der Zeitschrift
Dada?/Tzara (alouette): Parce que le premier numéro de la Revue Dada paraît le
1 août 1916. Prix: 1 fr. Rédaction et administration: Spiegelgasse 1, Zurich; elle
n’a aucune relation avec la guerre et tente une activité moderne internationale hi
hi hi hi … / Huelsenbeck (cocher): o ja, ich sah—Dada kam aus dem Leib eines
Pferds als Blumenkorb. Dada platzte als Eiterbeule aus dem Schornstein eines
Wolkenkratzers, o ja, ich sah Dada—als Embryo der violetten Krokodile flog
Zinnoberschwanz Olululu Olululu Dada ist gross Dada ist schön … ” Huelsenbeck
and Tzara, “DADA, dialogue entre un cocher et un alouette,” Richard Huelsenbeck
and Tristan Tzara, “Dada: Dialogue entre un cocher et un alouette,” Cabaret
Voltaire, np, trans. Christina Mills, in Dada Reader, 27–8. My translation is based
on that of Mills with two changes: I take “Zeitschrift” to mean magazine, not
newspaper, and “numéro” (line six) as issue, not “edition.”
27 Hugo Ball, “Als ich das Cabaret Voltaire gründete … ” in Cabaret Voltaire, ed.
Hugo Ball (Zurich 1916), 5, trans. Christina Mills in The Dada Reader: A Critical
Anthology, ed. Dawn Ades (Chicago: University of Chicago Press and Tate
Publishing, 2006), 20.
28 Hugo Ball to August Hoffmann, June 2, 1916. Quoted in Lewer, “The Avant-Garde
in Swiss Exile,” 1038. Lewer translates “Propagandaheft” to mean “propaganda
magazine.”
29 Hugo Ball, Letter to August Hoffmann, June 2, 1916, quoted in Lewer, “The Avant-
Garde in Swiss Exile,” 1038.
30 “Das nächste Ziel der hier vereinigten Künstler ist die Herausgabe einer
internationalen Revue Internationale.” Ball, “Als ich das Cabaret Voltaire
gründete … ,” Cabaret Voltaire, 5.
31 Tristan Tzara to Giuseppe Raimondi, March 17, 1917, quoted in Dickerman,
“Zurich,” Dada, 32.
32 Huelsenbeck, “En Avant Dada,” 27.
33 Benjamin says that the anthology belongs in the category of “completeness,”
“a grand attempt to overcome the wholly irrational character of the object’s mere
presence at hand through its integration into a new, expressly devised historical
system: the collection … ” Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, trans. Howard
Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin (Cambridge, MA and London: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University, 1999 [written between 1927 and 1940]), 204–5.
34 Lewer, “The Avant-Garde in Swiss Exile 1914–20,” 1039.
35 Sudhalter, “How to Make a Dada Anthology,” Dadaglobe Reconstructed, 25.
Emphasis added.
36 Jeremy Braddock, Collecting as Modernist Practice (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2012), 16.
37 Braddock, 159. He references literary anthologies like the Futurists’ I poeti futuristi
(“The Futurist Poets”) (1912) and Ezra Pound’s Des Imagistes (“Imagists”) (1914).
38 Hugo Ball, Letter to Tristan Tzara, September 27, 1916, trans. Trevor Stark,
“Complexio Oppositorum: Hugo Ball and Carl Schmitt,” October 146 (Fall 2013), 47.
39 He edited Almanach der Freien Zeitung, an anthology of political materials
published in Die Freie Zeitung, in 1917 and 1918. For more on this publication, see
Lewer, “The Avant-Garde in Swiss Exile,” 1053–5.
40 For more on Tzara’s efforts in Zurich at this time, see Marius Hentea, TaTa Dada:
The Real Life and Celestial Adventures of Tristan Tzara (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
2014), 81–101.
41 Huelsenbeck, En Avant Dada, 33.
42 Tristan Tzara, “La Revue Dada No. 2,” Cabaret Voltaire, 19.
43 It reads, “The first issue is titled cabaret [sic] Voltaire and will now be called
Dada.” Henri Guilbeaux, “L’art de demain,” La Guerre Mondiale 6, no. 580 (July 18,
1916), 4634. Ball, notably, affirmed Guilbeaux’s harsh critique in a letter to Tzara
in fall 1916. Hugo Ball, Letter to Tristan Tzara, September 27, 1916, trans. Stark,
“Complexio Oppositorum,” 47. Notes, Dada 1, 16.
44 “On lance le mouvement dada.” Tristan Tzara, “Chronique Zurichoise,” in Œuvres
Complètes, ed. Henri Béhar, Tome I (1912–1924) (Paris: Flammarion, 1975–1982),
565.
45 For a history of magazine production in the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, see S. Morrisson, “Introduction: Mass Market Publicity—Modernism’s
Crisis and Opportunity,” The Public Face of Modernism, 3–16; Scholes and
Wulfman, “Modernity and the Rise of Modernism: A Review,” in Modernism in the
Magazines, 26–43; Hammill and Hussey, Modernism’s Print Cultures, 1–11.
46 See Anthony Burton, “Nineteenth-Century Periodicals” and Trevor Fawcett,
“Scholarly Journals,” both in The Art Press. See also Cynthia Lee Patterson, Art
for the Middle Classes: America’s Illustrated Magazines of the 1840s (Jackson, MS:
University Press of Mississippi, 2010).
47 Lacerba promoted Futurism briefly, from March 1913 to March 1914. Christine
Poggi, “Lacerba: Interventionist Art and Politics in Pre-World War I Italy,” in Art
and Journals on the Political Front, 1910–1940, ed. Virginia Hagelstein Marquardt
(Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1997), 19.
48 Dada 1 and Dada 2 measure about 7 ¾ × 9 inches (19.7 cm × 22.8); the deluxe
issues approximately 9 × 10 inches (23 × 26 cm). The first issue is eighteen pages
long; the second twenty-two. Both cost two francs for the regular edition and six
and eight francs for the deluxe editions of the first and second issues, respectively.
Funding came mostly from proceeds from the Galerie Dada. The print runs
of these two journals are not known. However, based on the print runs of the
following two issues, it was probably around 2,000 regular issues and between
52 Dada Magazines
thirty and thirty-eight deluxe editions. For more details on these two publications,
see Sanouillet and Baudouin, Dada.
49 Tristan Tzara, “Texte sur Dada” (c. 1930s), Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire,
Jacques Doucet, TZR 534.
50 See Raimond Meyer, Dada Global, 282. For more on how their branding mirrored
that of commercial products, see Kurt Beals, “Dada: Art and the Discourse of
Advertising,” New German Critique 44, no. 2 (2017): 45–50.
51 Huelsenbeck, En Avant Dada, 26.
52 References to Dada in Dada 1 are the title, two mentions of “Anthologie Dada,”
which eventually came out as Dada 4–5, Francesco Meriano’s reference to Dada
as the “ultima rivista dell’universo” (ultimate review of the universe), references
to “la première soirée de manifestation Dada” and mention of an event at the
Galerie Dada. “Notes,” Dada, no. 1 (July 1917): 16–17. Francesco Meriano, “Walk,”
2; “Notes,” Dada, no. 1 (July 1917): 16–17. In Dada 2, besides the title, the word
appears in the title of Pierre Albert-Birot’s poem, “Pour Dada,” in the notes, which
mention “Les Cahiers Dada,” and two references to Dada 1 and two to the “Dada
movement.” Pierre Albert-Birot, “Pour Dada”; “Notes,” “Mouvement Dada,” Dada
no. 2 (December 1917): np.
53 Michel Sanouillet, “Dada: A Definition,” Dada Spectrum, 21.
54 Niebisch, “Dada Media Subversion,” Media Parasites in the Early Avant-Garde, 33.
55 André Malraux, Museum without Walls (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc.,
1967), 12.
56 Hugo Ball to Kathe Brodnitz, June 3, 1916, quoted in Lewer, “The Avant-Garde in
Swiss Exile 1914–20,” 1043.
57 Lewer, “The Avant-Garde in Swiss Exile 1914–20,” 1043.
58 As Arnauld Pierre points out, there was a “porous interpenetration between
manifestations of the modern spirit and Dada.” Arnauld Pierre, “The
‘Confrontation of Modern Values’: A Moral History of Dada in Paris,” The Dada
Seminars, 247.
59 Jay Bochner, “Dadamags,” in Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York, ed. Francis
M. Naumann and Beth Venn (New York: Whitney Museum of Art, 1996), 215–16.
60 Paul Guillaume, letter to Tzara, June 28, 1916, quoted in Sanouillet, Dada in Paris,
485.
61 Paul Guillaume to Tzara, October 3, 1916, in Dada in Paris, 486; Guillaume
Apollinaire to Tristan Tzara, December 6, 1916, quoted in Adriana M. Paliyenko,
“Apollinaire and Dada: Influence Matters,” in Paris Dada: The Barbarians Storm the
Gates, ed. Elmer Peterson (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, Inc., 2001), 74, trans.
89, note 35.
62 “einer neuen Kunstrichtung Dada dar, die eine sehr sehr sehr sehr sehr freie, brutal
moderne und primitive Kunst sein wird.” Tzara to Apollinaire, October 1916,
quoted in Dada 15/25: Dokumentation und chronologischer Überblick zu Tzara &

Co. Neuauflage, ed. Raoul Schrott (DuMont Verlag, 2005), 71.
63 Although he had fought for the French army, he was particularly cautious at
this time because he had recently applied for naturalization and was under close
scrutiny. He feared being perceived as a German sympathizer, particularly because
of his former connections with Herwarth Walden and Der Sturm, and he had been
linked with (and then cleared of) the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in
1911. In his first letter to Tzara, Apollinaire apologizes to Tzara for not writing
earlier, admitting that he was concerned before that Tzara had an “above the mêlée”
(“au dessus de la mêlée”) attitude. Apollinaire to Tzara, December 6, 1916, quoted
in Paliyenko, “Apollinaire and Dada,” Paris Dada, 73–4, trans. 88, note 33.
64 Among the figures for whom he provided contact information were Enrico
Prampolini, Anton Bragaglia, and Giacomo Balla, Giorgio de Chirico and his
brother Alberto Savinio, and Carlo Carrà. Spaïni, who met Ball, Hennings, and
Richter in Berlin in 1912 when he was involved in the Der Sturm circle, moved to
Zurich in the summer of 1916 and immediately began participating in activities at
the Cabaret Voltaire. He translated Italian Futurist texts into German, and because
he had seen Futurist serate he could advise the Dadaists on their performances.
Richard Sheppard, “Chronology,” in Dada Artifacts, 30; Enrico Crispolti, “Dada
a Roma: Contributo alla partecipazione italiana al Dadaismo (Dada in Rome
Contribution to the Italian participation to the Dadaism)” Palatino: Rivista Romana
di Cultura 1, nos. 3–4 (July–December, 1966): 242.
65 For more on Noi, see Chris Michaelides, “Futurist Periodicals in Rome (1916–39):
From Effervescence to Disillusionment,” in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History
of Modernist Magazines, vol. III, part I, 568–71.
66 Enrico Prampolini to Tristan Tzara, August 4, 1917, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques
Doucet, Fonds Tristan Tzara, TZRC 3121.
67 Michaelides, “Futurist Periodicals in Rome,” 569.
68 Tzara suggests that they embark on some kind of collective activity, and in a letter
from October 1917, Prampolini writes, enthusiastically, that they can do many
things together if they continue to collaborate. Prampolini to Tzara, Bibliothèque
Littéraire Jacques Doucet, Fonds Tristan Tzara, TZRC 3120. In an earlier letter, he
writes that only Tzara can offer him “intellectual exchange.” Prampolini to Tzara,
January 1917, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, Fonds Tristan Tzara, TZRC
3116.
69 Tzara was also interested at this time in collecting materials for his anthology,
Dadaglobe, which never materialized. For more on Dadaglobe, see Sudhalter,
Dadaglobe Reconstructed.
70 Tristan Tzara to Francesco Meriano, June 12, 1917, quoted in Dada 15/25 (2005),
83, 140; Tzara to Meriano, August 1, 1917, quoted in Giovanni Lista, “Encore sur
Tzara et le futurisme,” Les Lettres Nouvelles (December 1974): 141–2.
54 Dada Magazines
71 Tzara to de Pisis, quoted in Sanouillet, Dada: réimpression intégrale II, 185.

72 “Mouvement” (“Movement”) and “La grande complainte de mon obsurité” (“A
great complaint of my obscurity”) in February, “Mouvement Dada-Marcel Janco,”
in July, and “Pelamide” in October.
73 On the manuscript of the poem that Cantarelli sent to Tzara, the title is
“Costellazione Vita,” literally, “Constellation Life.” TZR C 783 64, Dossiers Tristan
Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet. Tzara requested that all Italian
contributions to his journal be translated into French. He nevertheless printed this
poem in Italian. Cantarelli also submitted two additional poems, “Cristal-prélude”
and “Dieux-Lumière,” which are translated into French. However, the French
manuscripts of both poems are riddled with grammatical errors. These manuscripts
include many corrections, written in pencil. TZR C 783 65–6, Dossiers Tristan
Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet.
74 There are many mistakes in the printing of “Movimento Dada.” Corrections are
marked in pencil on the copy of this issue in the Special Collections at the Getty
Research Institute Research Library, probably Tzara’s copy, given the handwriting
and the fact that other journals from his collection are housed at the Getty Research
Institute. Most likely the mistakes occurred because Tzara submitted his poem in
writing and the typist’s and/or editors’ French was weak. Procellaria 4, Jean Brown
Collection, Getty Research Institute.
75 Gino Cantarelli to Tristan Tzara, November 23, 1917, Dossiers Tristan Tzara,
76 Dada 1 lists La Pagine and La Brigata, as well as L’Italia Futurista (ed. Arnaldo
Ginna and Emilio Settimelli, Florence, 1916–1918), along with other publications
by Italians, such as Emporio by Filippo de Pisis. “Notes,” Dada 1, 17. Dada 2 lists La
Pagine, La Brigata, Noi, and Procellaria. Dada 2, 20.
77 Filippo de Pisis to Tzara, September 22, 1916 and Cantarelli to Tzara, October
1916, quoted in Filippo de Pisis, Futurismo, Dadaismo, Metafisica (Milan: Libri
Scheiwiller, 1981), 85, 86–7.
78 de Pisis, Futurismo, Dadaismo, Metafisica, 92.
79 Guillaume had helped de Zayas acquire works of art for his gallery in New York
beginning in 1915. In Guillaume’s letter to Tzara from June 28, 1916, concerning
Apollinaire, Guillaume also gave the Romanian poet the address of de Zayas’s
gallery (500 Fifth Avenue), identifying him as the editor of 291 and “the most
widely known man in the progressive milieus of the United States.” Paul Guillaume
to Tristan Tzara, June 28, 1916, quoted in Dada in Paris, 485.
80 Chapter 4 includes discussion of Dada in New York.
81 For more on 291 and Ridgefield Gazook, see David Hopkins, “Proto-Dada: The New
York Connection,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines,
vol. III, part I, 161–3.
82 Tristan Tzara to Marius de Zayas, December 28, 1916, Schrott, Dada 15/25 (2005),
76. Scholars disagree about what he sent, Cabaret Voltaire or The First Celestial
Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine. Francis Naumann proposes that this publication
was the magazine Cabaret Voltaire, based on the fact that de Zayas placed the
word “Dada” in inverted commas, as Ball did in his introduction to the magazine.
Francis Naumann, “The New York Dada Movement: Better Late Than Never,”
Arts Magazine 54, no. 6 (February 1980): 143. Dawn Ades concurs. Dawn Ades,
“Introduction,” in Three New York Dadas and the Blind Man: Marcel Duchamp,
Henri-Pierre Roché, Beatrice Wood, ed. Dawn Ades and Alastair Brotchie (London:
Atlas Press, 2013), 8, note 3. Ileana Leavens argues that the publication was Tzara’s
The First Celestial Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine, since the words “collection dada”
to which de Zayas may have been referring appear underneath the title in the
frontispiece. Ileana B. Leavens, From “291” to Zurich: The Birth of Dada. Studies
in the Fine Arts: The Avant-Garde, No. 39, ed. Stephen C. Foster (Ann Arbor: UMI
Research Press, 1983), 116.
83 Antipyrine was the name of a headache medicine at the time. Elmer Peterson,
Tristan Tzara: Dada and Surrational Theorist (New Brunswick: Rutgers University
Press, 1971), 8–9; Michael Taylor, “New York,” Dada, ed. Dickerman, 298, n. 41.
84 Tzara to de Zayas, December 28, 1916 Dada in Paris, 504.
85 Marius de Zayas to Tristan Tzara, November 16, 1916; Tristan Tzara to de Zayas,
December 28, 1916, quoted in Dada in Paris, 507, 503–4.
86 For a discussion of The Blind Man, see Ades, “Introduction,” Three New York Dadas
and The Blind Man, 9–23. This book also includes notes on each page: “The Blind
Man, Note and Commentary,” 147–53. For a discussion of the second issue of The
Blind Man, particularly regarding “Fountain,” see Hopkins, “Proto-Dada: The New
York Connection,” 166–8. Hopkins also offers a brief analysis of Rongwrong, also
published in 1917, and edited by Duchamp, Roché, Wood, and Man Ray, likely to
celebrate Picabia’s return to the United States. Hopkins, “Proto-Dada: The New
York Connection,” 168–70.
87 Marcel Duchamp, Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp, interview by Pierre Cabanne,
trans. Ron Padgett (London: De Capo Press, 1979), 56.
88 Duchamp, Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp, 55. In an unpublished interview with
James Johnson Sweeney in 1945, Duchamp made the following, rather ambiguous
statement: “1917—I got Monsieur Antipyrine of Tzara to Arensberg.” Marcel
Duchamp, August 5, 1945, interview by James Johnson Sweeney, Marcel Duchamp
Archives, Philadelphia Museum of Art. For more on “proto-dada attitudes in
America,” see David Hopkins, “New York Dada: From End to Beginning,” in A
Companion to Dada and Surrealism, 70–88. Additional sources on Dada in New
York include the anthology of essays, Martin Ignatius Gaughan, ed., Dada New
York: New World for Old, vol. 8, Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, ed.
56 Dada Magazines
Stephen C. Foster (New Haven: G.K. Hall, 2003). Dickran Tashjian, Skyscraper
Primitives: Dada and the American Avant-Garde, 1910–1925 (Middletown, CN:
Wesleyan University Press, 1975), and Francis M. Naumann, ed., Making Mischief:
Dada Invades New York (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art and Harry
N. Abrams, Inc., 1996).
89 Typed sheet of questions with Duchamp’s written replies, in preparation for
Duchamp’s lecture at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, November 28, 1961, Teeny
Duchamp Papers, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
90 Duchamp, interview with art critic Hubert Crehan, New York, 1960, “Dada,”
Evidence (Toronto), no. 3 (Fall 1961), 36. Quoted in Michael Taylor, “New York,”
Dada, ed. Dickerman, 280.
91 Ibid. Calvin Tomkins calls attention to the resonances between the ideas of
Duchamp and the Zurich collective: Dada’s rejection of all traditions, its nose-
thumbing attitude toward social values (including art), its indifference, and at a
deeper level its denial of art’s interpretive function—Dada demanded that art be
a part of life rather than a commentary on life or an improvement on life—all
this was very close to Duchamp’s own thinking. Calvin Tomkins, Duchamp: A
Biography (New York: H. Holt, 1996), 192.
92 Bochner, “Dadamags,” Making Mischief, 220.
93 Hopkins, “Proto-Dada: The New York Connection,” 166.
94 Guillaume Apollinaire, “Le cas de Richard Mutt,” Mercure de France 16, VI (June
16, 1918), 764.
95 Raoul Hausmann, quoted in Karin Füllner, Richard Huelsenbeck: Texte und
Aktionen eines Dadaisten (Carl Winter Universitatsverlag: Heidelberg, 1983),
18. On February 16, 1917, Huelsenbeck wrote to Tzara, sharing his plans for a
“Propaganda evening,” for example, to be held on January 20, 1918, at the Saal der
Neuen Sezession in Berlin, and asking Tzara for manuscripts and graphic artworks
for the event. Richard Huelsenbeck to Tristan Tzara, February 16, 1917, Zurich—
Dadaco—Dadaglobe: The Correspondence between Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan
Tzara and Kurt Wolff (1916–1924), ed. Richard Sheppard (Fife, Scotland: Hutten
Press, 1982), 10.
96 Huelsenbeck to Tzara, quoted in Sheppard, Zürich—Dadaco—Dadaglobe, most
likely May 1917, 10–11. For more on Neue Jugend, see Simmons, “Neue Jugend”: in
A Companion to Dada and Surrealism, 38–53.
97 It appeared in the May 23, 1917 issue. Ades, Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, 80.
98 “Sie müssen Ihre ganz Kraft daran setzen uns hierbei zu unterstützen, da wir
Ihnen hier eine Propaganda machen, die Ihnen geschäftlich und ideell von
allergrößtemNutzen sein kann.” Huelsenbeck to Tzara, August 2, 1917, quoted in
Zürich—Dadaco—Dadaglobe, 12.
2
“Every Page Must Explode”: Manipulating the

Magazine Medium, 1918–1920
“Every page must explode, either by profound heavy seriousness, the whirlwind,
poetic frenzy, the new, the eternal, the crushing joke, enthusiasm for principles,
or by the way in which it is printed.”1 Tzara’s directive conveys the centrality of
serials and inventive graphic design for the Dadaists beginning in 1918. The
First World War officially ended in November 1918, and though limitations on
travel and censorship persisted, and in some areas even increased, Dada kept
growing. By 2020, its magazines had transformed the group from a relatively
small cluster of artists in Zurich and Berlin to a widely known, if marginally
understood, movement with affiliates well beyond these two cities.2 A month
after the armistice, Tzara’s Dada 3 came out in Zurich, and five months later he
and Picabia collaborated with Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia and Jean (Hans) Arp to
produce Dada 4–5 (May 1919).3 In Berlin, Dada events promoted the movement,
and June and September 1919 saw the publication of the first two issues of Der
Dada, the first and second edited by Hausmann with Johannes Baader’s help,
and the third by Hausmann, John Heartfield, and George Grosz.4 As Tzara’s
relations with Italian editors cooled, he developed stronger ties in Paris.5 Francis
Picabia’s cover design for the eighth issue of his itinerant 391 (Barcelona, New
York, Zurich, Paris, 1917–1924)—showing the names of publications and
people (from New York and Paris) arranged on a grid—manifests how various
periodicals and individuals formed the fabric, or network, of exchange that was
Dada (Figure 2.1).6
In 1918, Dada editors appropriated a medium predicated on communication
only to sabotage legibility and playfully uproot assumptions about their chosen
medium. Dada magazines, particularly Dada 3 and Dada 4–5, and the first two
issues of Der Dada defied standard practices in formatting, typography, and the
very division between art and venue, making easy page navigation impossible.7
These pages call for active involvement and direct (even destructive) interaction.
58 Dada Magazines
Figure 2.1 391 8, ed. Francis Picabia, Zurich, 1917, front cover, c. 1917, 17 ¼ ×
10 13∕16 in. (43.8 × 27.5 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections,
University of Iowa Libraries.
Manipulating the Magazine Medium, 1918–1920 59
By thwarting readability, they call attention to magazines’ mediated quality.8

Dada editors were engaging the periodical as an artistic medium, recognizing
it as critical not only to advancing inventive graphic design but also to
reimagining the very definition of art, both major contributions of the group as
a whole. In all of these ways, these serials enabled the Dadaists to defy pretenses
of transparency and unmitigated communication championed in political and
military realms in the early twentieth century.
Tzara, Huelsenbeck, Heartfield, Grosz, and others involved with these
periodicals manipulated them as ersatz, transportable, reproduced, reoriented,
and thus fundamentally new kinds of exhibition spaces. These venues offered
many advantages over three-dimensional exhibitions spaces. They did not
require a space or the transportation or installation of (often fragile) pieces
but are relatively easy and inexpensive to compile and distribute. Whereas an
exhibition lasts only a brief period, a journal, though categorized as ephemera,
can survive for many generations. Contributors made choices regarding
images and texts with magazines, now the primary venue for their works, in
mind. This determined the types of artworks Dadaists made and questioned
the privileging of originality, singularity, single authorship, presence, and fixed
meaning. Dada journals not only functioned as alternative sites—long before
artists’ experimentations with periodicals in late twentieth century—but also as
models for novel display techniques in “regular” three-dimensional exhibitions
(as explored in the next chapter).9
This chapter opens with an exploration of how Dada magazines’
combinations of materials continued to engender diverse interpretations of
Dada. It then probes their unorthodox typography and layout and how the
chaotic juxtaposition of disparate materials calls attention to the editorial
process and the venue itself, prompting interaction and anticipating such
contemporary practices as Dirty New Media and glitch art. After demonstrating
how magazines’ importance to Dada and material nature determined the types
of art Dadaists created, it ends by showing how these publications worked to
reorient perceptions of display venues.
Disseminating “Dada,” Multiplying Interpretations
Texts in the 1918–1920 magazines are consistently unhelpful for the reader
seeking to understand Dada. Tzara’s “Manifeste Dada 1918” (“Dada Manifesto
1918”) in Dada 3 directly defies attempts to delimit the movement. “Dada ne
60 Dada Magazines
signifie rien” (“Dada means nothing”) appears in bold, a hand pointing to it.
Tzara further encouraged multiple responses with statements like “I speak only
for myself since I do not wish to convince, I have no right to drag others into
my river, I oblige no one to follow me and everybody practices his art in his own
way.”10 In Dada 4–5, his “Proclamation sans Pretension” (“Proclamation without
Pretension”) comes closest to characterizing the movement, presenting Dada
as an alternative to “art,” but it is still not very helpful: “Art goes to sleep for the
birth of a new world/‘ART’—a parrot word—replaced by DADA.”11 The essay
“Der Letze Lockerung” (“The Ultimate Loosening Up”) by German writer and
early Dada enthusiast Walter Serner, published in the German Dada 4–5, echoes
Tzara’s words: “World views are world mixtures. A dog is a hammock. Art is
dead. Viva Dada!”12 German artist Hans Richter’s essay “Gegen ohne für Dada”
(“Against without for Dada”) in the same issue is similarly confounding, though
it does express suspicion toward collective membership:
?! Dada!!—Nobody belongs to it!?—We nevertheless belong to it … The
obligation which we took upon ourselves, the avowal ‘of belonging to something,’
is an error that you thank yourselves for …13
Later, the line “Our companionship … lies beyond any group, movement or
Dada magazine” confirms that no single publication speaks for all Dadaists.14
The first two issues of Der Dada characterize Dada as a mix between a product
and a governmental institution. In his “Erklärung Dada” (“Dada Declaration”)
in Der Dada 1, Baader tells readers that if they want to stay informed about
Dada they must consult documents available in the State Chancery and Office
of the President of the Republic. His formal announcement ends enigmatically:
“In spite of everything the heart of Dada remains secret. Freemasons and
Jesuits are not Dada.”15 They tout Dada as a means to financial success. Der
Dada 1 promotes the movement, albeit in off-putting terms: “Advertise in
Dada! Dada spreads your business like an infection over the whole world.”16
The essay “Legen Sie Ihr Geld in Dada an!” (“Invest your money in Dada!”),
in Der Dada 1, by the “Zentralamt des Dadaismus” (“Central Office of Dada”)
promises, “Dada is more than Tao and Brahma,” adding, “Dada doubles your
income.”17 Such enigmatic texts confuse any single perception of what, if
anything, is officially Dada.
Images, too, signal the Dadaists’ defiant heterogeneity. In addition to
contributions from Richter, Arp, Tzara, Marcel Janco, and Arthur Segal, Dada
3 combines poems, essays, drawings, and prints from members of the Parisian
avant-garde, including Philippe Soupault, Dermée, Albert-Birot, Pierre
Reverdy, and Chilean poet Vincente Huidobro (then living in Paris), and Picabia
and from Italy Enrico Prampolini, Alberto Savinio, Giuseppe Raimondi, and
Camillo Sbarbaro. The German version also shows works by Huelsenbeck and
Jakob van Hoddis.18 Despite a tendency toward abstraction, these pieces have
no inherent connection and the magazines’ titles suggest that this is exactly
what Dada is.
Even single issues came out in different versions. To avoid censors, Dada 3 and
Dada 4–5 was in two versions—French and German—and they are more distinct
from each other than previous pairs had been. In Dada 4–5, while the German
one includes German texts from several Dada events in Zurich, in the French
the only record of an event is Tzara’s “Proclamation without Pretension.”19 The
contents of nine pages of Dada 4–5 are entirely different, making the two more
distinct than those of Dada 3.20 Because of readers’ dependence on the magazines
for grasping Dada, these two iterations of Dada 4–5 not only described, but also
effectively created two distinct Dada movements from Zurich. Deluxe issues
further complicated matters, as they included special limited-edition prints.21
As the war came to an end and Dada became more widely known, affiliates
made efforts to actually establish their claim on Dada. The Berlin Dadaists
began to distinguish themselves from their colleagues in Zurich, anticipating
future divisions. The editors of Der Dada used the magazine to promote
themselves as the center of Dada.22 Der Dada 1 announces, “The Central Office
of Dada is now in Berlin,” and declarations in both the first and second issues
of Der Dada are signed by the “Zentralamt des Dadaismus” (“Central Office of
Dada”).23 Besides manifesting the Berlin Dadaists’ parody of a governmental
bureaucracy, such statements reflect a change in their attitude toward their
colleagues in Zurich directly. Neither Der Dada 1 nor Der Dada 2 mentions
Zurich at all. A May 3, 1919 letter from Huelsenbeck (who had arrived in Berlin
from Zurich in January 1917) to Tzara begins, sarcastically, “Dada Greetings
leader!” and goes on,
I just received from Hausmann your impertinent controlling words putting
down guidelines and program points. We are of the opinion that you in your
village there have no idea at all. We refuse to tolerate any interference into our
affairs. The Center of Dada is in Berlin. It seems that the success of your last
soirée turned your head.24
In response, Tzara reminded Huelsenbeck that Dada was born in Zurich,

but Huelsenbeck, unheeding, continued to insist on the centrality of Berlin,
scrawling, “Zentrale der Dadaistischen Bewegung” (“Center Office of the Dada
62 Dada Magazines
movement”) on the top of a later letter to Tzara.25 There is only one submission
from Tzara in any of the three issues of Der Dada: his poem, “Ange” (“Angel”),
and it does not associate him with the Dada movement. At the same time,
their journals were already beginning to spawn new interpretations of Dada
internationally. The multicentered, nonhierarchical, open-ended, permissive
system these publications initiated prompted others to make magazines that
in turn had various contributions. In this way they expanded the number of
potential interpretations and set into motion a movement that transcended
Tzara and Huelsenbeck’s individual concerns and convictions, as we will see in
later chapters.
Models to Be Outdone: Avant-Garde Magazines in the 1910s
Dada editors looked for inspiration regarding graphic design to preceding

and contemporary magazines, mentioned in Chapter 1, who manipulated
typography in their periodicals.26 Les Soirées de Paris presents Apollinaire’s
calligrammes, in which he altered the typeface and placement of the letters to
form images related to the content of the poem. Lacerba contains large pages of
parole in libertà, combining letters and mathematical, diacritical, musical, and
graphic marks in various typefaces and font sizes to create explosive, dynamic
spreads. The Vorticists’ Blast was one of the brashest predecessors to the Dada
publications. In the first issue, which measures over a foot high, its impudent
title blares diagonally across the cover in bold sans serif caps against a bright
pink background. Inside, the disjointedness of staccato phrases, many of them
texts addressing readers in a confrontational manner, is reinforced by the graphic
design, which imitates newspapers, posters, and advertisements, with at least
two font sizes on each page, some underlined, with vertical lines framing parts
of the text.27 Finally, the stunning caricatures, calligrammes, and “psychotype”
(offshoots of calligrammes) in 291 made it particularly influential.28
Earlier magazines by current and future Dada affiliates served as models
for the editors of Dada and Der Dada, as well. Heartfield’s cover of the June
1917 issue of Herzefelde’s version of Neue Jugend (“New Youth”) (Heinz Barger
and Friedrich Hollaender, Wieland Herzfelde, Berlin, 1914, 1916–1917), for
instance, anticipated the jumbled typography of Dada publications. The cover
of Jedermann sein eigner Fußball: Illustrierte Halbmonatsschrift (“Everyman
His Own Football: Illustrated Fortnightly Magazine”) (Wieland Herzfelde,
Berlin, 1919) features the first published photomontages: Grosz’s showing
photos of Weimar cabinet members arranged on a photo of a fan, with the
header, “Preisausschreiben! Wer ist der Schönste??” (“Competition! Who is the

Fairest??”) and Heartfield’s of his brother Herzfelde wearing a huge ball and
holding a cane and bowler hat in either hand.29 The single-issue Club Dada
(Raoul Hausmann, Richard Huelsenbeck, Franz Jung, Berlin, 1918) also predicts
Der Dada tactics.30 In Hausmann’s woodcut cover design, a hen seems to be
“hatching” Dada, with letters spelling “Club Dada” floating randomly in the
center.31 The names of the publisher and editors appear just below, with arbitrary
capitalization with variations in font size in a disjointed arrangement. Picabia’s
391, too, was a model. Though most of its spreads are elegantly composed, in
the fifth issue from June 1917, a text by Albert Gleizes, “La Peinture Moderne”
(“The Modern Painter”), appears in Globe Gothic, a popular sans serif font type
in 1917 that fell out of use because it is practically illegible.32 The eighth issue
of 391 reveals another graphic subversion: the top shows a text by Tzara and
Picabia, half of which appears upside down.33
Yet it could be said that all of these magazines bracket experimentation;
graphic design is otherwise unremarkable, with texts and images clearly legible
and separated from one another. The title and printing intervals of these
publications adhere to a uniform format, as well.34 Most issues of Lacerba arrange
texts in two regular columns, and even some parole in libertà are squeezed into
this format, and its page numbers are continuous from issue to issue. In Der
Sturm small woodblock images consistently punctuate texts. In 291, textual and
visual entries usually are clearly separate, leaving readers’ basic expectations
unchallenged.35
Dadaists’ experiments went further, undermining print conventions and
upending assumptions about the role of art and magazine production. At a
time when technologies like the radio and the typewriter were feeding an
ever-growing drive for clearer and faster communication, particularly in the
military, the Dadaists generated noise.36 They did so in various ways. They
combined various kinds of texts and images, scrambled layouts and font types
and sizes, provoked readers, crafted works explicitly for reproduction, and used
the publications themselves as sources and sites for collages. In these ways the
editors, working with printers, resisted the notion of transparency and called
attention to magazines as creative sites.
Printing Eclecticism, Making Noise
“If code, signal processing and network flow have become the dominant tropes
of our time, then it is perhaps only through error, failure and breakdown that
64 Dada Magazines
one may find a temporary reprieve.”37 These words by “glitch” artists of the early
twenty-first century capture parallels between their efforts and those of the
Dadaists. Both aim to expose the mediated nature of communication technology
in an age of urgent efforts to alleviate noise and increase connectedness.38 With
an emphasis on materiality, glitch artists, as well as Dirty New Media (DNM)
artists like Jon Cates and Rosa Menkman, highlight materiality and conventions
in a manner that questions the possibility of straightforward communication.39
In so doing they reveal that, as Cates points out, “our technologies are not
neutral.”40 Alfredo Salazar-Caro, digital artist and cofounder of the Digital
Museum of Digital Art (DiMoDa), explains that Dirty New Media involves
“exploiting error.”41 Like the Dadaists, they “[embrace] the cyber flaws, short
circuits, and disjointed components” and their art conveys very little actual
content.42
Besides the confusing variety of texts and images described above, the Dada
reviews from this time showcase a striking jumble of genres tied to special
material characteristics. Poems presented at scandalous Dada performances,
announcements and manifestoes posted on city walls, clippings from popular
magazines and newspapers, and cutouts from earlier Dada journals. In Dada
3, an untitled woodcut by Prampolini, a mechanomorphic drawing, “Abri”
(“Shelter”), and a poem by Picabia, and an excerpt of a text by Pierre Albert-Birot
combine with advertisements for Picabia’s Poèmes et dessins de la fille née sans
mère (“Poems and Drawings of the Girl Born without a Mother”), the review SIC
(Pierre Albert-Birot, Paris, 1916–1919), and a Dada aphorism: “Taste is tiring
like good company.”43 In Der Dada 2, the poem that begins “Was ist Dada?”
(“What is Dada?”) butts up against Baader’s self-advertisement, “Reklame für
mich” (“Advertisement for myself ”), and Grosz’s crude “self-portrait” of a man
and his dog arranged off-kilter on the top left.44 Each of these eclectic materials
still carries with its some of its original impact (as a poem or ad, e.g.), and the
printing, arrangement, and typography of these materials tell readers that they
come from many sources.
Dada editors did not try to mitigate the potential dissonance created by
this intermingling. Instead, they intentionally botched the transposition of the
assorted media—handwritten poems, drawings, photographs, for example—that
they received. Furthermore, they “primitivized” the media they employed, as
Matthew Witkovsky puts it.45 They chose a broad range of techniques that were
not new, such as photolithography, wood engraving, line block reproduction
(a form of etching), halftone block printing, letterpress, and linotype.46
Misregisters, sloppy applications of color, jagged cuts, typos, and combinations
of various kinds of contributions and arbitrarily assorted font types and sizes
accentuate the multiplicity of sources and processes for composing each
page. Rather than trying to silence inevitable interferences, they juxtaposed
various media and amplified the noise generated by resorting to antiquated
processes, emphasizing the kinds of mistakes (typos, unaligned or uneven print
registrations, for example) enabled by them.47 The resultant pages manifest their
resistance to a prevailing preoccupation with streamlining interactions.48
The appearance of the magazines enabled and expressed the Dadaists’
resistance to being defined and delimited. As Arndt Niebisch explains, “Dada
cannot be translated into a communicable content that is a noise-free message,
precisely because it is not a message but rather an intended disturbance of
communication.”49 Creating clatter, they also exposed the underlying codes of
exchange and, as Witkovsky points out, “interrogate[ed] the production and
distribution of information in the media age.”50 They exposed the weaknesses of
media systems. They lambasted the codes, while also resisting the strategies of
hegemonic powers seeking to control exchange in the early twentieth century.
Exposing Codes, Sabotaging Communication, Provoking

Interaction: Layout and Typography
The layout of the Dada magazines highlights the diversity of materials it

presents all the more. These publications foreground process and production,
reminding readers that these pages comprise materials collected from various
sources, then arranged, and printed horizontally. The Dadaists’ harnessing of the
creative potential of journals is immediately obvious from the cover of Dada 3
(Figure 2.2). Tzara dropped the subtitle, “Literary and Artistic Collection,” and
the publication is much larger than the first two issues. Instead of Dada 1 and
2’s sober, spare cover featuring the title, subtitle, and date on the upper left
with a small print below, here the title, in bold orange-red letters, crowns a
dynamic composition. The statement, “Je ne veux meme pas savoir s’il y a eu
des hommes avant moi” (“I do not even want to know if there have been men
before me”), spans diagonally across the cover, expressing Dadaists’ professed
disregard for not only earlier literary and artistic traditions, but also standard
printing practices. Janco’s abstract woodcut (which had appeared in the first
issue of Noi in 1917) is not unlike those on the covers of the two first issues of
Dada and Cabaret Voltaire, but it is much larger and interacts with the texts to
create an animated composition not found in earlier Dada journals. In deluxe
66 Dada Magazines
Figure 2.2 Dada 3, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1918, Mouvement Dada, front cover,
c. 1917, 13 ¼ × 9 11∕16 in. (33.7 × 24.6 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections,
University of Iowa Libraries (see Plate 3).
issues, the woodcut is hand-painted in pale salmon and green watercolor,

highlighted on the bottom right with what looks like a thumbprint in the same
colors, from which the address of “Mouvement DADA” radiates.
Throughout Der Dada 1 and 2 and Dada 3 and 4/5, poems, slogans,
drawings, and prints appear in many directions, and their jumbled
juxtaposition upsets conventions that readers rely on to comprehend
content or even to distinguish between texts. The composition encourages
readers’ eyes to jump around among the texts and images at various speeds,
effecting what Hanne Bergius calls in her analysis of Berlin periodicals “the
dynamization of the reading process.”51 The entire cover of Der Dada 1, for
instance, forms a dynamic composition of letters printed in various type
fonts, sizes, and styles in many directions. The title alone is in two fonts, two
sizes, and in two different directions. “Der” is capitalized and is set diagonally,
and “dada” is in lowercase but in a larger font size. In Zurich, Tzara treated
each letter and graphic element as “a rigid readymade,” according to Ellen
Lupton, and then experimented with the associated conventions. Disparate
typographic pieces arranged in seemingly haphazard ways work in tension
with the strictures of the printing press, specifically the grid of letterpress.52
In Dada 3, a dedication to Picabia bumps up against the first line of Tzara’s
poem, “Bulletin,” in the same font type and size, and an announcement for
his compilation, 25 poèmes, appears sideways, right next to the poem.53 In
Dada 4/5, on a page of announcements and poetry, texts appear in several
font types in two directions. Tzara’s poem “Raccroc” receives no priority over
the advertisements, usually relegated to the back.
Further upending expected divisions, Dada editors also began stripping
away framing devices for images. In the first two issues of Dada Tzara had tried
to make the reproduction of each image as close as possible to the original by
giving each its own page and labeling it. Here, as Tzara explained, “drawings,
poems, notes, and advertisements intertwined with one another to make clear
the position of the Dadaists who, wanting to confuse everything, disregarded
aesthetic requirements.”54 Frames disappear and works encroach upon each
other, sometimes even overlapping one another. In Der Dada 1 and 2, too,
commercial and literary texts, slogans, announcements, manifestoes, and essays
intermingle with images. In Der Dada 3 (April 1920), for instance, a false ad
for Charlie Chaplin bisects Hausmann’s essay, “Dada in Europa,” with photos in
opposite corners (Figure 2.3).55 On another page, a text by “Popocabia” overlaps
with figure sketches, a photo of a pair of socks, ads for Dada and for magazines,
as well as random statements printed in red and black ink in various font types
and angles (Figure 2.4).
Increasingly, titles and the names of artists are missing, another example of
the editors’ moving away from the prioritization of the original artwork-with-
label format. Images dialogue with poems, announcements, and manifestoes,
thus emphasizing the printed nature of the journal. Layout emphasizes the shape,
alignment, font, and spacing of texts. A page from Dada 3 shows two abstract
woodblock prints placed directly alongside texts (Figure 2.5). The diagonal
on the left side of Janco’s architectonic, almost calligraphic, composition
accentuates the jagged left edge formed by the lines of the poem below, and
the tentacles of Arp’s biomorphic shape reach up to the advertisement. In Dada
4–5, an excerpt from a Pierre Albert-Birot calligrammic poem, “le triangle,”
forms a triangle, forcing many words, even two-letter words like “un,” to split
between two lines to maintain the triangular shape. It rhymes with Hausmann’s
68 Dada Magazines
Figure 2.3 Der Dada 3, ed. George Grosz, John Heartfield, and Raoul Hausmann,
Berlin, 1920, Malik-Verlag, p. 4, 9 1∕16 × 6 1∕8 in. (23 × 15.6 cm). International Dada
Archive, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries (see Plate 4).
triangular woodcut on the same page. In Der Dada 1, a woodcut by Hausmann

appears unlabeled, and the texts move to the right to accommodate the image.
On page twelve of Der Dada 3, three photos of Gerhard Preiss doing the “Dada-
Trott” dance up and down across the top, with the words, “Dada-Trott” repeated
as if in accompaniment, with various texts printed in different fonts below it. A
profile sketch overlaps with Wieland Herzfelde’s text. In all of these examples,
page designs privilege neither texts nor images.
The magazines’ typography, too, underlines disjointedness and exposes
visual codes. In Dada 3, Tzara explained, “[T]ypographic order is ignored.”
Typography “is a demonstration in itself.”56 One could say the same about the
other Dada titles discussed in this chapter. By combining various font types and
sizes on a page, a text, a line, or even a word, and by disobeying rules for helping
readers navigate the reviews, the Dadaists resisted communications priorities
70 Dada Magazines
Figure 2.5 Dada 3, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1918, Mouvement Dada, p. 13,
13 ¼ × 9 11∕16 in. (33.7 × 24.6 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections,
of the time. They made readers notice the visual nature of words, even to the
detriment of comprehending them. As Arthur Cohen observes, with Dada,
“Type came alive, living things squirming on the page, requiring that the words
be re-read and reconceived, that the writing itself be composed as typography
and reapprehended as a living voice.”57 Words typically emphasized, such as
titles, appear in relatively small print, and font types vary arbitrarily within a
single text, with random letters in boldface and underlined.
In issues of Der Dada texts are in many font types and sizes, from Fraktur to
contemporary types then common for commercial texts.58 An advertisement
in Der Dada 2 asks, “What is Dada? An Art? A Philosophy? A Policy? A Fire
Insurance? Or: State Religion? Is Dada really Energy? Or is it Nothing at all i.e.,
everything?” This short passage is written in at least three font types and in more
than four font sizes (Figure 2.6). Certain words, like “Energie,” stand out because
they appear in boldface or with a shadow outline, while graphic elements such as
borders and a pointing hand highlight parts of the text. Similarly, in Dada 3, Tzara’s
poem “Bulletin,” mentioned above, is in ten font types in five sizes, accentuating
the disjointedness of the poem’s words, many of them seemingly lifted from
placards and headlines. The poem’s title is in large, bold, capitalized letters and
thus is the only conventionally formatted part of the page. The font size of the title
of Paul Dermée’s poem, “à Kisling,” printed just above Tzara’s is smaller than that of
the rest of the poem, and the title, poem, and author’s name are each in a different
font. The lines of the poem do not keep to any specific left margin, and the end
of the poem, “Mécanique de ma vie” (“Machinery of My Life”), is arbitrarily in
all caps. As marked texts, they broadcast their visuality, the arbitrariness of
printing practices, and how words’ appearances affect reception.59 As Johanna
Drucker clarifies, the Dadaists tried “to disrupt, subvert, and call attention to the
very mechanisms of production used in signification as a socially and culturally
bound system of order.”60 They also either substituted page numbers, a mainstay of
periodicals, usually continuous from issue to issue to aid navigation, with fractions
and algebraic equations (Der Dada 3), or excluded them altogether (Dada 3).
Dadaists’ unorthodox engagement with the magazine forced readers into
an active role. Dada texts address audiences directly, often borrowing from
advertising language, again mockingly exposing the obsessively guarded, if
artificial, barriers between arts with the mass-produced commodity. We find
appeals like “Invest Your Money in Dada” and “If you find it futile and don’t
want to waste your time on a word that means nothing.”61 Rather than serving
as absent conduits of information, Dadaists also interjected themselves by using
photographs. On page three of Der Dada 2, Hausmann and Baader’s essay,
“Tretet Dada bei” (“Join Dada”), is accompanied by a photo of the authors,
with Baader staring down the camera. Graphic design reinforces this call for
reader interaction. The foregrounding of the intervention of the author and
printer disrupts the assumed transparency and authority of the text, which
was particularly alarming when applied to literary texts, which are usually left
unmarked, that is, uniformly, without any typographical experimentation.62 As
72 Dada Magazines
Figure 2.6 Der Dada 2, ed. Raoul Hausmann, Berlin, 1919, p. 6, 14 2⁄5 × 9 in. (29 ×
23 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
a result, rather than focusing solely on the literary merits of the poem or the
persuasiveness of an ad, readers have to work to determine even what kind of text
it is. No longer able to depend on visual clues regarding the relative significance
or content of texts, readers had to involve themselves. The ensuing confusion
exposes the mediation inherent in any form of communication.
Dada magazines’ graphic design thereby stalled efforts to get through issues
quickly and thus interrogated their own seriality, a defining characteristic of
periodicals. Unlike a book, an issue of a journal speaks of the next one. Readers
assume that design will allow them to take in each page as quickly and easily
as possible before the next issue, already in production, arrives. Dada editors
enforced a slowing down and wrestling with the materiality of the magazine.
They further challenged the notion of seriality by printing issues at irregular
intervals and changing the format and sometimes even the title from issue to
issue. Dada journals did not appear at standard intervals, and the format and
sometimes even the title changed from issue to issue.
For example, a particularly confusing case is Dada 4–5, which doubled as both
the fourth and fifth issues of the magazine and as an anthology.63 Each regular
issue had two covers: one reading Dada 4/5, indicating that it succeeded Dada 3,
the other Anthologie Dada (“Dada Anthology”) (Figures 2.7 and 2.8), evidence
of the fact that it functioned as a preview of sorts for his planned anthology,
Figure 2.7 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919, front cover,
10 13∕16 × 7 5∕16 in. (27.4 × 18.5 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections,
74 Dada Magazines
Figure 2.8 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919, second
front cover, 10 13∕16 × 7 5∕16 in. (27.4 × 18.5 cm). International Dada Archive, Special
Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
Dadaglobe.64 In a limited edition, deluxe issue of Dada 4/5, a woodblock print

by Arp, part of a short edition, adorns the cover along with the word “Dada,”
stenciled onto a cutout from the classified section of La tribune de Genève,
suggesting that “Dada” is something for sale. This combination emphasizes the
publication’s simultaneously multiple and unique characteristics (Figures 2.9
and 2.10). Although the Dadaists used the same section of the same newspaper
issue in at least two versions, each cover of the deluxe edition differs slightly:
the placement of the woodcut and stencil and the cutting of the newspaper
vary slightly.65 Additionally, the Dadaists maintained the practice of publishing
deluxe versions that presented limited edition prints, and Dada 3 and Dada 4/5
came out in a French and German version, as mentioned above. In these ways,
Figure 2.9 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919, Mouvement
Dada, limited issue cover, letterpress and collage on newsprint, 10 13∕16 × 7 5∕16 in.
(27.4 × 18.5 cm), Bibliotheque des Musees de Strasbourg, Photo by Mathieu Bertola.
Licensed under Creative Commons © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York /
VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn (see Plate 5).
76 Dada Magazines
they introduced an element of singularity and variation into what are usually
identical copies even as they continued to prize magazines’ multiplicity and
broad circulation, which continued to drive and shape the movement.
From Reproductions of Art to Art for Reproduction
The Dadaists’ attention to the journal page as a creative site determined the artistic
strategies they employed and spurred their ground-breaking interrogation
of the expected uniqueness of artworks. In 1916 and 1917, editors were still
married to traditional notions of original artworks and they tried to recreate
the experience of seeing a piece in person by producing halftone illustrations of
paintings and sculptures (usually as low-quality black-and-white reproductions)
and separating illustrations from texts. The only text on the page offers the
information one might expect on a wall label: artist, title, and collection.66
By 1918, however, because magazines were the primary means of conveying
images, artists started to take the physical restrictions and possibilities of this
printed, paper medium into account when making their works. They created
pieces with reproduction in mind, mainly line drawings, prints, and collages and
moved away from paintings, as they require perceiving subtle variations in color
and brushwork for their full effect. The Dadaists’ dependence on magazines
encouraged them to create easily duplicated images, as enthusiasts understood
that they were the primary circulators of their creative output. Dada publications
from this period printed fewer and fewer reproductions of preexisting objects
and more and more images specifically for their journals, using media made for
duplication: woodcuts, linocuts, line drawings, and, in Berlin, collage. Dada 3
and Dada 4–5 included images of paintings by Wassily Kandinsky and Augusto
Giacometti, but the majority of images are woodcuts by Richter, Arp, Janco,
Prampolini, and Arthur Segal. The first two issues of Der Dada, similarly, show
woodcuts by Hausmann and Berlin Dadaist Hannah Höch, as well as a drawing
by Grosz. Even the prints in deluxe issues of the Zurich titles were multiple, if in
limited edition. Works in all of these issues thereby manifest Walter Benjamin’s
formulation in “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” that “the work of
art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility.”67
Richter’s letters from 1918 about his contributions to Dada 3 reveal the
extent to which the expected journal venue informed artists’ conception of
their works. He makes requests about how he wants a drawing and a linocut to
appear, explaining that the drawing relates to a poem by Ferdinand Hardekopf
and specifying that he wants an entire page to be devoted to it.68 He asks Tzara
to alter a linocut that he had sent for Dada 3, which appeared on page eight of
both versions. Enclosing a corrected print of it as an example, Richter suggests
that someone correct the original based on the one he sent by using a new piece
of linoleum.69 Aware that his images would be reproduced in a journal, he was
thinking in terms of the page.
The Dadaists recognized in the magazines a space removed from an original,
preceding encounter, or auratic work of art on a wall. Dada magazines catalyzed
what Benjamin called the Dadaists’ “relentless destruction of the aura.”70 The
journals encouraged a shift from uniqueness and single authorship toward
reproducibility and collaboration. They circulated artworks across borders,
but more than shuttling them from point A to point B. By their nature, they
altered what they transmitted.71 Beginning in 1918, Dadaists embraced what
their magazines had been doing from the start: changing artworks from single
objects in space to flat, ephemeral, black-and-white images. They thus spawned
a fundamentally new perception of artworks as multiple, moving, and mutable
materials to be reused, reframed, cut up, and altered.72
The Dadaists’ development of their influential and celebrated collage
techniques stemmed from this dependence on magazines, whose history
intertwines with that of collage.73 Der Dada 2 features many “Klebebilder,” or
glued pictures, which notably incorporate cutouts from earlier Dada-affiliated
journals and related print media.74 Its cover collage by Hausmann juxtaposes
the top of Hausmann and Huelsenbeck’s essay, co-signed by composer Jefim
Golyscheff, “Was ist der Dadaismus und was will er in Deutschland?” (“What
Is Dadaism and What Does It Want in Germany?”) and an insert in Der Dada
1 (Figure 2.11).75 The orientation of the letters suggests that he rotated the
original piece 90 degrees counterclockwise to fit the given space in Dada 2.
Hausmann also includes Johannes Baader’s text “Jesus redivivus: Der da
wiederkam in den Wolken des Himmels zu richten die Lebendigen und die
Toten” (“Jesus resurrected: Who came back in the clouds of the sky to judge the
living and the dead”) on the top left. Hausmann signs the entire composition
with a clipping of his name in type, as it had appeared in the table of contents
of the April 15, 1919 issue of another magazine, Die Erde (ed. Walter Rilla,
Breslau, and Berlin, 1919–1920). Certain letters—“HU,” “M,” “A,” “r,” and “aa”—
and isolated words—“Künste” (art), “Saal,” (hall), “Lebendig” (the living), and
“Spiesser” (bourgeois)—taken from other Dada sources, are inserted randomly
into the piece as well. Because most of the texts Hausmann used are by him,
this collage can be interpreted as a self-portrait. In his collage “anti-portrait”
78 Dada Magazines
Figure 2.10 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919,
Mouvement Dada, limited issue cover, letterpress and collage on newsprint, 10 13∕16
× 7 5∕16 in. (27.4 × 18.5 cm). Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (85-S55) © 2020
Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn (see Plate 6).
of poet Paul Gurk in the back of Der Dada 2, Hausmann cut out Arthur Segal’s
woodcut from page nine of Dada 3 for the hair and left eyebrow. For the
forehead, he inserted a clipping of the first five lines of Pierre Albert-Birot’s
phonetic poem, “Crayon Bleu,” published on page eight of Dada 3. The poem
is cut off by another piece of paper that forms the nose, but certain words are
clearly legible: “is nice,” “good evening,” “pan pan,” “krill,” and “cinema of my
mind.” These isolated words and phrases recall the disjunction of a poem full
of non-sequiturs. Such reuses of earlier magazines move away from a reading
of magazine pages as merely transparent venues and emphasize that they are
a printed medium, one that can be cut up for another collage reproduced in
another publication.
Similarly, Baader used the Dada 2 cover collage to make another

assemblage, which also can be interpreted as a self-portrait: he cut out the
collage, turned it 90 degrees clockwise, and inserted a photograph of himself
on the top (Figure 2.12). Höch and Hausmann salvaged a rejected proof for
Der Dada 1 as the support for collages (Figure I.4), and Höch cut shapes out
of her copies of Berlin Dada journals that she presumably used for collages.76
Heartfield’s collage, “The Pneuma Travels around the World” (“Das Pneuma
umreist die Welt”) (1920), dominates the cover of Der Dada 3 (Figure 3.8).77
This busy combination of texts and images from popular sources and Dada
publications situates the Dadaists in their context. Heartfield cut out the word
“dada” and the names of the Dadaists—Baader, Grosz, and Hausmann—from
Dada publications. “Nein! Nein! Nein!” is from Huelsenbeck’s “Collective Dada
Manifesto” from 1920, which had been printed as a leaflet, and the letters
“eue” and the tops of the “j” and “u” are from the cover of Neue Jugend.
“Dada,” printed in lowercase letters, comes from the cover of Der Dada 1. By
including cutouts of the word “Dada,” Heartfield places Dada in the context
of advertising, cinema, and contemporary urban life in postwar Germany. He
interspersed these texts with photographs of an automobile tire, a toothbrush,
an iron, and bicycles. Certain words stand out, such as “Circus” (“Zirkus”) and
“Never imagined change” (“Nie geahnten Umschwung”). “Pro-phy-lac-tic” is
printed on the toothbrush, and the words “Are you true to me?” (“Bist du mir
treu?”) appear on the far right. In each case, artists moved away from the wall
as the point of reference, and far from an unchanging, neutral, transparent,
blank ground for hosting pictures and texts, the magazine was becoming a
dynamic, destructible, and reusable surface.
The magazines from 1918 to 1920 manifest a fundamental reorientation, a
move from a vertical to a horizontal point of reference. By combining a wide
range of texts and images on a given page, the Dadaists emphasized that unlike
paintings in a museum, which seek to bring the viewer into a world corresponding
to his or her upright position, their journals were assemblages of materials
arranged for printing, akin to what Leo Steinberg calls the “flatbed picture
plane.” Steinberg writes that artworks from the 1950s and 1960s “insist on a
radically new orientation, in which the painted surface is no longer the analogue
of the visual experience of nature but of operational processes.”78 Although we
can read the journals horizontally or vertically, what he refers to as their “psychic
address,” or how one perceives its orientation, is horizontal. We no longer read
the top of the page as up in a manner corresponding to nature or gravity. The
Dadaists were moving away from trying to approximate phenomenological
80 Dada Magazines
Figure 2.11 Der Dada 2, ed. Raoul Hausmann, Berlin, 1919, front cover, 14 2⁄5 ×
9 in. (29 × 23 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections, University of
Iowa Libraries.
characteristics of exhibitions; they stressed the printed nature of the magazine.

Instead of attempting to overcome the physical properties of the page to present
paintings in a manner as close to the original as possible, they underscored the
tactile, opaque, horizontal, inky nature of the printing process and therefore
the materiality of the magazine itself. Dada artists made more and more art for
printing. They engaged with the magazine constantly, making decisions in the
Figure 2.12 Johannes Baader, “Collage Dada (Raoul Hausmann),” c. 1919,

Kunsthaus Zurich. Department of Prints and Drawings, 1989.
print shop, which offered a logic of its own and offered new insights, with one
idea leading to another.
In 1918 and 1919, amid ongoing turmoil, Dadaists increasingly embraced the
magazines as a creative site and exhibition venue, a primary site of production.
Their involvement with journals determined their creative choices, and their
art, in turn, demanded a new kind of mediation. These publications catalyzed
82 Dada Magazines
the diverse group’s shared commitment to inviting copies and multiplicity into
art and exhibitions, realms historically tied to singularity, authenticity, and
originality. In taking advantage of the distinct material characteristics of the
journal, Dada editors defied conventions of artistic creation, distribution, and
display. In these ways, these Dada magazines from this period were foundational
for the Dadaists’ exceptional exhibitions in 1920 and 1921, as explored in the
next chapter.
Notes
1 “Chaque page doit exploder [sic], soit par le sérieux profond et lourd, le tourbillon,
le vertige, le nouveau, l’éternel, par la blague écrasante, par l’enthousiasme des
principes, ou par la façon d’être imprimée.” Tzara, “Manifeste Dada 1918,” Dada 3,
2, trans. Manheim, The Dada Painters and Poets, 78. Emphasis added. Tzara used
almost the exact same words to describe his planned anthology in a letter to Paul
Dermée, but it was more widely disseminated as part of the manifesto Tzara writes
of his anthology, Tzara to Dermée, June 27, 1918, Tzara to Dermée, June 24, 1918,
Jean Brown Papers, Special Collections, Getty Research Institute.
2 For more on the press’s coverage of Dada, see Harriett Watts, ed., Dada and the
Press, vol. IX, Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada, ed. Stephen C. Foster
(Farmington Hills: G.K. Hall, 2004).
3 Picabia and Tzara had been corresponding since Tzara’s first letter to Picabia
from August 1918. Explaining that he received Picabia’s address from artist Félix
Vallotton, Tzara identifies himself as the editor of Dada and expresses his interest in
collaborating with Picabia on future issues. Picabia, in turn, sent him issues of 391.
Tristan Tzara to Francis Picabia, August 21, 1918, in Dada in Paris, 381.
4 In January 1918, for example, they turned a lecture evening at I. B. Neumann’s
Berlin gallery into a Dada demonstration, and at the first Dada soirée in the Berliner
Sezession building in April 1918 Huelsenbeck read his famous Dadaistsches
Manifest. Füllner, Richard Huelsenbeck, 18. Accounts of Dada in Berlin include
Hanne Bergius, Dada Triumphs! Dada Berlin, 1917–1923: Artistry of Polarities:
Montages, Metamechanics, Manifestations, vol. V, Crisis and the Arts: The History of
Dada, ed. Stephen C. Foster (Farmington Hills, MI; New Haven: G.K. Hall, 2003);
Brigid Doherty, “Berlin,” in Dada, ed. Dickerman, 90–9; Timothy O. Benson,
ed., Raoul Hausmann and Berlin Dada (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1987).
Christian Weikop discusses Der Dada and highlights particularly significant Dada
events in Berlin. See Christian Weikop, “Berlin Dada and the Carnivalesque,” The
Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, 822–34.
5 Evidence of this shift can be found in later issues of Noi, which criticized Vingt-
cinq poèmes (“Twenty-Five Poems”) and the typography of Dada 3 and gave an
unfavorable review of the Galerie Dada show in Zurich in October 1918. Chris
Michaelides, “Futurist Periodicals in Rome,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural
History of Modernist Magazines, vol. III, part I, 569. For more details, see Enrico
Crispolti, “Dada a Roma: Contributo alla partecipazione italiana al Dadaismo
(Dada in Rome Contribution to the Italian participation to the Dadaism),” Palatino:
Rivista Romana di Cultura 1, nos. 3–4 (July–December, 1966): 241–58. The second
series of Noi strongly promoted Futurism.
6 Picabia published this issue in Zurich in 1919 while he was visiting Tzara. Matthew
Witkovsky, similarly, describes this piece as expressing Dada’s networked nature.
Witkovsky, “Pen Pals,” in The Dada Seminars, 270. For a full discussion of 391,
see Sanouillet, 391 and Sanouillet, Francis Picabia et 391. See also Sudhalter,
“War, Exile, and the Machine,” in Francis Picabia, 66–75. Ruth Hemus also offers
a detailed, if briefer, account of the nine issues of the journal published in Paris
between 1919 and 1924: Ruth Hemus, “Dada’s Paris Season,” The Oxford Critical
and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, vol. III, part I, 180–8.
7 Dada 3 (Tzara, Zurich, 1918) is sixteen pages long; the ordinary version measures
approximately 13 × 9½ inches (33.7 × 24.6 cm), larger than the first two issues
of Dada, and the deluxe is even larger, at 14 × 10 inches (35.8 × 25.4 cm). The
Dadaists charged 1.50 Swiss francs for the ordinary edition and an astronomical 20
francs for the deluxe edition. Heuberger printed 2,000 copies of the regular edition
and twenty of the projected thirty numbered copies of the deluxe edition. For the
regular edition, he used white paper, although in some copies pages five through
twelve are blue-green. Funding came from its contributors and revenue from the
Galerie Dada, but money was tight, as Tzara regularly complains in letters.Dada
4–5 was funded by Picabia, who had met Tzara in Zurich in early 1919 and helped
edit and produce the issue, along with Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia and Arp. Likely
because of this additional backing, it is notably longer (thirty pages) and measures
about 11 × 7½ inches (28 × 19 cm). Again Heuberger printed 2,000 regular edition
issues, as well as thirty-eight numbered deluxe issues, signed by Tzara, which
contained two original woodcuts, one by Arp and one by Hausmann. The ordinary
edition sold for 4 Swiss francs, and the deluxe version was again 20 francs. The
list of distributors on the back cover indicates that the journal was sold in Paris,
New York (at de Zayas’s Modern Gallery), Barcelona, Brussels, Stockholm, and
Copenhagen. Funding came from the sale of Dada publications and contributions
from wealthy supporters such as Picabia. More details about the deluxe issues as
well as information about the French and German versions of Dada 3 and Dada 4/5
are below.Der Dada 1 sold for 50 pfennigs and Der Dada 2 sold for 1 mark. Like all
of the Berlin Dada journals, there was no deluxe edition of either edition. Both are
84 Dada Magazines
printed on thin, inexpensive paper measuring 9 × 11½ inches (22¾ × 29¼ cm), but
the paper used for Der Dada 1 is salmon colored; the paper for Der Dada 2 is white.
8 See Matthew S. Witkovsky, “Pen Pals,” in The Dada Seminars, ed. Leah Dickerman
(Washington, DC: Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, The National
Gallery of Art; New York: Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2005), 282.
9 Pindell, “Alternative Space: Artists’ Periodicals,” Print Collectors Newsletter, 96, 97;
Allen, Artists’ Magazines, 7–8, 121–3.
10 Tristan Tzara, “Manifeste Dada 3,” Dada 3, 1, trans. Manheim, The Dada Painters
and Poets, 77.
11 Tristan Tzara, “Proclamation sans prétention,” Dada 4–5 (French version), 16,
trans. Mary Ann Caws, Manifesto: A Century of Isms (Lincoln and London:
University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 310.
12 “Weltanschauungen sind Vokabelmischungen. Ein Hund ist eine Hängematte.
L’art est mort. Viva Dada!” Walter Serner, “Letze Lockerung Manifeste,” Dada 4–5
(German version), 17.
13 “?! Dada!!—Niemand gehört dazu!?—Dass wir doch dazu gehören … Die
Verpflichtung, die wir ihnen gegenüber damit übernahmen das Bekenntnis, „Zu
etwas zu gehören,“ ist ein Irrtum, den Sie sich selbst zu verdanken haben.” Hans
Richter, “Gegen Ohne Für Dada,” Dada 4/5, 25, trans. Caws, 320–1.
14 “Unsere Gemeinsamkeit … liegt ganz ausserhalb der Gruppe, des Mouvement
der Zeitschrift Dada … ” Hans Richter, “Gegen Ohne Für Dada,” Dada 4/5, trans.
Caws, 321.
15 “Trotzalledem bleibt das Innerste des Dada Geheimnis—Freimaurer und Jesuite
sind nicht Dada.” Johannes Baader, “Erklärung Dada,” Der Dada 1, 4.
16 “Inserieren Sie im Dada! Dada verbreitet Ihre Geschäfte wie eine Infektion über
den ganzen Erdenball … ” “Die Rekaktion [sic] [editorial staff] des Dada,” Der
Dada 1, 6.
17 “Dada ist mehr als tao und brama. Dada verdoppelt Ihre Einnahmen.” “Zentralamt
des Dadaismus” “Legen Sie Ihr Geld in Dada an!” Der Dada 1, 6.
18 The two versions of Dada 3 are identical except for pages seven and ten, which
present entirely different materials. In the French/Italian version, page seven
features Phillipe Soupault’s poem, “Flamme” (“Flame”) or (“Passion”), Camillo
Sbarbaro’s “Mörar,” and a woodcut by Hans Richter, while in the German version
we find Ferdinand Hardekopf ’s poem, “Regie” (“Production”), and two woodcuts
by Richter on page seven. Page ten of the French and Italian version features
Savinio’s text “Seconde origine de la voie lactée” (“Second origin of the Milky Way”)
and one of the woodcuts by Richter that is on page seven of the German version.
Page ten of the German version reproduces a poem, “Der Idealist” (“The Idealist”),
by Jakob Van Hoddis, and Huelsenbeck’s essay, “Die Arbeiten von Hans Arp”
(“The Works of Hans Arp”).
19 German texts include Hans Richter’s “Gegen Ohne Für Dada” (“Against Without
for Dada”), Jean (Hans) Arp’s “Aus die Wolkenpumpe” (“Out of the Cloud Pump”),
and Walter Serner’s “Letzte Lockerung Manifesto” (“The Ultimate Loosening Up
Manifesto”).
20 The following pages are entirely different—8, 11 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 25, 26.
21 The deluxe edition of Dada 3 includes two limited-edition prints by Janco and one
wood engraving by Arp and was sold in a gray cardboard folder with a hand-
painted gauche yellow and brown organic design by Arp. An example of this folder
is in the Elaine Lustig Cohen Dada Collection at the New York Public Library. In
this copy, the image is 10¼ × 8½ inches and the folder measures 14 × 10 inches.
Written on this copy is, “Exemplaire No. 19 TRISTAN TZARA.” Another example
of this folder is at the Kunsthaus in Zurich. The image is the same size and format.
It also includes a cover showing “Dada” stamped onto the classifieds section of a
newspaper, as discussed below.
22 In accord with their lampooning of commercial enterprises, Raoul Hausmann
distinguishes himself as responsible for the “Direktion,” or “management,” rather
than the “Redakteur,” or editor, of Der Dada 1.
23 “Das Zentralamt des Dadaismus befindet sich jetzt in Berlin.” Der Dada 1, 3.
24 “Dada Gruss furor [sic], Ich erfahre eben von Hausmann Eure in unverschämtem
magistraien Tone aufgesetzten Richtlinien und Programmpunkte. Wir sind der
Ansicht, dass Ihr in Eurem Nest dort überhaupt keine Ahnung habt. Wir verbitten
uns jede Einmischung in unsere Angelegenheiten. Die Centrale des Dadaismus
ist in Berlin. Es scheint, dass der Erfolg Ihrer letzten Soirée Euch den Kopf
verdreht hat.” Richard Huelsenbeck to Tristan Tzara, May 3, 1919, Zürich-Dadaco-
Dadaglobe, 17.
25 Richard Huelsenbeck to Tristan Tzara, August 29, 1919, Zürich-Dadaco-Dadaglobe,
20.
26 For more on the history of avant-garde typography in the twentieth century, see
Drucker, The Visible Word, Bury, Breaking the Rules, and Arthur Cohen, “The
Typographic Revolution: Antecedents and Legacy of Dada Graphic Design,” in
New York Dada, ed. Rudolf Kuenzli (New York: Willis Locker and Owens, 1986),
71–89.
27 For more on Blast, see Andrezej Gasiorek, “The ‘Little Magazine’ as Weapon:
BLAST (1914–1915),” in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist
Magazines, vol. I: Britain and Ireland 1880–1955, ed. Peter Brooker and Andrew
Thacker (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 294–9.
28 For more on these calligrammes, see Timothy O. Benson, “Conventions and
Constructions: The Performative Text in Dada,” in Dada: The Coordinates of
Cultural Politics, Crisis and the Arts, ed. Foster, 85.
86 Dada Magazines
29 For more on this publication, and its connection to the carnivalesque, see Christian
Weikop, “Berlin Dada and the Carnivalesque,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural
History of Modernist Magazines, vol. III, part II, 817–22. Herzfelde instituted the
influential publishing house, Malik-Verlag, known for its experimental graphic
design, in 1917, as editor of Neue Jugend. For more on Neue Jugend, see Christian
Weikop, “Transitions: From Expressionism to Dada,” in The Oxford Critical and
Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, vol. III, part II, 798–806 and Simmons,
“Neue Jugend,” in A Companion to Dada and Surrealism, 38–53.
30 This publication, a special issue of Die freie Straße, was prepared in secret and
distributed at a soirée at the Berliner Sezession building in April 1918. Wiekop,
“Transitions: From Expressionism to Dada,” 808. For more on Club Dada, see
Weikop, “Transitions: From Expressionism to Dada,” 808–12.
31 Weikop, “Transitions: From Expressionism to Dada,” 811.
32 In 1918, when Tzara was compiling Dada 3, Picabia sent him copies of 391. See
Tristan Tzara to Francis Picabia, September 7, 1918. See Sanouillet, Dada in
Paris, 383. Picabia and Tzara had been corresponding since Tzara’s first letter to
Picabia from August 21, 1918. Explaining that he received Picabia’s address from
Valloton, Tzara identifies himself as the editor of Dada and expresses his interest in
collaborating with Picabia for future issues. Tristan Tzara to Francis Picabia, August
21, 1918, Dada in Paris, 381.
33 For more on this text and its significance, see Sanouillet, Francis Picabia et “391,”
Tome II, 90.
34 For more on Marinetti’s typography, see Drucker, The Visible Word, 105–40.
35 One exception is a two-page spread in the May 1915 issue of 291 (no. 3) featuring
Agnes Ernst Meyer’s poem, “Woman,” printed at a right angle with a poem by
Katharine Nash Rhoades, both of which are framed by Marius de Zayas’s caricature
of Rhoades a bold triangle of blue ink that sweeps across both pages, accented by
a pendulum-like form and a series of intersecting lines, de Zayas’s caricature of
Rhoades. 291, no. 3 (May 1915): 2–3.
36 Witkovsky, “Pen Pals,” The Dada Seminars, 271–2.
37 Carolyn L. Kane, Cory Arcangel, Jon Satrom, Rosa Menkman, Team Doyobi, and
Andrew Benson, “Exhaustion Aesthetics,” Leonardo 50, no. 1 (2017): 5. See also
Carolyn L. Kane “Glitch Art: Failure from the Avant-Garde to Kanye West,” Journal
of InVisible Culture 50, no. 21 (October 2014). http://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/portfolio/
compression-aesthetics-glitch-from-the-avant-garde-to-kanye-west/
38 My thanks to Steve Hammer for leading me to the scholarship on glitch art and
Dirty New Media.
39 Janna Avner, “How the Dirty New Media Movement Informed the First Virtual
Art Galleries,” Locating Technology, Art Practical, February 27, 2018. https://www.
artpractical.com/column/how-the-dirty-new-media-movement-informed-the-
first-virtual-art-galleries/
40 Randall Packer, “Glitch Expectations: A Conversation with Jon Cates,”

Hyperallergic, June 25, 2014. https://hyperallergic.com/134709/glitch-expectations-
a-conversation-with-jon-cates/
41 Alfredo Salazar-Caro, quoted in Janna Avner “How the Dirty New Media
Movement Informed the First Virtual Art Galleries,” Locating Technology, Art
Practical February 27, 2018. https://www.artpractical.com/column/how-the-dirty-
new-media-movement-informed-the-first-virtual-art-galleries/
42 See [staff] “Dirty New Media Art” Chicago Art Magazine (October 25, 2011). http://
chicagoartmagazine.com/2011/10/dirty-new-media-art2/ and Carolyn L. Kane,
Cory Arcangel, Jon Satrom, Rosa Menkman, Team Doyobi, and Andrew Benson,
“Exhaustion Aesthetics,” Leonardo 50, no. 1 (2017): 5–11.
43 “Le goût est fatiguant commes a bonne compagnie.” Dada 3, 5.
44 Weikop points out that this emphasis on advertising was characteristic of the
faction of Berlin Dada associated with Malik-Verlag—Herzefelde, Heartfield,
and Grosz—whose affiliation for Marxism led them to use marketing language
to satirize bourgeois capitalism. The other faction, led by Hausmann and Baader,
propagated a type of “anarcho-communism,” which Weikop describes as “a fusion
of revolutionary politics and psychoanalysis.” Both groups published Huelsenbeck’s
contributions in their publications. Weikop, “Transitions: From Expressionism to
Dada,” 798–9.
45 Witkovsky, “Pen Pals,” The Dada Seminars, 271. Focusing on Dada, Witkovsky
writes that the Dadaists “systematically augmented the distortion or ‘noise’
generated by shifts of medium.” Witkovsky, “Pen Pals,” The Dada Seminars, 270.
46 The Berlin Dadaists used photolithography, from the nineteenth century; Dada
3 includes wood engravings; line block reproductions (a form of etching) can be
found in 391 and Dada. Other techniques include halftone blocks, letterpress,
linotype, and typewriters.
47 Niebisch, Media Parasites, 109; Witkovsky, “Pen Pals,” The Dada Seminars, 270.
48 This strategy coincides with media theorist Friedrich Kittler’s recognition of
the lack of meaning tied to emerging media technology at the start of the early
twentieth century. Media such as the typewriter, with its letters and diacritical
signs, can inscribe new things never previously voiced, though they mean nothing
and, as Kittler puts it, “have no purpose beyond notation itself.” Freidrich Kittler,
Discourse Networks 1800/1900 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), 206.
Witkovsky points out the relevance of Kittler. See Witkovsky, “Pen Pals,” in The
Dada Seminars, 271.
49 Niebisch, Media Parasites, 33.
50 Witkovsky, “Pen Pals,” The Dada Seminars, 270. See also Sarah Bay-Cheng and
Martin Harries, Foreword, in Niebisch, Media Parasites, xi.
51 Bergius, Dada Triumphs! 90.
88 Dada Magazines
52 Ellen Lupton, “Design and Production in the Mechanical Age,” in Graphic Design in
the Mechanical Age: Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, ed. Deborah
Menaker Rothschild, Ellen Lupton, and Darra Goldstein (New Haven: Yale
University Press in conjunction with Williams College Museum of Art and Cooper-
Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 1998), 60.
53 Drucker, The Visible Word, 206–12.
54 Tristan Tzara, “Les Revues d’avant-garde” (1950), Œuvres complètes, Tome V
(1924–1963), ed. Henri Béhar (Les Écluses de la poésie. Appendices) (Paris:
Flammarion, 1975–1982), 509.
55 Sherwin Simmons, “Advertising Seizes Control of Life: Berlin Dada and the Power
of Advertising,” Oxford Art Journal 22, no.1 (1999): 131.
56 Tzara, “Les Revues d’avant-garde,” Œuvres complètes, Tome V, 59.
57 Cohen, “The Typographic Revolution: Antecedents and Legazy of Dada Graphic
Design,” in Dada Spectrum, ed. Foster and Kuenzli, 88.
58 This is an example of editors’ willingness to make connections between their
own efforts and those in the commercial realm, a Dada tendency explored in
Chapter 4. For more on the importance of advertising on Dada design, see Beals,
67; Simmons, “Advertising Seizes Control of Life,” Drucker, “Tzara: Advertising
Language of Commodity Culture,” The Visible Word, 193–222, and Lupton, “Design
and Production in the Mechanical Age.”
59 For more on the difference between marked and unmarked texts, see Drucker, The
Visible Word, 94–5.
60 Drucker, The Visible Word, 225.
61 “Legen Sie Ihr Geld in dada an!”) Der Dada 1 (Berlin, ed. Raoul Hausmann, 1919),
6; “Si l’on trouve futile et si l’on ne perd son temps pour un mot qui ne signifie
rien … ” Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto, Dada 3, 1, trans. Ralph Manheim, Dada
Reader, 36.
62 See also Drucker, The Visible Word, 95–6.
63 Lewer writes, “Dada 4–5 emerged from, anthologized, canonized, and
mythologized the triumph of the eighth Dada Soirée.” Lewer, “The Avant-Garde in
Swiss Exile,” 1052.
64 Sudhalter, “How to Make a Dada Anthology,” Dadaglobe Reconstructed, 54–5.
65 On the cover of the issues of the deluxe version at the Getty Research Institute
and at the Bibliothèque des Musées de Strasbourg, the words “on offre à vendre”
(offered for sale) stand out in the center page, and “a Vendre … ” (for sale) is
repeated on the bottom right. These passages read as advertisements for the journal
itself.
66 Because illustrations were particularly expensive, Tzara asked many of his
correspondents to provide their own negatives. See, for example, Tristan Tzara to
Paul Dermée, June 24, 1918, Jean Brown Papers, Getty Research Institute.
67 Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in

Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken, 1968), 6.
68 Richter to Tzara, September 23, 1918, September 26, 1918, and November 3, 1918,
quoted in New Studies in Dada: Essays and Documents, ed. Richard Sheppard
(Driffield: Hutton Press, 1981), 124, 127.
69 “Wenn es möglich ist DV bitte ich Sie betreffs eines der 3 Schnitte die ich Ihnen
sandte um folgendes. Dieser Schnit soll anstatt des Auges • = ein Oval haben so wie
in der beiliegenden Fassung. Vielleicht könnte einer der Kollegen das Original dem
beiliegenden Abzug entsprechend corrigieren (durch Einsetzen eines neuen Stück
Linoleums)?!” Richter to Tzara, November 3, 1918, quoted in New Studies in Dada,
127. This change was not made, either because Tzara ignored the request or because
it came too late.
70 Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” 238.
71 In this way, they worked as what Latour, in his explanation of actor-network
theory, calls mediators. That is, entities that “transform, translate, distort, and
modify meaning or the elements they are supposed to carry.” Latour, “On Technical
Mediation: Philosophy, Sociology, Genealogy,” 39.
72 Such works are akin to works produced for Dadaglobe, which Sudhalter calls “a new
category of artistic production: artworks made for reproduction.” Sudhalter, “How
to Make a Dada Anthology,” Dadaglobe Reconstructed, 47.
73 The histories of magazines and collage are intertwined. David Banash traces
collage practice to magazines. David Banash, “From Advertising to the Avant-
Garde: Rethinking the Invention of Collage,” in Postmodern Culture 14, no. 2
(January 2004): paragraphs 12, 24. Recent analyses of photomontage and collage
include Sabine T. Kriebel, Revolutionary Beauty: The Radical Photomontages of
John Heartfield (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014) and Andrés Mario
Zervigón, John Heartfield and the Agitated Image: Photography, Persuasion, and the
Rise of Avant-Garde Photomontage (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012).
74 Exactly who invented this technique and when has been debated among scholars
and Dadaists alike. For more on Dada collage, see Timothy O. Benson, Raoul
Hausmann and Berlin Dada (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1987), 110–16;
Brigid Doherty, “Berlin,” in Dada, ed. Dickerman, 90–9.
75 For more on the first issue of Der Dada and its importance in Hausmann’s role in
the Dada movement, see Weikop, “Berlin Dada and the Carnivalesque,” 823.
76 Page 4, Der Dada 1, Hannah Höch Archive, Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum
für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, Berlin.
77 “Pneuma” refers to the photograph of a tire in the collage, most likely taken from
an advertisement.
78 Leo Steinberg, “Reflections on the State of Criticism,” Artforum 10, no. 7 (March
1972), 44.
90
3
Printing Artworks, Exhibiting Ephemera: Dada

Journals and Exhibitions, 1920–1921
A looming effigy of a German officer with a pig’s head, a girl wearing a First
Communion dress and spouting obscene poetry, a mirror entitled “Portrait of a
Fool,” and posters screaming “Down with Art!” and “Finally open your mind!”:
the Dadaists’ provocative exhibitions, particularly Berlin’s First International
Dada Fair, are well known.1 Yet the significance of Dada art journals to these
bizarre presentations has gone largely unexplored. The inventive magazines
from 1918 to 1919 set the stage for the Dadaists’ expositions in 1920 and 1921,
when staging an exhibition was more plausible than it had been during wartime.
Among the most notable were the extraordinarily irreverent “Dada-Vorfrühling”
(“Dada Early Spring”) (April 1920), organized by Max Ernst and Johannes
Baargeld (née Alfred E. Gruenwald) in Cologne; the “Erste Internationale Dada-
Messe” (“First International Dada Fair”) (June 1920), put on by Raoul Hausmann,
John Heartfield, and George Grosz in Berlin; Julius Evola’s “Esposizioni Dada”
(“Dada Exhibition”) in Rome (April 1921); and Tzara’s “Salon Dada Exposition
Internationale” (“Salon Dada International Exhibition”) (June 1921) in Paris. As
curators, members translated into three-dimensional space the tactics they had
developed as editors. They activated audiences, upending presentation codes
and expectations of originality, uniqueness, and transparency.
Dadaists recognized that both magazines and exhibitions are display sites
that present a selection of pieces and disseminate information.2 The two venues
also share roots in design and are collaborative efforts that require requesting,
choosing, compiling, and arranging materials, as well as framing and describing
these works. Like walking through a gallery, leafing through a periodical is both
a public and a private endeavor, one that an individual undergoes on a personal
level yet knows is shared by many, often simultaneously.3
Exhibitions are critical to the history of the avant-garde. As Bruce Altshuler
explains:
92 Dada Magazines
[The avant-garde’s] force depended on confrontation with a complex social

world. The central node of that confrontation was the exhibition, where artists,
critics, dealers, collectors, and the public met and responded in their various
ways to what the artists had done. Group exhibitions bring its social aspect to
the fore.4
The Dadaists had many models. The German Expressionists, Italian Futurists,
and Suprematists, for instance, had designed expositions in the years immediately
preceding the war. Wasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc’s Erste Ausstellung der
Redaktion Der Blaue Reiter (“First Exhibition of the Editors of the Blaue Reiter”)
in Munich in 1911 stands out as it, too, was tied to a publication, Der Blaue
Reiter Almanach (“The Blue Rider Almanac”), and like the Almanac it brought
together a broad variety of works.5 The “0–10, The Last Futurist Exhibition of
Pictures,” in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) (December 1915–January 1916),
is known for its experimental hanging: Vladimir Tatlin’s corner counter-reliefs
shared space with Kazimir Malevich’s iconic Black Square, hung in a high
corner of a gallery, surrounded by other paintings covering the walls in an all-
over composition.6 Building on such installations, Dada shows also appealed
to participation, questioned originality, and destabilized the venue, thereby
anticipating strategies adopted by installation artists decades later.
By 1920 and 1921, Dada had gained varying degrees of recognition and
notoriety in different cities’ artistic circles, the press, and the general public.7 In
Cologne, Ernst’s first corresponded with Tzara in December 1919, and Ernst,
Baargeld, Angelika Fick Hoerle, and Heinrich Hoerle identified themselves with
Dada.8 In Berlin, provocative performances, collages, and handbills propelled
Hausmann, Baader, Huelsenbeck, Höch, Grosz, Heartfield, and their cohort into
the spotlight. Tzara arrived in Paris in January 1920 and soon thereafter he and his
supporters made a spectacle of themselves, organizing events, hanging posters,
and they succeeded in attracting the attention of the press and its readers.9 Dada’s
fame in the French capital is captured by a quip from The Chapbook (London):
“If you ask an intelligent Parisian for news of the younger French poets, the first,
second or third word of his reply will probably be ‘Dada.’”10 In Rome, and Italy
generally, Dada enthusiasm picked up some, reflected in Bulletin Dada (March
1920) and a photograph Tzara sent to Picabia from Lido, Italy, of himself with
Fiozzi, Cantarelli, and Otello Rebecchi, which he labeled “Venetian Dadaism”
(“Dadaïsme Vénitien”) (Figure 3.1).11 Evola, Dada’s chief proponent after the
war, reported to Tzara: “Presently, you and Dadaism are finally starting to be
spoken about a little everywhere finally: the newspapers are going on a strike
of silence to try to stifle the Dada invasion in Italy. The futurists are furious.”12
Dada Journals and Exhibitions, 1920–1921 93
Figure 3.1 Postcard from Tristan Tzara, Gino Cantarelli, and Otello Rebacci to Francis
Picabia, July 1920. Dossiers Picabia, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris.
With eased, if lingering, travel restrictions after the war, Dadaists did not
depend on journals to communicate. They did not even need them to record
and describe the shows, as organizers began to make separate catalogs.
Yet these artists, writers, and performers continued to produce magazines.
They continued to recognize their distinctive qualities, and interrogating
traditional types of display remained a driving strategy for them. Their ongoing
experimentation with these publications manifests a sustained recognition of
them as major drivers in their artistic pursuits rather than merely expedient
means of communication.
This chapter begins by tracing the intertwined histories of Dada periodicals
and exhibitions from 1916 to 1918. It next explores how the journals informed
these shows, starting with a brief background on the motivations and objectives
of the organizers, followed by exploration of key strategies carried on from one
display type to the next. Chief among these are combining disparate materials,
incorporating print media and visual reproductions, chaotic layout, provoking
audience interaction, and calling out the venue as a reoriented, non-neutral
site. The chapter then assesses Dada catalogs’ place vis-à-vis the magazines and
exhibitions, finishing with a discussion of the reviews’ ongoing centrality in
Dada’s expanding network.
94 Dada Magazines
Interleaved Trajectories of Display: Dada Journals and

Exhibitions 1916–1918
Dada reviews and shows intermingled from the start. In Zurich, the walls of the
smoky, seedy, cramped Cabaret Voltaire presented a wide array of materials—
from paintings, reliefs, and drawings to objects like collages, masks, and parole
in libertà—made by members of the newly formed group and by Cubists,
Expressionists, and Futurists. Details regarding display design are elusive, but
given the raucous atmosphere of the Cabaret, it is unlikely that organizers
prioritized order. Tzara’s description of the space from February 1916 intimates
a certain chaos: “On the walls: van Rees and Arp, Picasso and Eggeling, Segal and
Janco, Slodky, Nadelmann, colored papers, ascendancy of the new art, abstract
art and geographic futurist map-poems: Marinetti, Cangiullo, Buzzi.”13 At the
Cabaret, the emerging Dadaists distributed Cabaret Voltaire and Dada, which
functioned as both journals and illustrated catalogs. Cabaret Voltaire offers a
checklist of objects presented at the Cabaret Voltaire, and a German supplement
to Dada 1 lists events held at Galerie Dada. Both reproduce works on view.
Although the space of the upscale Galerie Corray, later the Galerie Dada, has
been described as a Gesamtkunstwerk mixing many kinds of art, beginning in
January 1917, exhibitions there were probably more spare and orderly than
those at the Cabaret Voltaire, with pieces arranged on eye level, one or two next
to the other, with ample space around each one.14 The first show there, Erste
Dada-Austellung: Modernste Malerei, Negerplastik, alte Kunst (“First Dada
Exhibition: Modern Painters, Negro Art, Old Masters”), was accompanied by a
sixteen-page catalog illustrating images on view. Der Zeltweg (Otto Flake, Zurich,
1919) grew out of the exposition, Das neue Leben (“New Life”) at the Kunsthaus
in Zurich in early 1919 featuring pieces by Dadaists, though the magazine was
not distributed until 1920.
In New York, the relationship between the 1917 Society of Independent
Artists exhibition and the two issues of the proto-Dada publication, Blind
Man, exemplifies the potential for interdependency between these two media
and thus deserves deeper analysis here. For the show, Duchamp hung works
alphabetically by artists’ last names, rather than by typical hierarchical categories
like genre, chronology, style, or prestige of the artist. The two issues of Blind
Man reproduce works on view: Louis Eilshemius’s “Supplication” (c. 1915) and
Joseph Stella’s painting, “Battle of Lights, Mardi Gras, Coney Island” (1913),
for instance, and famously, one piece not on view, Duchamp’s readymade,
“Fountain”, the urinal he bought, turned 90 degrees, and signed, “R. Mutt 1917,”
which the Independents had rejected. This second issue of Blind Man therefore
changed “Fountain” from a bizarre, even offensive, and invisible submission by
an unknown artist (“R. Mutt”) to a scandal invoked by the revered Duchamp at
the center of what the publication calls “The Richard Mutt Case.” “In The Blind
Man it was above all a matter of justifying the ‘Fountain-Urinal’,” as Duchamp
put it.15 Henri-Pierre Roché’s narrative, Victor, indicates that he agreed that The
Blind Man was central to the “Fountain” affair.16
In Cologne, the single-issue Bulletin D (November 1919), edited by Ernst
and Baargeld, served as the catalog for Dada’s public debut, the “Dada” section
(“Section D”) of the 1919 Society of Arts exhibition at the Kölner Kunstverein
(“Cologne Art Association”).17 This presentation included collages, drawings,
and assemblages by Ernst, Baargeld, and Angelika and Heinrich Hoerle, among
others, alongside photos and such manufactured objects as a piano hammer,
flowerpots, and a pipe, hung over the entrance. It also displayed children’s art and
African art. In addition to texts taking aim at the editors’ artistic predecessors
and contemporaries, Bulletin D, where many readers saw the word, “Dada,” in
print, lists the pieces on view, and although it does not illustrate the exhibited
commercial products, it captures the show’s catholic parameters.18 As well as
reproductions of paintings, including Ernst’s 1919 painting, “Aquis submerses”
(“Submerged in Water”), and Heinrich Hoerle’s “Porträt einer Liliputanerin”
(“Portrait of a Dwarf ”), it reproduces an industrial drawing of manufacturing
equipment, images ranging from doodles to assemblages and vaguely figural
sculptures to drawings such as Angelika Hoerle’s 1919 “Reiterin” (“Horseback
Rider”). Texts reinforce anti-canonical views of the history of art, as well. The
haphazard design of Bulletin D’s pages, a marked break from Der Ventilator,
can be attributed to these Cologne Dadaists’ exposure to Dada publications, in
particular Dada 4–5, in the summer of 1919, which they received in the mail and
which was for sale at Hanz Goltz’s bookstore in Munich.19
Learning from the Magazines: Dada Exhibitions 1920–1921
Growing out of this history, in 1920, the Dadaists began adopting for their
exhibitions many of the strategies they had developed in their magazines in the
previous two years. The shows in Cologne, Berlin, Rome, and Paris manifest
enthusiasts’ local and transnational aspirations, and their distinct contexts and
incentives. In Cologne, where Dada was not yet well established, Ernst and
Baargeld put their exposition together after the ostensibly “jury-free” show at
96 Dada Magazines
the Arbeitsgemeinschaft bildender Künstler (Association of Fine Artists, or

Artists’ Union) as the Kölner Kunstgewerbemuseum (Cologne Museum of Arts
and Crafts) rejected their unusual submissions. Ernst and Baargeld’s works
made up most of what was on view, but the inclusion of pieces by Jean (Hans)
Arp and Francis Picabia demonstrates their transnational goals. In Berlin,
where Dada was well established, the Dadaists’ “Fair” marked a culmination
of the many Dada activities in the city. The objects on display were by both
Berlin Dadaists and artists in other European cities, signaling the movement’s
scope. In Rome, Evola’s April 1921 Dada exposition mixed artworks, posters,
and poems from local artists and known Dadaists, apparently in his attempt to
ally himself with Dada.20 His show contained abstract paintings by himself, Aldo
Fiozzi, and Gino Cantarelli.21 However, he expanded its geographical reach with
events. The opening and closing included poems and music by individuals from
many countries, including not only Evola and Cantarelli but also Tzara, Louis
Aragon, Arnold Schönberg, Igor Stravinsky, and Béla Bartok.22 In a city where
Dada was well known, if not universally accepted, the Paris show demonstrated
the movement’s prankish manner while telegraphing its transnational scope and
effectively anthologizing the movement.23 Of the twenty-one individuals who
submitted the eighty-one works on view, the majority were living in the French
capital; others were mostly affiliates in Cologne, New York, Berlin, and cities
throughout Italy.
Despite their differences, the organizers of these exhibitions experimented
with display, and they employed many of the same strategies to do so, strategies
they had first tried out in their journals. The shows combined disparate types
of objects: in addition to drawings and collages, they included such objects as
mannequins, ties, a fish tank, a stuffed military uniform, and a chunk of asphalt.
They also, significantly, included printed materials. The Berlin Dadaists, for
instance, presented programs for past Dada events, like Tzara’s program for
the Festival Dada at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, held a month earlier. In Paris,
posters from earlier events—Geneva Grand Dada Ball and the Dada Early
Spring Show in Cologne—hung above the artworks, and the Rome presentation
featured print media from Paris and Rome.24 Most notable for our purposes is
the fact that the Dada magazines also were on view. The Dadaists spotlighted
the relationship between these publications and exhibitions by juxtaposing print
materials, artworks made for the publications, and even pieces incorporating
their pages. In Berlin, magazines were part of Johannes Baader’s seven-foot
semiautobiographical assemblage, “Das Grosse Plasto-Dio-Dada-Drama:
Deutschlands Grösse und Untergang oder Die Phantastische Lebensgeschichte
des Oberdada” (“The Great Plasto Dio-Dada-Drama: Germany’s Greatness

and Decline or the Fantastic Life of the Superdada”), along with mousetraps,
a powder keg, an advertising dummy, and newspapers.25 Arranged on tables,
integrated into assemblages, and hanging on walls, Dada journals functioned
simultaneously as artistically inventive publications, publicity materials, items
for sale, and valuable records of the movement’s history.26
The magazines also reinforced the Dadaists’ shift from thinking of artworks
as one-of-a-kind objects to images subject to multiple reiterations. Many
contained reproductions of these pieces, and some of the collages comprised
reproductions of texts and images printed in the Dada journals. The Berlin
installation featured original drawings and collages from Paris and Cologne Dada
publications: Johannes Baargeld’s “Antropofiler Bandwurm” (“Anthopophile
Tapeworm”) (1920), Arp’s “Der Arp is da!” (“Arp Is Here!”) (1920) from Die
Schammade, and Picabia’s “Tamis du vent” (“Sieve of the Wind”) (c. 1918) from
the eighth issue of 391, for instance. It also contained a photo of Hausmann
and Baader from Der Dada 2 and all the images in Der Dada 3, recirculated
and reframed in different media. For example, an image of Grosz from Der
Dada 3 was hung as an individual photograph in the show and was enlarged
and reproduced on two posters, one with the caption, “Dada is the deliberate
subversion of bourgeois terminology. Dada is on the side of the revolutionary
proletariat!” (the poster is on the left of the installation photo)27 (Figures 2.3
and 3.2). Grosz’s profile, again showing the right side of his face, appears twice
in the Dadaists’ posed photographs of the installation, repeating this same
image in their documentation of the exhibition, this time with the artist himself
among the various reproductions of his visage.
The Dadaists were approaching the walls much as they had magazine
spreads, as planes for excerpting, combining, and overlapping texts and images.
This layering and constant referencing of printed materials and the reprinting of
images alter what Steinberg calls the exhibition’s “psychic address,” as discussed
in Chapter 2. Thirty years before the artists that Steinberg discusses, who, as
he puts it, “no longer simulate vertical fields, but opaque flatbed horizontals,”
Dada presentations reversed the typical expectation that artworks on a wall
address viewers vertically, corresponding to our upright position.28 And the
reviews—which themselves functioned as venues, arranged amid paintings,
drawings, collages, found objects, and other printed materials that overlap and
repeat images—encouraged viewers to approach the curated spaces as three-
dimensional collages of sorts, akin to Rauschenberg’s combines or assemblages,
with a horizontal orientation.
98 Dada Magazines
Figure 3.2 Installation view, Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (“First International

Dada Fair”), Berlin, Summer 1920. Hannah Hoch Archiv, Berlinische Galerie. Image
courtesy of the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, acquired with funds from the DKLB
Foundation, Berlin, 1979 © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-
Kunst, Bonn.
Like the journals, Dada exhibitions goaded audience interaction. Rather

than feeling comfortable as spectators and evaluators, visitors discovered
the spotlight turned on them. Most of the pieces on view, particularly in
Cologne, Berlin, and Paris, did not invite aesthetic interpretation. Instead,
they confronted viewers, challenging them to forge a connection between
titles and objects and even to destroy what they saw. In Paris, most works
were by writers and did not last beyond the show. Philippe Soupault submitted
an eighteenth-century mirror, “Portrait of a Fool,” for instance. Part of the
Dadaists’ attempts to activate visitors entailed foregrounding their presence
and appealing to them as bodies in space. A sign hanging from Heartfield and
Rudolf Schlichter’s “Prussian Archangel” in Berlin declared that to grasp the
piece one had to perform military drills. A text next to Otto Dix’s “Bewegliches
Figurenbild” (“Montage of Movable Figures”) (c. 1920) ordered visitors to grab
it. In Paris, a handwritten sign addressed viewers directly, borrowing from
advertising strategies: “This summer elephants will be wearing moustaches
…. what about you?”29 The Dadaists participated in the spectacle, often by
juxtaposing photographs of themselves with slogans and imperatives, as if

they are speaking directly to visitors. A poster in Berlin showed Hausmann’s
profile yelling, “Down with art!” “Finally open your mind!” and “Free it for the
demands of the times!” [the poster is on the left of the photo] (Figure 3.2).30 At
the Salon Dada, signs read, “Dada is the world’s biggest hoax” and “Has Dada
ever spoken to you?”31 Shouting at visitors, asking them questions, and making
incendiary, if nonsensical, declarations, the Dadaists encouraged guests to
shout back, inviting a riotous state of affairs. In Cologne, Ernst submitted a
drawing with a note instructing readers to write on it, countering the “do not
touch” atmosphere typical of most galleries and museums. Perhaps the most
extreme example of audience involvement was Baargeld’s “Fluidoskeptrik”
(“Fluid spectrum”) (c. 1920), an aquarium filled with blood red water, a
woman’s wig, a fake hand, and an alarm clock. An axe sat next to this bizarre
assemblage, with a label telling visitors to smash it (as many did). The Cologne
Dadaists succeeded in activating visitors, who not only destroyed pieces, but
also demanded their money back.32 In Berlin, the Dadaists’ installation led to
the arraignment of five Berlin Dadaists, charged with insulting the German
army, and the press, overwhelmingly citing the peculiarity of the exhibits and
how they were hung.33
Compounding the effects of the works cited above, the Dadaists assaulted
the assumed neutrality of the venue itself. Cologne’s Dada Early Spring show
setting was chosen to confuse and offend and it was perhaps the most alarming:
a brewery, the Brauhaus Winter (Winter Brewery) on Schildergasse 37. Written
reports help recreate the unusual display. An unsigned review describes the
entrance:
You go through a door in a building behind a Cologne bar and run into an old
stove; to your left is a vista of stacked-up bar chairs, and to your right, the art
begins (my companion thought the left-hand view was nicer.) At first the room
is a little dark … but around the corner to the right it gets lighter, though here
the rain starts dripping on your head.34
According to some accounts, visitors entered through the men’s bathroom, where
they came upon a girl wearing a First Communion dress. The exhibition locations
in Berlin, Rome, and Paris, by contrast, were conservative, incongruously so.
Berlin’s First International Dada Fair took place at Dr. Otto Burchard’s two-
room art gallery on the ground floor of a five-story apartment building; Evola’s
show was at the relatively small and eclectic Casa d’Arte Bragaglia; the Salon
Dada was held on the top floor of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (which they
100 Dada Magazines
Figure 3.3 Installation view, Salon Dada Exposition Internationale (“International

Exhibition”), Paris, 1921 © Maurice Branger/Roger-Viollet/The Image Works.
renamed the Galerie Montaigne—the building is located on avenue Montaigne),

a space with oriental rugs and wainscoting.35
To varying degrees, the Dadaists in these cities transformed their venues into
chaotic, bewildering spaces akin to their collaged magazine pages. In Berlin,
for example, posters, paintings, drawings, photographs, and journals lay on the
ground, dangled overhead, and covered the walls from floor to ceiling, sometimes
overlapping. Like “Prussian Archangel,” hung from the ceiling at the Berlin Fair,
in Paris a mannequin of a man in a suit perched precariously overhead on the
outside edge of a balcony. Dozens of men’s ties hung down below the balcony’s
railing, telling readers, “You see here ties and not violins. You see here bonbons
and not marriages” (Figure 3.3). Much like the Dadaists’ tactics for defying the
illusion of transparency in their publications, creating static that shifted attention
to the manipulation of the printed medium, here the Dadaists’ presentation
choices were inescapable and likely alarming to many guests. The Dadaists’
startling proto-late-twentieth-century art installation practices, informed by
their involvement with magazines, implicated the venues themselves, involving
the walls and spaces in a manner that countered presumptions about the
neutrality of venues as well as divisions between spectators and artworks.
The Dada Exhibition Catalog: A Medium in Between
Catalogs accompanied the Berlin, Cologne, and Paris exhibitions described

above, functioning as secondary, supplemental source with checklists,
illustrations of works shown, and texts by participants, making them very
similar to the journals.36 Uniquely positioned between the exhibitions and the
reviews, these publications took on some of the magazines’ former functions
without replacing them, and they manifest the Dadaists’ strong commitment
to graphic design. In the early twentieth century, catalogs were usually
small booklets, not weighty tomes, but then, as now, they served as a guide
for visitors and as a record, explaining general themes and specific objects
for both visitors. The Dada catalogs fulfilled these functions for the most
part, but not surprisingly, the Dadaists also lampooned this requisite part
of expositions. The Berlin catalog lampoons the expectation that a catalog
should celebrate the art on view. Hausmann’s text, “Was die Kunstkritik nach
Ansicht des Dadasophen zur Dadaausstellung sagen wird” (“What Art Critics
Have to Say about the Dada exhibition, according to the Dadasoph”), opens
by borrowing language from an actual review of the show, discouraging
attendance: “Let it be said right from the beginning that this Dada exhibition
is simply another common bluff and not worth visiting.”37 The Cologne
catalog, too, assumes the stance of Dada’s detractors: “Do you visit DADA? /
I do not have a need.”38
Graphic design, too, is impossible to ignore and obstructs the typical
functions of a catalog. Berlin’s catalog, designed by Heartfield, is the most
visually daring of the three, with texts printed in several directions overlying
images, printed in black and red (Figure 3.4). Announcements like “Max
Liebermann illustrates the Bible!” surround its main essay, Herzfelde’s
introduction, interspersed with reproductions of two “corrected masterpieces”
that were on view—collages by Grosz and Heartfield that superimpose cutouts
over existing works of art: Picasso’s “Girl’s Head with Small Bird” (1913) and
Henri Rousseau’s 1890 self-portrait.39 As on the front cover, on the back, texts
and images in red and black overlap, and we find a photograph of Gerhard
Preiss, or “Super-Musicdada,” from the series of him doing the “Dada Trott” in
Der Dada 3, and small bicycles stamped indiscriminately across the page, all
printed over the long list of works on view.
The cover of the Paris catalog is a drawing of placards and signs hanging on
a wall, notably with phrases written in a lively combination of fonts that recall
passages in earlier journals in their absurdity and unhelpfulness: “No one is
102 Dada Magazines
Figure 3.4 Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (“First International Dada Fair”)

catalog, ed. John Heartfield and Wieland Herzefelde, Berlin, 1920, Otto Burchard
and Malik-Verlag, 12 3∕16 × 15 3∕8 in. (31 × 39 cm). International Dada Archive, Special
not supposed to be unaware of Dada,” “athletes sought” (Figure 3.5).40 In the

Cologne catalog, a somewhat cryptic composition on the back page also nods
toward the collage-inspired layout of earlier magazines. A drawing depicts a
hand tattooed with an anchor and star. The first edition includes words written
in Hebrew, including “Kosher for Passover.” In the second edition, the editors
replaced them with a short text about Dada that references “Ass Wednesday,”
impudently referencing Catholicism instead.41
The exhibitions’ direct, provocative engagement with visitors also comes
through in the catalogs. The Berlin catalog reinforces the Berlin fair’s treatment
of visitors as bodies in space. Wieland Herzefelde tells viewers of Heartfield’s
montage, “Leben und Treiben in Universal City um 12:05 Uhr” (“Life and Bustle
at Universal City at 12:05 noon”) (1920), reproduced on the cover of the Berlin
catalog:42
In order to arrive at a proper overall impression, it is best to step back up about
40 paces through the wall (Attention: Watch out for the Stairs!). It follows, then,
Figure 3.5 Salon Dada, Exposition Internationale (“International Exhibition”)

catalog, Paris, 1921, front cover, letterpress, 10 5∕8 × 8 1∕4 in. (26.9 × 20.9 cm). Merrill
C. Berman Collection.
that the Dadaist John Heartfield is the enemy of the picture. In fact he destroyed
it himself. A very simple and useful test of this can be performed on any street
with ordinary street lamps.43
Rather than instructing visitors to stand forty paces away from the wall, he
instructs them to step through (“durch”) the wall, where we find ourselves on
104 Dada Magazines
the street. He calls for destruction, not contemplation. The Cologne catalog is
similarly provocative, apparently aiming to make skeptical audiences indignant:
Each visitor is a predestined Dadaist. Either he laughed frankly [and] one can
address him as a noble Dadaist or he falls prey to the illusion of anti-Dadaism to
realize too late that he is the sacrificial lamb of the union of butchers and that he
himself is simply a dadaist.44
Similarly, in the Paris catalog, anonymous, absurd statements on the tops of

most pages set out to confound and alarm rather than elucidate:
Dada is not impossible.
If you would like to die, continue.
A state in the Dada state, it is Dada without Dada.
It is necessary to be perfectly idiotic.45
Complementing and supplementing Dada shows, these catalogs testify to the

Dadaists’ commitment to display, as well as their ongoing interest in parody and
graphic design.
Dada Journals’ Continued Currency
The catalogs take over many of the functions magazines from 1916 to 1917 had
provided. By the early 1920s, Tzara, Hausmann, Ernst, and their fellow Dadaists
were able to travel and communicate much more freely than was possible
earlier; they no longer depended on journals to share works or publicize their
movement. Yet Dadaists continued to value them as venues, as distinctive,
viable vehicles of artistic production and distribution, as sites for hashing out
disagreements and, increasingly, as historicizing venues. They could access a
transnational audience and settle scores about the origins and status of Dada.
Tzara’s composition, “Une nuit d’échecs gras” (“A night of fat chess”), a collage
of texts in the fourteenth issue of 391 (November 1920) made up of Dada
publication titles (including 391, Cannibale, Dada, and Bleu), signals their
ongoing importance (Figure 3.6).
Nevertheless, amid this flurry of activity, the organizers of the Cologne,
Berlin, and Paris exhibitions made magazines. Even as Dadaists began
organizing shows and publishing catalogs, the journals maintained a life of their
own. In April 1920, Ernst and Baargeld produced Die Schammade, the month
of their Dada Early Spring exposition, and Berlin Dadaists Grosz, Heartfield,
and Hausmann published Der Dada 3 two months prior to the landmark “Dada
Figure 3.6 391 14, ed. Francis Picabia, Paris, 1920, p. 4, letterpress, 23 3∕16 × 12 5∕8 in.
(58.9 × 32.1 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections, University of Iowa
Libraries.
106 Dada Magazines
Fair.” Evola’s Bleu came out three months before his Dada show. Tzara compiled
the eighth and final issue of Dada in the Tyrolean Alps in Austria shortly after
his “Salon Dada” closed, in September 1921.
Again the Dadaists harnessed the many advantages of magazines they had
recognized with their earlier publications: their adaptability, transportability,
their ability present contributions from various contributors from many cities,
the fact that they are easier and less expensive to produce and distribute, and they
last longer. Regardless of their editors’ specific motives, each journal continued
to showcase the Dadaists’ prioritization of manipulating graphic design, to
declare their commitment to transnationalism, to expand the movement, and to
declare its editor’s place in the movement.
Of these four Dada groups, the Cologne Dadaists most fully utilized the
unique characteristics of periodicals in the early 1920s. Ernst’s and Baargeld’s
decision to publish Die Schammade (ed. Ernst and Baargeld, 1920, Cologne)
indicates how central this printed medium had become to Dada practice.46
Recent affiliates, these two individuals were eager to connect with readers in
other cities and to establish themselves as players among the more recognized
artists in the Dada network. The Cologne catalog is entirely in German, and
the only reference to Dadaists outside of the city comes in the list of names,
presumably the creators of “Simultantriptychon: die dadaisten und die
dadaistinnen” (“Simultaneous Triptych: Male and Female Dadaists”). In Die
Schammade, by contrast, we find both German and French texts. Additionally,
contributions from Cologne appear alongside pieces by Dadaists from Paris
and Berlin, namely Tzara, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Louis Aragon,
André Breton, Soupault, Paul Éluard, and Huelsenbeck, whose names they
proudly printed on the cover, interspersed with the title of the magazine.
Advertisements for publications by Dadaists in Paris and Berlin announce their
transnational connections and aspirations. Typography and layout conspire
to lively effect, directly inspired by the Dada journals Ernst and Baargeld had
received. For instance, Tzara’s poem, “Bulletin,” is printed in many font types
and sizes, mimicking its appearance in Dada 3. Many of the reproductions in
Die Schammade are cutouts of images on white paper pasted onto the page, so
they stand out from the texts, but the inclusion of pinup photographs among
them emphasizes that all are reproductions, implying that they are of equal
worth (Figure 3.7). The pink and sparkling paper stock used for some copies
also calls attention to the materiality of the page.
The relationship between Der Dada 3 (April 1920) and the First
International Dada Fair, which was held over two months later, was stronger
Figure 3.7 Die Schammade, ed. Max Ernst and Johannes Baargeld, Cologne, 1920,
Schloemilch-Verlag, p. 8, 12 ¾ × 9 13∕16 in. (32.4 × 25 cm). Image courtesy of the Getty
Research Institute, Los Angeles.
(Figure 3.8).47 Der Dada 3 presents a brief announcement of the show and a
profile photograph of Grosz that he had used in posters hung in the gallery
space. Grosz’s well-known collage and watercolor, “‘Daum’ marries her
pedantic automaton ‘George’ in May 1920. John Heartfield is very glad of it
(Meta-Mech. constr. nach [according to] Prof. R. Hausmann)” (1920), printed
108 Dada Magazines
Berlin, 1920, Malik-Verlag, front cover, 9 1∕16 × 6 1∕8 in. (23 × 15.6 cm). International
Dada Archive, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
on page three, was on view at the fair. But there is no checklist of works on
view; the emphasis is on explicating the Berlin Dadaists’ transnational, anti-
bourgeois, and anti-aesthetic stance while showcasing their experimentation
with collage and the creative integration of texts and images. Fewer submissions
by artists from outside Berlin are in Der Dada 3 than in their exhibition, yet
this magazine nevertheless expresses the movement’s global nature. It features
Picabia’s “Manifeste Cannibale Dada,” as well as various epigrams and gossip
about Dada members that had appeared in Dadaphone. In his essay, “Dada in
Europa,” Hausmann attributes the founding of Dada not only to Huelsenbeck,
but also to Ball and Tzara, and page sixteen lists Dada journals from Paris
and Zurich.48 Like the Berlin catalog, graphically, Der Dada 3 is outstanding.
Slogans, announcements, manifestoes, and essays in various font types and
sizes and colors (black and red) are arranged in many directions and combine
and overlap with collages, photographs, sketches, drawings and what look
like commercial photographs of banal subject matter such as a pair of socks
and a spoon. Instead of numbers, each page is assigned a non-sequential
measurement, such as “254 km,” “4/1,” “75%,” “1920,” and “TOM 2.”
Berlin witnessed a series of left-leaning periodicals by individuals who had
made earlier Dada magazines, though these later publications were not devoted
to promoting Dada. They include the graphically conservative but politically
provocative Die Pleite (“Bankruptcy”) (Heartfield, Groz, Herzfelde, Berlin,
1919–1924), published by Malik-Verlag and filled with drawings by Grosz with
captions by Herzfelde, and Der blutige Ernst (“Bloody Earnest”) (John Höxter,
Carl Einstein, George Grosz, Berlin, 1919), which carried on Dada’s defiant and
sardonic tendencies.49
In Italy, Gino Cantarelli, with the help of Aldo Fiozzi set out to make Bleu
(Mantua, July and August 1920, January 1921), an international avant-garde
magazine (Figure 3.9). But through Evola’s efforts, Bleu became the primary
vehicle for the promotion of the Dada movement in Italy. In his first letter to
Tzara, Evola tells him that he is planning to produce his own journal, a “review
of modern art,” and he invites Tzara and his colleagues to contribute.50 Animated
by the Dada poems, essays, paintings, drawings, and collages that he saw in
Dada publications, Evola committed to being a part of a transnational artistic
movement that allowed him to pursue his individual artistic goals and the
promise of what he called “a new life” (“une nouvelle vie”).51 Bleu featured texts
(almost all of them translated into Italian) and images by Dadaists Tzara, Picabia,
Ernst, Baargeld, Serner, Aragon, Éluard, Reverdy, and even Van Doesburg, who
increasingly allied himself with the movement, as discussed in the next chapter.
110 Dada Magazines
Figure 3.9 Bleu 3, ed. Gino Cantarelli, Mantua, 1921, front cover. Getty Research
Institute, Los Angeles (87-S869) (see Plate 7).
These contributions manifest the editors’ international ties and eagerness to

bring Dada to Italian readers, something they did not achieve in their exhibitions.
Most of these images evidence the editors’ exposure to and excerpting from
other Dada-affiliated journals. Examples include Baargeld’s Picabia-like
drawing, “Le Dirigeable Dada” (“The Dada Airship”) (Figure 3.10),52 and a
collage by Ernst, “Parafulmine giurabacco dei dada arp tzara ERNST baargeld
picabia ecc” (“Lightning rod of the dada arp tzara ERNST baargeld picabia etc.”)
(c.1919–1920), which only survives in this periodical,53 Louis Aragon’s essay,
“Rivelazioni sensazionali” (“Sensational revelations”), which had been printed
as “Révélations sensationnelles” in the May 1920 issue of Littérature, and Tzara’s
“Ange” (“Angel”) 1916, which had appeared in Der Dada 1.54
Compared to earlier reviews discussed in this chapter, the graphic design of
Bleu was conservative. The covers have a uniform design, with the title in large
block letters, printed in the same color as the cover image (blue, green, and red,
respectively). Most inside content is printed in black ink in two regular columns,
and most inside pictures either adhere to this format or, as in the second issue,
are on a separate insert, with the exception of the first issue, which features a
print by Fiozzi printed in green overlaying the text. Typographically, the most
pronounced experimentation is in an article about Dada in the first issue by
critic Renée Dunan. Here “Dada” is bolded and in all caps throughout.
Bleu offers two essays on Dada, both by Dunan, and they give readers the
lengthiest, if idiosyncratic, account of the movement. In “Dada?” published in
Bleu 1, she calls Dada “the entire ‘phenomenon of the future,’” adding, “to kill
DADA is to sacrifice the beauty of the future.”55 Her article in the second issue of
Bleu begins by distinguishing between Dadaism and Futurism: “Dadaism was not
born from an aesthetic theory pushed to its final consequences like Futurism.”56
Just as magazines had encouraged Tzara and the other early Dadaists to combine
their own works with those by established members of the avant-garde, here
Evola aims to associate these Italian works with those by Dadaists and their
fans. The words, “Parigi Roma Dada” (“Paris Rome Dada”), running across the
top of a page of the third issue of Bleu, the most Dada-filled issue, make the
connection explicit. Lists of reviews at the end of the second and third issues
of Bleu—Cannibale, Projecteur, and Proverbe from Paris, Die Schammade from
Cologne, as well as Littérature, Grecia, Der Sturm, and De Stijl—also expose the
editors’ debt and desire to tie themselves to earlier Dada publications.57
The third issue of Bleu on January 1, 1921, launched a “Dada Season” in
Rome, modeled after Tzara’s Dada Season in Paris. Evola tells Tzara, “Because
of me, it is completely Dada here.”58 Besides the group show in April 1921, Evola
112 Dada Magazines
Figure 3.10 Bleu 2, ed. Gino Cantarelli, Mantua, 1920, p. 3. Getty Research
Institute, Los Angeles (87-S869).
exhibited his paintings alone in May 1921, this time at Arturo Ciacelli’s new
Grotte dell’Augusteo in Rome.59 On July 2, 1921, he wrote to Tzara, telling him of
the success of his efforts to promote Dada in Italy, “Many people are interested
now in Dada, and, if the season were not finished we would undoubtedly have
been the fashion of intellectual Rome.”60 However, in that very same month,
Evola abruptly stopped all Dada activity, yet his brief stint with Dada exemplifies
the journals’ ability to spawn increasingly idiosyncratic interpretations of the
movement.61
In Paris, where many Dada enthusiasts used magazines to express their
interpretations of the movement, Tzara promoted the movement in two issues
of Dada from 1920: Bulletin Dada (February 1920) and Dada Augrandair:
Der Sängerkrieg Intirol (“Dada Outdoors: The Singers’ War in the Tirol”)
(September 1921—though the cover says September 16, 1886) (Figures 3.11
and 3.12).62 Bulletin Dada also served as a handbill and a program for a Dada
performance at the Salon des Indépendants at the Grand Palais des Champs
Elysées.63 Dada Augrandair bears little connection to the Salon Dada show,
containing only an incomplete correction to the catalog.64 It focuses almost
entirely on proving Tzara’s primacy in Dada’s creation and Dada’s range. This
last issue of Dada, compiled in Tirol, where Tzara, Arp, and Ernst gathered
in late August and early September, reveals Tzara’s increasing preoccupation
with settling scores. A text by Arp emphatically, if nonsensically, asserts that
Tzara invented the word “Dada,” simultaneously enacting and mocking such
efforts:
I declare that Tristan Tzara found the word DADA on February 8, 1916, at 6 in
the evening; I was present with my twelve children when Tzara pronounced for
the first time this word which has aroused in us such legitimate enthusiasm.65
In response to Picabia’s accusation that Dada had become a movement like

any other, Dada Augrandair declares that Picabia, or “Funiguy,” “invented
Dadaism in 1899, Cubism in 1870, Futurism in 1867, and Impressionism
in 1856,” suggesting that it was in fact Picabia who was attached to “isms.” In
addition to such territory marking, Dada Augrandair bears signs of Tzara’s
ongoing commitment to expanding Dada and maintaining relations with Dada
enthusiasts worldwide. It is bilingual, the full title combines French and German
words, and although most contributors lived in Paris, some, like Arp, Ernst,
Baargeld, did not. Experimental graphic design is not emphasized; nor is it
completely forgotten. The journal opens from the left, and all of the words of the
title except for “Dada” are printed backward and upside down and out of order.
114 Dada Magazines
Figure 3.11 Bulletin Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Paris, 1920, front cover, letterpress,
14 13∕16 × 10 7∕8 in. (37.6 × 27.7 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections,
Figure 3.12 Dada Augrandair: Der Sängerkrieg Intirol (“Dada Outdoors: The
Singers’ War in the Tirol”), ed. Tristan Tzara and Max Ernst, Paris, Au Sans Pareil,
1921, p. 4, letterpress, 13 ¼ × 8 ¼ in. (33.7 × 21 cm). International Dada Archive,
Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
116 Dada Magazines
In 1920 and 1921, as Dada became more widely known, Dadaists became ever
more cognizant of the comparatively long-lasting nature of printed materials
after the war.66 Regardless of their exact link to exhibitions, all of these magazines
attest to Dadaists’ ongoing valuing of this print medium and its continued
ability to develop the movement. With the war’s end, Dadaists depended on
their journals less and their ongoing engagement with them shows that these
publications were much more than expedient means of communication but
remained at the heart of their creative practice.
In his analysis of gallery space, Thomas McEvilley comments, “It has
been the special genius of the [twentieth] century to investigate things in
relation to their context, to come to see the context as formative on the thing,
and, finally, to see the context as a thing itself.”67 Throughout the 1900s,
particularly starting in the 1920s, members of the avant-garde linked graphic
and exhibition design.68 Figures such as El Lissitzky and Duchamp stand out
for their involvement with both printed publications and expositions after the
Dada ones explored in this chapter. Among their more notable undertakings
are the review, Veshch-Gegenstand-Objet (“Object”) (Berlin, edited by El
Lissitzky and Ilya Ehrenburg, 1922–1923), Lissitzky’s designs for the book,
Dlia Golosa (“For the Voice”) (1923), and his work for the Internationale
Kunstausstellung (“International Art Exhibition”) in Dresden (1926). Lissitzky
said of his display design, “If he [the viewer] was usually lulled into a certain
passivity as he filed past the picture-filled walls, in our arrangement he will
be activated. This is to be the objective of the room.”69 Duchamp’s Exposition
Internationale du Surréalisme (“International Surrealist Exhibition”) at the
Galerie Beaux-Arts in Paris (1938), the First Papers of Surrealism show he
curated with André Breton in New York in 1942, and his collaboration on
View magazine (New York, edited by David Hare, 1942–1944) also testify to
his concurrent interests in the printed page and presentation space.70 At this
time museum directors and curators, too, began interrogating established
installation designs and debating how best to involve visitors as embodied
spectators sharing a given space.71 Training programs and journals in Europe
prescribed strict, if varied, guidelines about exhibitions for professional
curators in the 1920s. The Dadaists’ experiments in the years previous helped
spur this focus on display design, although their tactics often were at odds with
museum goals.72 In particular, they resisted the passive, visual contemplation
most museums encouraged at this time.73 Instead the Dadaists overturned
display conventions, harnessing the creative potential of magazines’ printed,
multiple nature, and, in so doing, reimagined spatial exhibitions and even
the very definition of art. At this same time, across the Atlantic in New York,
enthusiasts appropriated the periodical in another guise, a readymade, as
explored in the following chapter.
Notes
1 The effigy, John Heartfield and Rudolf Schlichter’s Preussischer Erzengel (“Prussian
Archangel”) (1920) was in the Berlin Dadaists’ First International Dada Fair in
1920; the girl reading poetry was in the 1920 Dada Spring Fair in Cologne; Philippe
Soupault submitted an eighteenth-century mirror entitled “Portrait d’un imbécile”
(“Portrait of a Fool”) (c. 1920) to the Salon Dada exhibition in Paris in 1921; the
posters, which read, “Nieder die Kunst” and “Sperren Sie endlich Ihren Kopf auf!,”
were hung at the Berlin exhibition.
2 Adam Jolles writes that Dadaists, along with Surrealists, “used exhibitions—much
as they did journals—as a means to address a much broader field of art history.”
Adam Jolles, “Artist into Curators: Dada and Surrealist Exhibition Practices,” in A
Companion to Dada and Surrealism, 212.
3 Charlotte Klonk, Spaces of Experience: Art Gallery Interiors from 1800 to 2000 (New
Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2009), 8.
4 Bruce Altshuler, “Introduction,” in The Avant-Garde in Exhibition: New Art in the
20th Century, ed. Bruce Altshuler (New York: Abrams, 1994), 8.
5 Bruce Altshuler, “From Almanac to Exhibitions: The First Exhibition of the
Editors of the Blaue Reiter, Munich, 1911,” The Avant-Garde in Exhibition, 50. See
also Bruce Altshuler, Salon to Biennial, Exhibitions that Made Art History, vol. I
(London, New York: Phaidon, 2008).
6 Bruce Altshuler, “In the Zero of Form: 0–10, The Last Futurist Exhibition of
Pictures, Petrograd,” December 19, 1915–January 19, 1916,” The Avant-Garde in
Exhibition, 78–97.
7 For more on press coverage of the Dadaists from this period, see Dada in the Press.
8 Ernst met Ball and Hennings in Munich in 1919 and heard about performances,
exhibitions that combined works of established artists and unknown ones. He read
Berlin Dadaists’ “Was ist der Dadaismus und was will er in Deutschland?” (“What
Is Dadaism and What Does It Want in Germany”) in a Cologne newspaper in 1919.
Kriebel, “Cologne,” Dada, ed. Dickerman, 221.
9 For a full account of Dada in Paris, see Sanouillet, Dada in Paris. Other accounts
include Janine Mileaf and Matthew S. Witkovsky, “Paris.” Dada, ed. Dickerman,
354, and Elizabeth Legge, “Nothing, Ventured: Paris Dada into Surrealism,” A
Companion to Dada and Surrealism, 89–109.
10 F. S. Flint, “The Younger French Poets: The Dada Movement,” The Chapbook (A
Monthly Miscellany) 2, no. 17 (November 1920): 3.
118 Dada Magazines
11 Tristan Tzara to Francis Picabia, July 1920, Dossiers Picabia, Bibliothèque Littéraire
Jacques Doucet, document #159, TZRC 696. In Bulletin Dada, Tzara listed several
Italians among the Dada presidents: d’Arezzo, Cantarelli, Evola, and Meriano. He
also printed a poem, “The fibre ignites and the pyramids (very quickly)” (“la fibre
s’enflamme et les pyramides (très vite)”) by Evola.
12 “ … à présent, on commence à la fin a parler un peu partout de Dadaisme
et de vous: les journaux font la grève du silence pour chercher de suffoquer
l’invasion Dada en Italie. Les futuristes se sont … furieux.” Evola to Tzara,
May 1, 1921, Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, TZRC
1506. Evola had found out about Dada in late 1918 or 1919 when Prampolini
showed him Tzara’s Vingt-Cinq poèmes (“Twenty-five poems”) and Dada 3.
Tzara’s 1918 Dada Manifesto, published in Dada 3, served as the basis of Evola’s
interpretation of Dada. Evola had read Tzara’s poems in Italian periodicals, as
well. In a letter dated October 7, 1919, Evola tells Tzara that he has read Tzara’s
poems in the Italian journals, Diana, Pagine, and Cronache Letterarie. Evola to
Tzara, October 7, 1919, Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet,
TZRC 1484.1; Sheppard, “Julius Evola, Futurism and Dada,” New Studies in
Dada, 87.
13 Tristan Tzara, “Zurich Chronicle. 1915–1919,” trans. Manheim, The Dada Painters
and Poets, 235.
14 A photograph of a fall 1918 exposition at the Kunstsalon Wolfsberg in Zurich,
which included contributions from Dada affiliates Arp, Janco, Richter, shows works
arranged in this way, suggesting that the style of this earlier exposition was similar.
Galerie Dada hosted four exhibitions between January and June 1917: the “First
Dada Exhibition” (Première exposition Dada) in January 1917, two presenting
German Expressionist pieces from Herwarth Walden’s Der Sturm gallery in Berlin,
and the “Ausstellung von Graphik, Broderie, Relief ” (“Exhibition of Graphic
Art, Embroidery, and Reliefs”). Tanja Buchholz describes Galerie Dada as a
Gesamtkunstwerk in its first few months. Tanja Buchholz, “Galerie Dada,” Genesis
Dada, 54.
15 Marcel Duchamp, Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp, Interview by Pierre Cabanne.
Translated by Ron Padgett (London: De Capo Press, 1979), 56.
16 Dawn Ades, Three New York Dadas and the Blind Man (London: Atlas Press, 2013).
According to Roché’s Victor, originally The Blind Man was for sale at the show and
then offered for free, eliciting little interest, after which a bookseller sold them.
Henri-Pierre Roché, Victor, trans. Chris Allen, in Three New York Dadas and the
Blind Man, ed. Ades, 55–6.
17 Before this, they had collaborated with Otto Freundlich, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert,
Heinrich Hoerle, and Josef Smeets, among others, to produce the politically
satirical, and according to some, Proto-Dada Der Ventilator (“The Fan”) (Cologne,
1919). For more on Der Ventilator, see Lynette Roth, “Cologne: The Magazine
as Artistic and Political Imperative,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural History
of Modernist Magazines, vol. III, part II, 927–32. In 1920, even as they were
contributing to Die Schammade, some members of the Cologne Dada circle
published a single issue of Stupid, which was affiliated with their group and
exhibition of the same name.
18 Pieces by Franz Wilhelm Seiwart and Anton Räderscheidt, though listed in the
publication, were not in Section D, due to a rift between them and the others. Roth,
“The Magazine as Artistic and Political Imperative,” 934. Copies of Bulletin D,
measuring 31.5 × 24 cm (approximately 12.5 × 9.5 in.), which were not distributed,
were confiscated by British police. Roth, “The Magazine as Artistic and Political
Imperative,” 932.
19 Roth, “The Magazine as Artistic and Political Imperative,” 933–4.
20 Evola also organized a solo show in May 1921 at Arturo Ciacelli’s Grotte dell’Augusteo
in Rome, and events surrounding it included a reading of Tzara’s “Manifesto of bitter
and feeble love” and of poems by Picabia and Dermée, as well as Evola.
21 Invitation card for Dada exhibition, reproduced in Meyer, Dada Global, 68.
Originally the show was to include the work of Evola and German painter and
Dada affiliate Christian Schad.
22 The opening featured poems by Evola, Tzara, Louis Aragon, Cantarelli as well as
music by Georges Auric, Arnold Schönberg, and Igor Stravinsky. Evola marked
the closing of the exhibition by reading the 1918 Dada Manifesto and excerpts of
Tzara’s First Celestial Adventure of M. Antipyrine. A recitation of poems by Tzara,
Evola, and Aragon and again music—by Alfredo Casella, Stravinsky, Béla Bartok,
Zoltán Kodály, and Schönberg—followed. Giovanni Lista, “Tristan Tzara et le
Dadaïsme italien,” Europe 53, no. 555–6 (July–August 1975): 188. Evola also had
two solo shows at around this time, at the Casa d’Arte Bragaglia in Rome in January
1920 and in May 1921 at Arturo Ciacelli’s Grotte dell’Augusteo in Rome (where he
staged a reading of Tzara’s “Manifesto of bitter and feeble love” and of poems by
himself, Picabia, and Dermée).
23 Tzara and Picabia, who later withdrew from the exhibition, conceived “Salon Dada”
as a dissenting response to the long history of the esteemed art salons of Paris, most
pointedly the Salon des Indépendants, whose 1920 exposition the Dadaists had
sabotaged, prompting organizers to exclude them. Sanouillet, Dada in Paris, 201–2.
24 Janine Mileaf and Matthew S. Witkovsky. “Paris.” Dada, ed. Dickerman, 354; Lista,
“Tristan Tzara et le Dadaïsme italien,” 188.
25 The Cologne exhibition catalog announces that the show included reviews,
presumably including Dada reviews. Dada-Vorfrühling: Gemälde, Skulpturen,
Zeichnungen, Fluidoskeptrik, Vulgärdilettantismus Brauhaus Winter, 1920. Beinecke
Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Katherine Dreier Papers. The
Berlin Dadaists exhibited Neue Jugend, 391, Der Dada 1, and Der Dada 3. Hanne
Bergius, “First International Dada-Fair,” Dada Triumphs!, 15, 16, 23, 48, 49, 58.
120 Dada Magazines
26 The magazines in the assemblage were “Franz Jung’s Die freie Straße (“The Open
Road”), to which Baader had been a contributor, and at the summit an issue of
Die Pleite (“Bankruptcy”). For more on the piece, see Michael White, “Johannes
Baader’s Plasto-Dio-Dada-Drama: the Mysticism of the Mass Media,” Modernism/
modernity 8, no. 4 (November 2001): 583–602. For more on Die freie Straße, see
Weikop, “Transitions: From Expressionism to Dada,” The Oxford Critical and
Cultural History of Modernist Magazines III, part II, 806–15.
27 “Dada ist die willentliche Zersetzung der bürgerlichen Begriffswelt. Dada steht auf
Seiten des revolutionären Proletariats!”
28 Steinberg, “Reflections on the State of Criticism,” 44.
29 “Cet été les éléphants porteront des moustaches … et vous?” trans. Sanouillet, Dada
in Paris, 203.
30 “Nieder die Kunst.” “Sperren Sie endlich Ihren Kopf auf!” and “Machen Sie ihn frei
fur die Forderungen der Zeit!”
31 “Dada est le plus gros canular du monde.” “Dada vous a-t-il déjà parlé?”
32 In the end, the Dadaists prevailed, although local police shut down the exhibition
briefly on grounds of indecency. Charlotte Stokes, “Rage and Liberation: Cologne
Dada,” in Dada Cologne Hanover, ed. Charlotte Stokes and Stephen C. Foster, Crisis
and the Arts: The History of Dada III, ed. Stephen C. Foster (New York: G.K. Hall &
Company, 1997), 53.
33 For a detailed description of the trial, see Bruce Altshulter, “Dada ist politisch: The
First International Dada Fair, Berlin, June 30–August 25, 1920,” The Avant-Garde in
Exhibition, 110–12, and Bergius, Berlin Dada, 277–9.
34 Unsigned review, “Der Letzte Schrei,” Kölnischer Volzeitung, May 1, 1920, trans.
Werner Spies, Max Ernst Collages: The Invention of the Surrealist Universe.
Translated by John William Gabriel (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers,
1991), 280.
35 Apparently as a result of the controversy caused by Evola’s Dada exhibition,
Bragaglia severed relations with the Dadaists soon after the exhibition closed.
36 Dada-Vorfrühling: Gemälde, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen, Fluidoskeptrik,
Vulgärdilettantismus Brauhaus Winter, 1920; Erste internationale Dada-Messe:
Katalog. Berlin: Kunsthandlung Dr. Otto Burchard, 1920; Salon Dada: exposition
international, Galerie Montaigne. 1921.
37 Raoul Hausmann, “Erste international Dada-Messe: Katalog” (“First International
Dada Exhibition catalog”), 1. The review appeared in the article, “Dada
Bolshevism,” in Neue Preussische (Kreuz-Zeitung) (July 3, 1920), trans. Bergius,
Berlin Dada, 276.
38 “Besuchen Sie DADA? Ich habe kein bedürfnis.”
39 “Max Liebermann illustriert die Bibel!” Bergius, “First International Dada-Fair”
section, Dada Triumphs!, 39.
40 “Nul n’est censé ignorer Dada.” “On cherche des athlètes.” “No. 7” appears on the
top right-hand side of the cover of the Salon Dada catalog, likely meant to mislead
readers into thinking that is part of a series (it came out after the seventh issue of
Dada). The other difference between the poster and the catalog cover is the name
of the printer on the bottom right-hand side of the poster (“H. Chachoin, impr.,
Paris”). This catalog is a single, two-toned sheet measuring 6¼ × 8 5/16 inches and
folded to form four separate pages. The catalog appeared in two editions. The first
was printed on cream stock, with black ink on the outside pages and red ink inside.
The second is printed entirely in black ink, but the inside pages are blue. This
catalog is now extremely rare. The copy described here is in the Katherine Dreier
Papers at Beinecke Library at Yale University.
41 Ernst may have chosen to include this because he had seen Hebrew letters on
the cover of Der Dada 1. However, because these words upset his father-in-law,
who was Jewish and presumably found their reproduction here inappropriate, he
rewrote this part.
42 This piece was also in the show and used for posters.
43 Wiland Herzefelde, First International Dada Fair catalog, 1920, trans. Doherty,
October 105 (Summer 2003): 104.
44 “Jeder besucher dieser ausstellung ist prädestinierter dadaist entweder lächelt
er freimütig man kann ihn sodann als edeldadaisansprechen, oder er fällt dem
Irrwahn des antidadaismus anheim zu spät bemerkt er die personalunion von
metzger und opferlamm in sich er ist dadaist schlechthin.” Dada Austellung: Dada
Vorfrühling, 4.
45 “Impossible n’est pas Dada,” “Si vous voulez mourir continuez,” “Un état dans l’état
dada c’est dada dans dada,” “Garçon!!! Une patrie et une crise de nerfs!” “Il faut être
parfaitement imbecile.” Salon Dada: Exposition Internationale, exhibition catalog
(Paris, Galerie Montaigne, 1921), 3, 2, 5, 8. The copy consulted is in the collection
of the University of Iowa Libraries.
46 Die Schammade was printed by Druckerei Hertz in Cologne, which had also done
Bulletin D and some issues of Der Ventilator. It is made up of thirty-two pages of
pale green or pink paper, with most of the images in red ink. Its cover measures
32.5 × 24.8 cm (about 13 × 10 in.) and its inside pages measure 29.5 × 22.8 cm
(11.5 × 9 in.). It cost 14.50 marks. Notably, a flyer advertising the publication
indicates, falsely, that certain works are for sale, again blurring the lines between
periodical and catalog. Roth, “The Magazine as Artistic and Political Imperative,”
937. Baargeld’s father, a wealthy local businessman, funded the publication.
German, French, as well as some English, are interspersed in the journal. The
title is a neologism that has been interpreted in many ways. “Schammade” calls
to mind the words “Shamane” (shaman) and “Sharade (charade). According to
Werner Spies, “Schammade schlagen” means to sound a retreat. It also can be
122 Dada Magazines
interpreted as having sexual implications: “Scham” means “shame” or “genitals,”

and “Made” means maggot or worm. William A. Camfield, Max Ernst: Dada and
the Dawn of Surrealism (Munich: Prestel-Verlag; Houston: The Menil Collection,
1993), 67. Hal Foster, “Dada Mime,” October 105 (Summer 2003), 172. All of these
interpretations are plausible, and Ernst no doubt sought out this ambiguity. For
more interpretations of the title, see Kriebel, “Cologne,” Dada, ed. Dickerman, 230.
47 Der Dada 3 was published by Der Malik Verlag in Berlin. Measuring 16 × 24 cm
(about 6¼ × 9½ inches), it is much smaller than the first two issues of the journal.
The cover and back page are printed on pink paper, and the publication is eighteen
pages long, including the front and back pages. The editors of the journal are listed
as “Groszfield, Hearthaus, Georgemann” or Grosz, Heartfield, and Hausmann.
48 They include Cannibale (Francis Picabia, Paris, 1920), Proverbe (Paul Éluard, Paris,
1920–1921), and Der Zeltweg (Otto Flake, Walter Serner and Tristan Tzara, Zurich,
1919).
49 For more on these publications and others from the time in Berlin, see Sabine
T. Kriebel, “Radical Left Magazines in Berlin,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural
History of Modernist Magazines III, part II, 835–54.
50 Evola to Tzara, October 7, 1919, Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques
Doucet, TZRC 1484.1. The envelope for this letter is addressed to “Mr. Tristan Tzara
de la revue ‘Dada’ Zurich Svizzera” (“Mr. Tristan Tzara of the review, ‘Dada’ from
Zurich, Switzerland”), pointing out that for Evola Tzara’s identity was inextricably
linked to his journal. Presumably Tzara gave Evola permission to publish his poem,
“Acrobats” (“Saltimbanques)” (1916), which appears in the January 1920 issue of
Noi. This version of the poem is the first, written in 1914. Evola sent a copy of this
issue of Noi to Tzara on January 5, 1920, accompanied by a letter expressing his
interest in Dada, though Dada is not mentioned in this issue of Noi.
51 He writes, “[A]lthough from the point of view of substance we are the same, there
is, from the point of view of forms, an essential difference between us. While for
you all is natural, for me all is desired; while Dada, it is you, it is your immediate
given, for me dada is a new life that I have built after having destroyed, always
with awareness and will, another life ….” “Pourtant, bien qu’au point de veu [sic]
substance il y a identité, il y a, au point de vue forme, une différence essentielle
entre nous deux. Pendant que chez vous tout est naturel, chez moi tout est voulu;
pendant que Dada, c’est vous, c’est votre donnée immédiate, pour moi Dada c’est
une nouvelle vie que j’ai bâtie après avoir détruit, toujours avec conscience et
volonté, une autre vie …” Evola to Tzara, December 29, 1920, Dossiers Tzara,
52 Bleu 2, 3. Johannes Baargeld would have seen Picabia’s drawings in 391 and Dada.
53 Bleu 3, 4.
54 Other Dada affiliates represented in Bleu are Picabia, Serner, Ribemont-Dessaignes,
Céline Arnauld, Éluard, and Aragon.
55 Renee Dunan, “Dada?” Bleu 1, 2. This essay had been published in Journal du
peuple in Paris (March 1920).
56 Renée Dunan, “Assassiniamo l’intelligenza e l’estetica se vogliamo comprendere
la bellezza,” Bleu 2, front cover. This essay had been published as “Assassinons
l’intelligence et l’esthétique si nous voulons comprendre la beauté” in La Vie
Nouvelle Revue Mensuelle de Littérature et d’Art, no. 1 (December 1920): 17–20.
57 Surprisingly, Tzara’s Dada is not mentioned, most likely an oversight, as letters
indicate that Tzara sent copies of Dada to Evola.
58 Evola to Tzara, not dated, Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet,
TZRC 1501.
59 The opening began with a simultaneous reading of Tzara’s “Manifesto of bitter and
feeble love,” accompanied by Bruitist drumming and poetic recitations written by
Picabia, Dermée, and Evola. A Dada conference in the Great Hall at the University
of Rome took place on May 16, poetry readings at the Grotte dell’Augusteo on May
18 and the Salle de Danse Giovanelli on May 23, and a Dada performance at the
Grotte dell’Augusteo on June 15, when Evola read poems by himself, Tzara, Picabia,
and Ribemont-Dessaignes. Lista, “Tristan Tzara et le Dadaïsme italien,” 188–9.
60 Evola to Tzara, July 2, 1921, Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet,
TZRC 1508. Summer events included a Dada conference in the Great Hall at the
University of Rome on May 16, poetry readings at the Grotte dell’Augusteo on May
18 and the Salle de Danse Giovanelli on May 23, and a Dada performance at the
Grotte dell’Augusteo on June 15, where Evola read poems by himself, Tzara, Picabia,
and Ribemont-Dessaignes.
61 Lista, “Tristan Tzara et le Dadaïsme italien,” 189.
62 At 15¼ × 11 inches (38.7 × 27.7 cm), Bulletin Dada is much larger than its
predecessors and more like a newspaper than an art journal. The entire publication,
including the cover, is only four pages long. Five thousand copies were printed by
Société Parisienne d’Imprimerie, Passy, Paris, and it cost 2 French francs. There was
no deluxe version.
63 Attendance at the Dada event was high, so presumably many people read
Bulletin Dada. The issue is extremely rare, suggesting that the large numbers
of people who attended the Dada event understood it to be the handbill, to be
purchased for the event and discarded afterward, or as an ephemeral magazine.
Other magazines from this time include Paul Dermée’s single-issue Z (March
1920) and 391, which in 1920 (issues number 11 to 14, from February, March,
July, and November) carried on Tzara’s nihilistic bent and manifested Picabia’s
close relationship with Tzara and New York Dadaists Man Ray and Duchamp.
Littérature (1919–1924), edited by Aragon, Soupault, and Breton, supported
Dada at this time, regularly publishing contributions from Tzara, Picabia, and
other Dadaists. The May 1920 issue, devoted to Dada, features twenty-three Dada
manifestoes. Dadaists also found platforms in other artists’ magazines, such
124 Dada Magazines
as L’Esprit Nouveau (ed. Le Corbusier, poet Paul Dermée, and painter Amédée
Ozenfant, 1920–1925). Chapter 5 discusses some of the dialogues carried out
in such magazines. For more on these magazines, see Sanouillet, Dada in Paris,
“Dada Publications: 1920,” 149–60, and “Dada Publications: 1921,” 223–32, and
Emily Hage, “Dissemination: The Dada and Surrealist Journals,” in A Companion
to Dada and Surrealism, ed. David Hopkins (Chichester, West Sussex, Malden,
MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016), 199–210.
64 The correction says that the piece was painted in 1912, not 1914, as the catalog
indicates, and that Duchamp painted this first mechanical picture in Munich.
It fails to mention that the piece was not, in the end, on view at the Salon Dada.
Tristan Tzara, untitled text, Dada Augrandair: Der Sängerkrieg in Tirol, front
cover. Tzara named it Dada Augrandair and Maya Chrusecz nicknamed it Der
Sängerkrieg in Tirol. In the end they combined both names. Sanouillet, Dada in
Paris, 210.
65 “Je déclare que Tristan Tzara a trouvé le mot DADA le 8 février 1916 à 6h. du soir;
j’étais présent avec mes 12 enfants lorsque Tzara a prononcé pour la première fois
ce mot qui a déchaîné en nous en enthousiasme légitime.” Arp, “Déclaration,” Dada
Augrandair trans. William A. Camfield, Francis Picabia: His Art, Life, and Times
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 167.
66 They also published anthologies—Dadaco, Dadaglobe, and Dada Almanac—that
they intended to publish after the war. Although Dadaco and Dadaglobe were never
realized, Huelsenbeck published Dada Almanac in 1920, to coincide with the end
of the Dada Fair in Berlin. Richard Huelsenbeck, The Dada Almanac, ed. Malcolm
Green, trans. Derk Wynand (London: Atlas Press, 1993). For more on the other
publications, see Zürich—Dadaco—Dadaglobe and Sudhalter, Dadaglobe.
67 Thomas McEvilley, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (Santa
Monica: Lapis Press, 1986), 7.
68 Adam Jolles emphasizes the importance of exhibitions between the First and
Second World Wars: “The emergence of a rich discourse on exhibition practices
ranks among the European art world’s signature developments during the interwar
period.” Jolles, “Artists into Curators: Dada and Surrealist Exhibition Practices,” 211.
69 El Lissitzky, “Demonstrationsräume,” typed MSS. Archives of the Sprengel Museum
Hanover, 362, trans. El Lissitzky, 1890–1941: Architect, Painter, Photographer,
Typographer (Eindhoven: Municipal Van Abbemuseum; New York: Thames and
Hudson, 1990), 47.
70 For more on Lissitzky’s and Duchamp’s efforts, see Altshuler, Salon to Biennial.
71 See Klonk, Spaces of Experience, 8, 9, 16; Mieke Bal, “On Grouping: The Caravaggio
Corner,” in Looking In: The Art of Viewing (Amsterdam: G+B Arts International,
2001. 161–90), 8; Julia Noordegraaf, Strategies of Display: Museum Presentation in
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Visual Culture (Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans
Van Beuningen: NAi Publishers, 2004), 16.
72 As Jolles points out, “[T]he dadaists and surrealists contributed decisively to this
evolving discourse on curating and installation design, outside of and occasionally
in flagrant opposition to the museum.” Jolles, “Artists into Curators: Dada and
Surrealist Exhibition Practices,” 211.
73 Ibid., 212.
126
4
“Be on Your Guard, Madam”: New York Dada

and the Magazine as Readymade, 1921
For the Dadaists, magazines’ chameleon nature was one of their most
advantageous qualities. Starting in 1916, these publications worked as
embodiments and propagators of the movement, as dynamic, ersatz exhibition
venues, and as models for irreverent exhibitions. In 1921, Dada had gained
international acclaim, and artists in New York more and more began to associate
with Dada. New York Dada, edited by Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, assumed
yet another guise, a readymade, an object found by an artist and presented as a
work of art. Duchamp and Man Ray recognized the art journal as the primary
means of expression and membership in Dada, and in making theirs they co-
opted another kind of publication, one with local relevance: the ever more
popular, female-targeted, American glossy.1 While they did not submit an issue
of, say, Vanity Fair or Vogue, they did produce a magazine with the material
markers, or identifying features, of such serials. More than bringing a readymade
to light and defending it as a work of art, as Blind Man had done, New York Dada
positioned itself as a readymade.
Understanding New York Dada as a readymade broadens perceptions of
the readymade and periodicals. On the one hand, as Duchamp had done with
“Fountain,” here he and Man Ray placed something that posed as a mass-
produced, everyday object into the comparatively rarefied realm of Dada
journals.2 As if to emphasize the singularity of New York Dada, Duchamp
later framed it as a work of art in his “Boîte-en-valise” (“Box in a Valise”)
(1935–1941), which includes a facsimile of New York Dada alongside
miniature replicas of his other works. Yet at the same time, in 1921, instead of
placing this object on a pedestal and effectively yanking it out of circulation,
Duchamp and Man Ray threw it back in. The publication is mobile and
multiple, with copies distributed beyond a singular museum or gallery display
and beyond their immediate circle to readers internationally, including
128 Dada Magazines
visitors to at least one New York bookstore and individuals in Europe. Rather
than moving in only one direction, from the everyday to the artistic realm,
New York Dada shuttled between the two. In some ways, this characteristic
is common to all readymades. Hal Foster hints at this two-way street when
he observes, “Although celebrated as the artist who opened high art to the
common thing, Duchamp also did the opposite, rarefying the everyday object
through the magic trick of the readymade.”3 New York Dada literalized what
Foster describes, as it moved different contexts and therefore assumed two
identities simultaneously. The title of this chapter comes from Tzara’s “Dada
Authorization,” published in New York Dada, which grants mock permission
to its editors to call their publication “Dada.” Tzara’s warning to “Be on your
guard, Madam” is in keeping with the magazine’s commercial bent and its
selling of Dada as a product.
This chapter begins with the wider international and New York City context
of Dada and Dada journals, tracing Katherine Dreier’s efforts to bring Dada
to Americans, noting the centrality of magazines in this endeavor. It goes on
to detail how New York Dada imitates women’s magazines in the United States
not only in specific texts and images, but also as an entity. It then points out
connections between this review’s contents and images in Vanity Fair as well as
to earlier Dada-affiliated journals. Finally, it reflects on what the distribution of
New York Dada tells us about its function as a readymade.
Bringing Dada to New York: Katherine Dreier, the Société

Anonyme, and a Dada Exhibition
The last page of New York Dada presents an ad, printed sideways: “Don’t miss
Kurt Schwitters and other Anonymphs at the Société Anonyme, Inc.” This short,
easily overlooked, text represents Katherine Dreier’s ambitious and broad-
reaching attempts to host a Dada show in New York. As we saw in Chapter 1,
Duchamp, Man Ray, Wood, and others gathered in New York were engaging
in Dada-like activities during the war. Similar to Duchamp’s remarks that what
they were doing was in a similar “spirit” to events in Zurich, in January 1921,
Man Ray described Dada as “a state of mind” made up “largely of negations”
and “the tail of every other movement—Cubism, Futurism, Simultanism.”4 His
words acknowledge Dada’s links to preceding movements and suggest that
it resisted being tied to any particular style. Dada publications brought the
movement to American shores as early as 1916 (as detailed in Chapter 1) and
New York Dada and the Magazine as Readymade, 1921 129
continued to do so in the early 1920s. In 1921, Picabia sent copies of 391 and
Dada, and likely others, to Duchamp and Man Ray, who helped sell them.5 But
the most fertile ground for Dada in the United States was the Société Anonyme,
Museum of Modern Art, which Dreier founded, along with Duchamp, Man
Ray, and her sister, Dorothea A. Dreier, and Caroline Goodwin O’Day, among
others, in April 1920.6 Although they may have borrowed the name from
the Dadaists (Tzara sometimes identified Dada as a “Société Anonyme” or
anonymous company), the group’s goal was at once much broader and more
geographically specific: to “promote a better understanding of modern art
throughout the country, as well as in New York City.”7 They set out to achieve
this objective by showing art that most American galleries were too conservative
to show in a non-commercial setting.
The Société Anonyme’s treasure trove of Dada journals and books, its
lectures, and its exhibitions actively brought Dada—from both France and
Germany—to New York. Its library is particularly notable for our purposes.
Taking advantage of contacts in the United States and Europe, Dreier compiled
a library of 209 titles of books and serials, including at least one copy of the first
seven issues of Tzara’s Dada, as well as Der Dada 1, 2, and 3, six of his 391, the
first two of Bleu, and The Blind Man.8 Dreier likely received many of these from
Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia.9 In addition, it housed two copies of the catalog for
the Berlin Dada exhibition and Evola’s Arte Astratta (“Abstract Art”), identified
as a “Magazine Dada.” These publications served as the primary source of
information for members of the Société Anonyme and other visitors to the
library, which was open to the public, in keeping with the Société’s mission to
educate a wide audience.10
The Société Anonyme also hosted exhibitions, and Dreier was eager to show
the works of European Dadaists.11 Whereas Duchamp, Man Ray, and most
other Dada enthusiasts in the United States maintained ties primarily with the
Parisian Dadaists, Dreier, the daughter of German immigrants, focused on
Dada in Cologne, Hanover, and Berlin. Like Dadaists in Europe, Dreier took
advantage of more fluid travel and transportation after the war to organize
international exhibitions. She met Max Ernst and Johannes Baargeld in October
1919 in Cologne, as they were hanging their works in the “Dada” section of
the Society of Arts exhibition, mentioned in Chapter 3, and offered to host a
similar exhibition in New York.12 Ernst agreed and sent her the catalog of the
Early Spring Dada exhibition, and Die Schammade.13 He promised to send
copies of Bulletin D, though they never arrived, presumably because the British
confiscated his copies.14 Apparently keen to establish his Dada credibility, Ernst
130 Dada Magazines
emphasizes to Dreier his ties to other Dadaists, which center on his exposure to
their magazines: “I have been in constant communication with Paris Dada since
the beginning of this year. I saw drawings by Duchamp in 391 and Cannibale and
a beautiful Dada painting.”15 Ultimately, however, both the British authorities
in Cologne and the German government prevented her from receiving any
Cologne Dada works.
In the summer of 1920, Dreier, significantly, went to the International Dada
Fair in Berlin and met Grosz, Heartfield, and Herzfelde.16 Just afterward, she
wrote to Heartfield and Grosz, apparently in response to a letter from them,
including postcards of works by Duchamp and Man Ray, asking if they would be
interested in exhibiting in New York.17 The Berlin catalog, printed in the middle
of July 1920, suggests that they said yes. It lists over twenty pieces in the show, by
Berlin and Cologne Dadaists, some marked with an asterisk. A note tells readers,
After the end of this exhibition the works marked with an asterisk in the catalog
(*) will be exhibited at the Société Anonyme, Inc., open [sic] its First Exhibition
of Modern Art, 19 East 47th Street, New York. These will be the first German
Dada works to be shown in America.18
Yet these works never made it to the walls of the Société Anonyme, apparently
due at least in part to Burchard’s and Grosz’s lack of enthusiasm.19 Indeed, a
trivializing and sexist account of Dreier’s exertions, in the magazine Sinn und
Form (“Sense and Form”) in November 1921, signed by Herzfelde, indicates
that the Berlin Dadaists never had any serious intention to show their works in
New York:
A fat old lady, a museum director and patron of the arts from Boston,
Massachusetts [sic], was so impressed by, even shrilly enthusiastic about, the
exhibits she saw in the arts salon of Dr. Otto Burchard on Lützowufer, that she
insisted on showing the ‘Dada-Fair’ in Boston [sic]. Well could we understand
her wish, the more so as we had already anticipated it in an utterly fictitious final
note in the catalog.20
In his letter to Dreier from almost a year later, Grosz blames the “official
discredit” their show earned stood in the way of realizing a New York show.21 In
the end, none of the leading Berlin Dadaists exhibited at the Société Anonyme.
Endeavors to host a Paris Dada exhibition did not fare much better. A letter
from Dreier to Tzara from August 1920 proposes that she show the “Paris”
Dadaists—she lists Picabia, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Evola, and Fiozzi—separately
from those from Berlin and Cologne.22 However, the closest she came to showing
French Dada works was in the Société Anonyme’s first and third (untitled)
exhibitions, from April and August 1920, respectively. They featured works by,
among others, Picabia, Ribemont-Dessaignes, and Duchamp, all of whom the
Société Anonyme considered Dadaists, as their 1920–1921 report indicates.
However it did not explicitly frame them as representatives of the movement in
these exhibitions, and no Dadaists then living in Paris were represented.23
Despite such frustrations, the Société Anonyme did succeed in carrying on the
inventiveness of the earlier Dada shows, at least initially. For the first show, held
the same month as Dada Early Spring in Cologne, the exhibitions committee, led
by Duchamp but also including Dreier, Man Ray, and Joseph Stella, hung works
in a conventional manner (a photo of the Société Anonyme shows pieces hung
soberly, several feet apart).24 Yet there were some inventive parts: the organizers
lined the walls with a light blue oilcloth, painted the fireplace and woodwork
to match it, and covered the floor with “grey ribbed rubber.”25 They affixed lace
paper edging to the frames, and Man Ray arranged for blue lighting.26 Although
hardly as radical as Dadaists’ antics overseas, these techniques do indicate some
degree of interest in experimental display.
In the end, the only Société Anonyme shows explicitly linked with Dada
highlighted the works of Schwitters. This choice is somewhat ironic, given that
Dadaists and Berlin and Cologne distanced themselves from him and he himself
hesitated to link himself with “Dada,” as examined in the next chapter.27 The
handbill for the first of these shows, at the end of 1920, reads, “Kurt Schwitters—
German—one of the first dadas, who despite the fact refuses to be called a
DADAIST.”28 This exhibition presented his Merz collages, along with pieces by
ten other artists, including Kandinsky, Man Ray, Stella, Derain, and Hartley, the
only other artist the Société Anonyme identified as a Dadaist (in its 1920–1921
report), as well as German artists who had shown at Herwarth Walden’s Berlin
gallery, Der Sturm.
The Société’s eighth exhibition, from March 15 to April 12, 1921, also showed
works by Schwitters, along with some by other artists, again from Der Sturm.29
The flyer for the show, printed on a small piece of light blue paper, leads visitors
to believe that more than one Dadaist’s works are on view, although it mentions
only Schwitters in the headline:
THE DADAS HAVE COME TO TOWN! !
Kurt Schwitters acclaimed by the dadaists as one of their very own is the first
dadaist to reach New York.
DER STURM REFUSES TO CALL HIM A DADA !!30
Schwitters alone is the representative of “The Dadas” announced here.

132 Dada Magazines
The Société Anonyme used the exhibition to launch a brief Dada season of
sorts. On April Fool’s Day, 1921, it hosted a Dada evening. Hartley delivered a
lecture, “What is Dadaism?” followed by a talk “in opposition” by Mrs. Claire
Dana Mumford, a painter, writer, and psychologist, and a “summing up” by
retired philosophy professor Phyllis Ackerman. Hartley’s speech reveals that
Dada journals were his primary source of information on the movement. He
mimes Dadaists’ dismissal of dogma, evident in their publications:
If I announce on this bright morning that I am a “Dada-ist” it is not because I
find the slightest need for, or importance in, a doctrine of any sort, it is only for
convenience of myself and a few others that I take up the issue of adherence.31
This statement echoes that of Tzara’s 1918 manifesto in Dada 3:

If I continue to do something, it is because it amuses me, or rather because I have
a need for activity which I use up and satisfy wherever I can. Basically, the true
Dadas have always been separate from Dada.32
Hartley cites (in translation) Picabia’s “Manifeste Cannibale Dada” (“Cannibal

Dada Manifesto”) published in Dadaphone: “Dada smells of nothing, nothing,
nothing. / It is like your hopes: nothing. / like your paradise: nothing / like your
idols: nothing.”33 He also quotes extensively from Paul Dermée’s statement,
“Qu’est-ce que Dada” (“What is Dada”), printed on the cover of Z. However,
whereas Dermée describes Dada as “a fundamentally religious attitude,” Hartley
calls it an a-religious attitude.34 Whether or not this is in fact what Hartley said,
intentionally or not, the version of Dada he conveys is rooted in readings of
Paris Dada journals.35 The press’s responses to this event, which ranged from
enthusiastic to dismissive, depended on Dada reviews, too: primarily Dadaphone,
391, and 291.36
New York Dada: American Glossy, Dada Magazine
It is not surprising that Duchamp and Man Ray, members of the Société
Anonyme, would make a journal, which remained the primary means of
expression and membership in the Dada network. Both had experience making
magazines. Their compilation of contributions to Tzara’s planned anthology,
Dadaglobe, likely encouraged them to produce this single-issue publication,
New York’s bid to participate in Dada.37 They produced it in sync with the
eighth exhibition and “Dada evening,” and at the same time it was a way to
communicate beyond their borders, share their works and their impressions
of Dada with affiliates in the United States and abroad. Tzara’s authorization,
however farcical, did legitimize them within artistic circles to a certain extent
and situated them in the international context of Dadaglobe. Coming from a
founding member of Dada, it served, in a sense, as a celebrity endorsement, as
Hopkins has observed.38
“Dada” rarely appears in New York Dada. Tzara’s text comes closest to defining
the word, though it is by no means helpful: “Dada is … a mixture of man,
naphthaline [sic], sponge, animal made of ebonite and beefsteak.”39 Besides the
title, the only other reference to Dada is “DADATAXI, Limited,” the signatory
of a short enigmatic announcement and “dadaphoto/ Trademark Reg.” under
a photo by Man Ray, described below. The ad for Schwitters does not mention
Dada. Tzara’s authorization frames the New York group as Dada. His parameters
are rather catholic. He lists many members, if not all of them: leading figures
like Duchamp, Walter Arensberg, Stella, Elsa Freytag-Loringhoven, Hartley,
Man Ray, and Stieglitz, as well as Belgian poet Adon Lacroix and French writer
Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia. In the magazine itself Duchamp, Man Ray, Freytag-
Loringhoven, and Stieglitz are the only identified contributors. Hartley and
Stella appear as characters in the humorous parody of a “coming out” ball, and
Schwitters, as we have seen, shows up in an ad for his show, but only the careful
reader would notice that Tzara lists him as a contributor to “Dadaglobe” and
therefore, presumably, a Dadaist.
Despite its editors’ involvement in the Société Anonyme and the importance
of this organization to New York Dada, Dreier’s name never comes up in Tzara’s
essay or anywhere else in the magazine. Except for the Schwitters show ad,
New York Dada does not begin to relay Dreier’s many efforts. It also leaves out
contributions from individuals the Société Anonyme identified as Dadaists—
Picabia, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Schwitters, and Klee. Images in New York Dada
are almost all photographs (except for Goldberg’s cartoon), a medium rarely if
ever shown at the Société Anonyme.40 Additionally, the commodity status of
the magazine runs counter to the Société Anonyme’s aim to show art in a non-
commercial setting.41
New York Dada is best understood as one manifestation of Dada in New
York rather than a comprehensive exposition of the activities and artworks
of Duchamp, Loringhoven, and the others in their circles. It does not attempt
to anthologize. Much of its statement of New York Dada’s identity is in the
format itself, driven by two factors: membership in the Dada network required
a magazine, and in the United States the women’s American glossy was the
commodity of the time. The number of such magazines climbed sharply in
134 Dada Magazines
the early twentieth century, coinciding with the rise of advertising. Particularly
successful were weeklies such as Vanity Fair and Ladies Home Journal, which,
notably, included works by some of the leading artists and writers of the time.
Content targeted female, middle-class readers, with articles on housekeeping,
fashion, shopping, and relations with men.42 At the intersection of European
Dada and the US consumer culture, New York Dada functioned as both a Dada
journal and as mass circulation magazine.
Dada had engaged commercial culture from the beginning, and the
magazines are a major site for the Dadaists’ linking themselves to commercial
magazines.43 Besides such publications as Berlin’s Jedermann sein eigner Fussball,
earlier Dada reviews anticipate the New York Dadaists’ turn to mainstream
print media. They borrow texts and font types, for example, from mass media
sources. Tzara’s poem, “Bulletin,” in Dada 3 (1918) includes phrases recalling
placards in store windows, such as “for your benefit” and “the standard tie,”
and the first issue of Berlin’s Der Dada bears the headline “Invest in Dada!”44
Collages and Dada endorsements excerpt and mimic slogans, captions, and
photographs taken from magazines and newspapers. They were also picking
up on the commercial features of The Blind Man. Most of the images in these
two issues called to mind mass culture periodicals. Al Frueh, who drew the
first one’s cover sketch, besides having had an exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz’s
gallery (1912),45 was a well-known American caricaturist for New York World
and Vanity Fair (Figure 4.1).46 Clara Tice’s caricature of French musician
Edgar Varèse recalls the recent scandal surrounding her earlier nudes, which
Vanity Fair (September 1915) reproduced after they were confiscated for
indecency.47 Stella, whose painting, here entitled, Coney Island, in the second
issue, contributed illustrations for popular magazines.48 Finally, the framing
of “Fountain’s” rejection as “The Richard Mutt Case” evokes American pulp
magazines that often told colorful detective stories. The title of The Blind Man,
too, parallels that of pulp magazines, which followed a main character. The first
issue, moreover, includes a letter from Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield
and a questionnaire like those published in popular periodicals of the time,
asking readers questions like which works in the Independents show they
thought were the funniest and most absurd, and how many visitors they think
saw the show.49
However, ultimately most of these publications do not interfere with the
reader’s impression of it as an art journal; they are otherwise filled with content
expected in an artists’ magazine: manifestoes, poems, and essays about art. The
overall small size, layout, and content of these titles are also comparable to that
Figure 4.1 The Blind Man 1, ed. Henri Pierre Roché, Beatrice Wood, and Marcel
Duchamp, New York, 1917, front cover. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
(85-S586).
of other artists’ reviews. More than merely imitating aspects of commercial

periodicals, New York Dada goes a step further: it assumes the “material
markers” as Mark Morrisson calls them, of the genre. Such markers are those
features that readers take in immediately and that determine their expectations.
A magazine is “something more than the sum of its parts,” Morrisson points
out, and attributes like page size and types of advertising and stories contribute
to what he calls a reader’s “horizon of expectations for a magazine.”50 New York
Dada’s price, dimensions, texts, and images parody those found in women’s
magazines.51 Its editors, however parodically, appropriated the genre as a whole
136 Dada Magazines
and thereby framed their review as a commodity that could be purchased,

exchanged, and circulated. In the Dada context, they also brought this
commodity into the artistic realm.
The images and texts in New York Dada invite readers to compare it to society
publications. For instance, “Pug Debs Make Society Bow” spoofs debutante ball
announcements, a staple of society print culture. It describes a “coming out” party
for Marsden Hartley and Joseph Stella: “Marsden Hartley will be attired in a neat
but not gaudy set of tight-fitting gloves and will have a V-back in front and on
both sides.”52 A Rube Goldberg cartoon showing Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola
Butts with one of his signature bizarre inventions also firmly situates New York
Dada within a mass culture context.53
Like American women’s magazines, New York Dada references marketing
targets female readers. The famous cover montage, Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette
(1921), is the most blatant example of this and therefore merits some unpacking
(Figures 4.2 and 4.3).54 The photo shows the assisted readymade, a perfume
bottle with a label presenting Duchamp in drag as Rrose Sélavy. The woman
represented, whether understood as Rrose or “Belle Haleine” (“Beautiful Helen,”
literally “beautiful breath”), conflates three items typically seen in periodicals
for women—pieces on certain personalities, celebrity endorsements of products,
and perfume advertisements. Visual resonances between the perfume bottle and
articles and advertisements in the November 1920 issue of Vanity Fair strongly
suggest that it inspired the piece (Figures 4.4 and 4.5).55 Printed on cheap
newsprint, this composition emphasizes the commodity nature of magazines as
well as their centrality to marketers’ ever-more aggressive targeting of women
in the early twentieth century. Amelia Jones observes that the woman shown
adds value to the fictional perfume but also to the publication itself: “Here a
man masquerades as a woman, adopting the cultural signifiers of femininity
as artifice, in order to ‘sell’ a commodity—the perfume—which itself is then
produced as surface to sell another commodity—the magazine.”56 Like many
magazines at this time, New York Dada spotlights a female celebrity, but here as
an advertisement. The repetition of “New York Dada” resembles the back pages
of a magazine, where the ends of articles form a sea of copy, and printed upside
down, it parodies the unreadability of such pages. It also pokes fun at publishers’
practice in the early 1920s of printing advertisements as early as the first and
second pages.57
Dada is commodified in New York Dada. In Tzara’s “Authorization,” it
becomes a beautifying lotion, and he assigns the reader a female identity:
Figure 4.2 New York Dada, ed. Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, New York, 1921,
front cover, letterpress and relief halftone, 14 ¾ × 10 1∕18 in. (37.5 × 25.8 cm).
Philadelphia Museum of Art © Man Ray Trust / ARS / ADAGP.
138 Dada Magazines
Figure 4.3 Man Ray, “Belle Haleine,” (photo of Marcel Duchamp), 1921, J. Paul
Getty Museum, Los Angeles © Man Ray Trust ARS-ADAGP.
“Therefore, Madam, be on your guard and understand that a really Dada

product is a different thing from a glossy label. Dada abolishes ‘nuances.’ …
Dada is an anti-‘nuance’ cream.”58 This passage places the male-dominated Dada
movement within a feminized, consumerist context. Although on the one hand
approaching women as consumers, it also lampoons ads and editorial content
that cautioned women to beware the manipulations of advertisers while at
the same time pitching the merits of a given product.59 Tzara’s promotion of
Figure 4.4 Vanity Fair, ed. Frank Crowninshield, New York, November 1920, p. 67.
University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
Dadaglobe as a beauty commodity further exposes this insidious tactic. Tzara’s

warning to “Be on your guard, Madam” captures New York Dada’s address to
female audiences, even as the journal functions as the editors’ bid to enter the
male-dominated Dada network.60 Indeed, the two objectives likely went hand
in hand, as women have historically been linked to mass culture and men with
high culture.61
140 Dada Magazines
Figure 4.5 Vanity Fair, ed. Frank Crowninshield, New York, November 1920,
p. 121. University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
Reproduced just above Tzara’s text, a photomontage by Man Ray presents a

literal picturing of the conflation of women with consumption.62 A photograph
of a paper mannequin comprising a woman’s face and arms overlays one of a
nude, seemingly amputated body of a woman, her body morphed into a window
display prop (Figure 4.6).63 Man Ray’s censorship of his photomontage for the
magazine serves as a parodic nod toward conservative policies and ends up
emphasizing her nudity all the more. The title of the original, uncensored photo
was “Portmanteau,” or “Coat Stand,” but here it is “dadaphoto, Trademark Reg.,”
identifying it as an anonymous, branded photograph while also putting in a plug
p. 2, 14 ¾ × 10 1∕18 in. (37.5 × 25.8 cm). Spencer Collection, New York Public Library.
142 Dada Magazines
for Dada. Such modifications, along with the imperative, “keep smiling,” printed
next to the photo, expose picture magazines’ perpetuation of advertising’s
exploitation of the female body and harassing demands on women.64
Perhaps the most intriguing and enigmatic manifestation of the Dadaists’
parody of commercial magazines is the back page, which presents photographs
p. 4, 14 ¾ × 10 3∕20 in. (37.5 × 25.8 cm). New York Public Library, Spencer Collection.
of the Baroness Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven with the poem “Yours with
Devotion: Trumpets and Drums,” printed upside down (Figure 4.7).65 It recalls
pages showing a poem alongside a photograph of the author, shown from the
shoulders up at an oblique angle, looking away from the camera, as if lost in
Figure 4.8 Vanity Fair, ed. Frank Crowninshield, New York, November 1920, p. 49.
University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
144 Dada Magazines
thought. The November 1920 issue of Vanity Fair includes such a feature on
Edna St. Vincent-Millay (Figure 4.8). Yet that is where the similarities end.
In the top picture, the Baroness’s jewelry and flamboyant hat accentuate her
apparent nudity, and she stares down the camera, frowning defiantly. The
bottom photo exposes one of her breasts, so that the image approaches the
pornographic, although her closely cropped hair and stoic pose strip it of any
kind of conventionally defined feminine allure and link her with the New
Woman of the day.66
A page showing Alfred Stieglitz’s photograph, “Portrait of Dorothy True”
(1919), can be interpreted differently depending on how one classifies the
publication, exemplifying its simultaneous posing as a commercial magazine
and as a Dada magazine. The photo is a double exposure of True’s face
and a woman’s leg, her foot wedged into a high-heeled shoe and planted
on photographic paper. The entire composition is printed in blue ink (the
magazine is a single sheet of large paper printed in blue, folded to produce
four pages) (Figure 4.9). It accompanies the headlines, “Watch Your Step”
and “Cut Out the Dadynamic Stuff!”67 Reproduced here, this page strongly
resembles advertisements like those for stockings and shoes in Vanity Fair
and related publications from the 1910s, similarly framed, showing the
woman from the knee down (Figure 4.10). The unsigned passage below
the photograph, possibly by Ettie Stettheimer, reads like an excerpt from
romantic fiction, another ubiquitous feature in popular magazines.68 It
begins, “I understood that I was hurting his feelings. I understood …. That
she was hurting his feelings; the sea air did us no good.” The final line of the
passage is a plea, possibly to advertisers: “Why do you not offer us something
after having made our mouths water [sic].”69 Paired with the photograph, the
phrasing emphasizes the physical, erotic overtones of marketing, while the
printing of the cost of the magazine (25 cents) underscores its commercial
status.70
This page also, significantly, references earlier art periodicals from New York
that Duchamp and Man Ray must have seen. The phrase “Watch Your Step!”
shows up in three other Dada publications over eight years, speaking to their
interconnected nature. It echoes the May 1915 issue of 291 (New York, 1915–
1916), which contains a short, unsigned paragraph entitled “Watch Their Steps,”
which reads,
Apollinaire that profound observer of the superficial brought to artistic
significance the squeaking of the “new shoes of the poet.” Unhappily we have
no poet in New York who could sing of the forms of the shoes that women
p. 1, 1919, 14 ¾ × 10 3∕20 in. (37.5 × 25.8 cm). Spencer Collection, New York Public
Library.
are wearing now … Women’s shoes reveal a new mentality at work. They break
away from convention … Another profound observer of the superficial said
that perhaps the spirit of modern art, having failed to reach the heads of the
Americans is trying to get into their feet.71
146 Dada Magazines
Figure 4.10 Vanity Fair, ed. Frank Crowninshield, New York, November 1920,
p. 23. University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
Considered in this context, the New York Dada page becomes a visual
manifestation of this witty commentary relating women’s shoes to modern
art, simultaneously celebrating women’s fashion and decrying Americans’
reluctance to accept modernism. Also in May 1915, an issue of the short-lived
Rogue (New York, 1915–1916, ed. Louise and Allen Norton) includes Robert
Figure 4.11 Rogue, ed. Louise and Allen Norton, New York, 1915, Berg Collection,
New York Public Library.
Locher’s drawing, “Watch Your Step!” It depicts a domestic scene framed

so that all the viewer can make out are two figures in a sparsely furnished
room (Figure 4.11). On the left, a woman’s leg resembles the one in Stieglitz’s
photograph. The meaning of the warning is unclear, but the juxtaposition and
implied tension between the sexes are in keeping with New York Dada. Finally,
the sixth issue of Kurt Schwitters’s Merz (Hanover, 1923) bears the subtitle,
148 Dada Magazines
“Imitatoren watch step!” (“Imitators, watch (your) step!”). Such references put
New York Dada into dialogue with local predecessors.72
Most of the contributions to New York Dada are anonymous, something Man
Ray attributed to the editors’ “contempt for credits and merits,” but this tendency
also parrots the same tendency in mass culture magazines.73 The only signed
submissions are Goldberg’s comic and Tzara’s “Authorization.” Otherwise credit
is attributed to a company (“DADATAXI, Limited”) or entirely missing. The
editors’ names are not listed, and Duchamp even concealed any involvement
with the publication on his part, writing to Picabia and Germaine Everling that it
would be edited by Man Ray and his friend, Bessie Breuer, a claim that echoes his
attribution of “Fountain” to a woman in Philadelphia.74 Like other readymades,
this printed source allows for such veiling.
A Readymade for Sale
Readymades call attention to their specific contexts. “Fountain,” for instance,

exposes museums and magazines as places with the capacity to define objects as
artworks. The urinal Duchamp purchased at a plumbing store had a decidedly
different identity and function than it did in the Independents’ show or currently
(in copied form) on pedestals at art museums, where it has remained for decades.
Since its scandalous inaugural exhibition, it has been deemed a work of art.
Today, copies of New York Dada are extremely rare and highly valued as artifacts
of Dada in America. They lie immobilized in archives or arranged on museum
walls or vitrines, akin to the fate of other readymades. But in 1921 the magazine’s
mobility temporarily granted it two major frameworks simultaneously. Initially
its editors put it up for sale to the public and mailed it to artists overseas.75 Some
who discovered New York Dada at a New York bookstore may have initially
seen it as a women’s journal. They may have interpreted the cover as an actual
perfume ad or as some kind of alternative publication, possibly for a homosexual
audience, as cross-dressing was common in the gay community of the time.
Those in the know would have perceived it as a Dada magazine. Copies also
circulated through the mail to Dada affiliates who no doubt appreciated it as a
humorous representation of Dada in America’s consumerist setting.
In writing about the cover of New York Dada, David Hopkins points out that it
can be understood as “a ruse by which Duchamp, seeing the need to ‘sell’ himself
within the avant-garde market-place but conscious of the need to preserve his
status as a masculine ‘high art’ producer, ironically adopted the role of woman.”
He posits that it could be an example of “a shoring-up of the male position …

in line with the essentially ‘men only’ or clubbish ethos that functioned as one
of the structural determinants behind the formation of the Dada avant-garde
in America.”76 The merging of the commercial and the artistic throughout
New York Dada can be understood as exemplifying this tact, as it compelled
its mostly male, European Dada counterparts across the Atlantic to slip on an
American, female identity. It can also, however, be interpreted as exposing Dada’s
commitment to advertising in a manner that even Dadaists might have found
unsettling. Addressing readers as women, however farcically, New York Dada
pushed the limits of Dada and its members’ professed open-mindedness. It also
established that Dada had indeed become a known entity, even as Duchamp,
Man Ray, and Tzara ridiculed the notion of membership on its pages. Finally,
it enabled these New York residents to carry on the name “Dada,” while also
accommodating yet another interpretation of the movement. At about the same
time, more magazines from cities like Bucharest and Zagreb forced these same
Dadaists to expand Dada’s parameters even further.
Notes
1 Man Ray writes, “Duchamp was in correspondence with the young group of
poets and painters in Paris: the Dadaists, who asked for contributions to their
publications. Why not get out a New York edition of a Dada magazine?” Man Ray,
Self Portrait (Boston: Little Brown, 1963), 100.
2 Hopkins makes the related David Hopkins’s claim that New York Dada “can be
seen as an exemplary case of the annexation of a language of advertising and
commercial culture to the concerns of the avant-garde.” David Hopkins, “Selling
Dada: New York Dada and Its Dialogue with the European Avant-Garde,” “Selling
Dada: New York Dada and Its Dialogue with the European Avant-Garde,” in
Regarding the Popular: Modernism, the Avant-Garde and High and Low Culture, ed.
Sascha Bru et al. (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2011), 282. According to Man Ray,
he was responsible for everything but the cover, though he does say that they both
translated Tzara’s text, mentioned below, and Duchamp likely at least advised him
on its concept and content. Man Ray, Self Portrait, 100–1.
3 Hal Foster, “Close Up: A Rrose in Berlin,” Artforum 49, no. 8 (April 2011): 169.
4 Man Ray, quoted in Marjorie Rex, “‘Dada’ Will Get You If You Don’t Watch Out: It
is on the Way Here,” New York Evening Journal, January 29, 1921, quoted in Jennifer
Mundy, ed., Man Ray: Writings on Art (Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research Institute,
2015).
150 Dada Magazines
5 A letter from Duchamp to Picabia dated January 20, 1921, indicates that he and
Man Ray helped them sell copies of 391 and Dada. Marcel Duchamp to Francis
Picabia and Germaine Everling, January 20, 1921, trans. Affectionately, Marcel,
95–6.
6 The Société Anonyme’s report lists the Dreier sisters and Caroline Goodwin O’Day
(later a member of the US Congress) as the founders. Duchamp served as the first
president, Dreier the treasurer, and Man Ray the secretary. Société Anonyme Inc.
(Museum of Modern Art) Report, 1920–1921 (New York: 1920–1921), 29; Robert L.
Herbert, Eleanor S. Apter, Elise K. Kenney et al., eds., The Société Anonyme and the
Dreier Bequest at Yale University: A Catalog Raisonné (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1984), 1.
7 Société Anonyme Inc., 7. Zurich Dadaists’ business cards identify Dada as a “Société
Anonyme” as does the program for a Dada festival in Paris on March 27, 1920.
By 1921, members of the New York group would have known of these printed
materials.
8 Other art journals included 291, Camera Work, SIC, Der Sturm, Valori Plastici, The
Dial, Chapbook, Ma, Cannibale 2, Cannibale, Z, and TNT (edited by Man Ray and
Adolf Wolff in 1919 in New York).
9 In her letter to Buffet-Picabia from May 10, 1920, Dreier asks for the names of
European journals and books, as well as copies, and asks to subscribe to them.
Katherine Dreier to Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia, May 10, 1920. Katherine S. Dreier
Papers / Société Anonyme Archive. Yale Collection of American Literature,
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
10 See Ruth L. Bohan, The Société Anonyme’s Brooklyn Exhibition: Katherine Dreier
and Modernism in America (Ann Arbor: MI: UMI Research Press, 1982), 30.
11 Their most famous exhibition was the “International Exhibition of Modern Art
Assembled by Société Anonyme” (November 19, 1926–January 10, 1927). For more
on this show, see Bohan, The Société Anonyme’s Brooklyn Exhibition, 36, 216.
12 Katherine Dreier to Max Ernst, May 25, 1920, Katherine S. Dreier Papers / Société
Anonyme Archive. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book
and Manuscript Library.
13 Ernst agreed enthusiastically to show at the Société Anonyme. Max Ernst to
Katherine Dreier, June 16, 1920, Katherine S. Dreier Papers / Société Anonyme
Archive. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library.
14 More than six months later, on May 25, 1920, she wrote to Ernst, in German,
informing him that she had not yet received the publications he had promised her.
Katherine Dreier to Max Ernst, May 25, 1920, Katherine S. Dreier Papers / Société
Anonyme Archive. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book
and Manuscript Library.
15 Ernst to Dreier, June 16, 1920, Katherine S. Dreier Papers / Société Anonyme
Manuscript Library.
16 Katherine Dreier to George Grosz, August 16, 1920, Katherine S. Dreier Papers /
Société Anonyme Archive. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library.
17 Katherine Dreier to John Heartfield and George Grosz, July 18, 1920, George Grosz
Archiv, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin.
18 The catalog came out two weeks after the opening of the exhibition, suggesting that
Dreier saw the exhibition and then submitted a list of works that she wanted sent to
New York.
19 By mid-August it seems she had limited the exhibition to the works of Grosz and
the Cologne and Paris Dadaists. She also tells him that it is unlikely she will be
able to show a certain piece by Grosz, due to Dr. Burchard’s apparent hesitation.
Katherine Dreier to George Grosz, August 16, 1920, Katherine S. Dreier Papers /
Société Anonyme Archive. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library. She was also probably prevented from showing
Cologne Dada works that had been shown in Berlin by the German government,
which was concerned with how they would represent Germany. Brigid Doherty,
“Introduction,” October 105, 95.
20 Wieland Herzefelde, “George Grosz, John Heartfield, Erwin Piscator, Dada und die
Folgen oder die Macht der Freundschaft,” Sinn und Form, ed. Deutsche Akademie
der Künste zu Berlin 23, no. 6 (Berlin, November 1921), 1244, trans. Bergius. Dada
Triumphs!, 271.
21 Grosz to Dreier, December 8, 1922, Katherine S. Dreier Papers / Société Anonyme
Manuscript Library.
22 Dreier likely knew about the Italian Dadaists through Tzara’s Bulletin Dada, which
featured a poem by Julius Evola. In 1921 the Société Anonyme library included
Evola’s Arte Astratta and the first two issues of Bleu, which feature contributions by
Evola and Fiozzi. She grouped them with the Paris Dadaists probably because she
knew about the Italians through the Dadaists in Paris and because in 1921 Evola’s
works were exhibited with French artists Albert Gleizes, Jacques Villon, and Sonia
Delaunay in a Der Sturm exhibition in January 1921 and in Tzara’s Salon Dada
show in June. Letters from Tzara from July 1920 indicate that he was aware of
Dreier’s efforts and that he wanted her to show Paris Dada works in October 1920.
In response, Dreier proposed that she host a Paris Dada exhibition the following
year. Tristan Tzara to Francis Picabia, July 11, 1920, trans. Dada in Paris, 418–19
and Katherine Dreier to Tristan Tzara, August 16, 1920, Katherine S. Dreier Papers
/ Société Anonyme Archive. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library.
152 Dada Magazines
23 Société Anonyme Report, 1920–1921, 15.

24 Ibid., 2.
25 Henry McBride, “News and Views of Art, Including the Clearing House for Works
of the Cubists,” New York Sun and Herald, May 16, 1920. Quoted in David Joselit,
“The Artist Readymade: Marcel Duchamp and the Société Anonyme,” in The Société
Anonyme, Modernism for America, ed. Jennifer R. Gross and Ruth L. Bohan (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 39.
26 A photograph of the galleries of the Société Anonyme in New York from 1921,
the frontispiece of the Société’s Report in the summer of 1921, shows very small
rooms; only sixteen to twenty works were shown in each room typically. The
Société Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University, 1. One of the pieces
shown at this first exhibition, Jacques Villon’s “Figure,” is reproduced in the Société
Anonyme’s 1921 Report showing the lace framing the piece.
27 The surviving correspondence between Dreier and Schwitters does not begin until
1925. However, Schwitters was represented at the Der Sturm gallery, where Dreier
would have seen his work on her visit to Berlin in the early autumn of 1919. In
addition to several shows in Hanover, Schwitters had shown at the Galerie Der
Sturm in Berlin twice in 1919, and a one-man exhibition of his works took place
there in 1920 before the exhibition in New York. Georg Brühl, Herwarth Walden
und Der Sturm (Cologne: DuMont, 1983), 271–3.
28 Handbill for the fifth exhibition at the Société Anonyme, November 1–December
15, 1920, Katherine S. Dreier Papers / Société Anonyme Archive. Yale Collection of
American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
29 Exactly which works by Schwitters the show included is not known. The other
artists were Heinrich Campendonk, Johannes Molzahn, Marthe (or Tour) Donas,
Fritz Stuckenberg, and Paul Klee.
30 Handbill for Société Anonyme exhibition, March 15 to April 12, 1921, Katherine S.
Dreier Papers / Société Anonyme Archive. Yale Collection of American Literature,
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The Société Anonyme labeled Klee
a Dadaist in their report, but he was apparently not highlighted as such in the
exhibition. Société Anonyme Report, 1920–1921, 13, 15.
31 Marsden Hartley, “The Importance of Being Dada,” in Adventures in the Arts:
Informal Chapters on Painters Vaudeville and Poets, ed. Marsden Hartley (New
York: Boni and Liveright, 1921), 247–8.
32 Dada 3, 1, trans. Manheim, The Dada Painters and Poets, 76.
33 Hartley, “The Importance of Being Dada,” 250. Picabia, “Manifeste Cannibale
Dada,” Dadaphone, 2.
34 Dermée, “Qu’est-ce que Dada,” Z, 1; Hartley, “The Importance of Being Dada,” 252.
35 In the text version of his talk the excerpts from magazines are in quotation marks,
though whether he noted that they were quotes or not when he delivered the
speech is unknown.
36 One example is Henry Tyrell, “The Cheerless Art of Idiocracy,” The World Magazine
(June 12, 1921), which mentions “Dada-phone” as well as Cannibale, 391, and 291.
For more on the New York press’s responses to Dada, see Naumann, New York
Dada, 198–9, and Kuenzli, New York Dada, 143–5.
37 Adrian Sudhalter, “R(r)ose Recontextualized: French/American Identity and
the Photographic Portraits for Dadaglobe and New York Dada,” in aka Marcel
Duchamp: Meditations on the Identities of an Artist, ed. Anne Collins Goodyear,
James W. McManus (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press,
2014), 27–8. David Hopkins calls it the editors’ “desperate attempt to produce an
American version of the movement, to tie in with the mushrooming international
trend.” Hopkins, “Selling Dada,” 284.
38 Hopkins, “Selling Dada,” 285.
39 Tzara, “Authorization,” New York Dada, 2.
40 Man Ray’s works were probably paintings or sculptures. The only work by him
illustrated in the report is his sculpture, “Lampshade,” now at the Yale University
Art Gallery. Société Anonyme Report, 1920–1921, 16.
41 Telegram from Duchamp to Dreier, January 16, 1948, quoted in The Société
Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University, 1.
42 By 1900, Ladies Home Journal reached the highest circulation of any magazine, with
860,000 subscribers. It was the first magazine to reach a million paid subscribers in
1903 and by 1920 was the most valuable magazine property in the country. David
E. Sumner, The Magazine Century: American Magazines since 1900 (New York:
Peter Lang Publishing, 2010), 25, 27. For more on the rise of these magazines and
their importance as sites for advertising, see Jennifer Scanlon, Inarticulate Longings:
The Ladies Home Journal, Gender, and the Promises of Consumer Culture (New York
and London: Routledge, 1995), 12, 14, 198–9.
43 For a discussion of this engagement, see Hopkins, “Selling Dada,” 291, and the
writings of Sherwin Simmons, in particular “Dada and Kitsch: Cultivation of the
Trivial,” in Virgin Microbe. David Hopkins writes, “It is evident that the Dada
magazines played heavily on their relationship to mass circulation magazines.”
Hopkins, “Selling Dada,” 282.
44 Tzara, “Bulletin,” Dada 3, 13, “Legen Sie Ihr Geld in dada an!” Der Dada 1, 6.
45 Ades, “The Blind Man: Notes and Commentary,” Three New York Dadas and the
Blind Man, 147.
46 For a detailed discussion of Frueh and his career, see Wendy Wick Reaves,
“Al Frueh: The Quintessential Summary,” in Celebrity Caricature in America
(New Haven and London: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in
association with Yale University Press, 1998), 103–27.
47 Naumann, New York Dada, 117–18.
48 Barbara Haskell, Joseph Stella (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art,
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.), 225.
154 Dada Magazines
49 For more on questionnaires, see Lori Cole, Surveying the Avant-Garde: Questions
on Modernism, Art, and the Americas in Transatlantic Magazines (University Park:
Penn State University Press, 2018), 28. Mark S. Morrisson, The Public Face of
Modernism: Little Magazines, Audiences, and Reception, 1905–1920 (Madison: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 2001), 39.
50 Magazines, Audiences, and Reception, 1905–1920 (Madison: The University of
Wisconsin Press, 2001), 39.
51 The magazine cost 25 cents, an amount between that of other commercial
magazines of the time Vanity Fair (35 cents) and women’s weeklies such as Ladies
Home Journal (20 cents). New York Dada’s tall, rectangular shape mimics that of
these two magazines, as well. It measures 15½ × 10 inches. Vanity Fair is 13 × 9
inches and Ladies Home Journal was about the same.
52 Anonymous text, New York Dada, 3.
53 Naumann, “New York Dada: Better Late Than Never,” 147.
54 The name is a pun based on a tendency among women’s beauty products
manufacturers to use French, which often was flawed. “Belle Haleine,” literally,
means “Beautiful Breath,” and “Eau de Voilette,” a play on the common “eau de
violette,” or violet water, translates to mean “Veil Water.” Nancy Ring, New York
Dada and the Crisis of Masculinity: Man Ray, Francis Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp
in the United States, 1913–1921 (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Dissertation Services, 1993),
231–6.
55 Ring, New York Dada and the Crisis of Masculinity, 237–8. Nancy Ring interprets
“RS” to mean that Rrose Sélavy was the fictional manufacturer. Ring argues
that “Belle Haleine” can be translated as Beautiful Helen and that she is a
media personality endorsing a commercial product. Ring, 235–9. Amelia Jones
understands Rrose Sélavy, not Belle Haleine, to be the celebrity figure on the
perfume bottle. Jones, “‘Women’ in Dada,” in Women in Dada, 154.
56 Amelia Jones, Postmodernism and the En-gendering of Marcel Duchamp (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1994), 173.
57 Scanlon, Inarticulate Longings, 30. Dawn Ades suggests a certain desperate urgency.
Dawn Ades, “Duchamp’s Masquerades,” in The Portrait in Photography, ed. Graham
Clarke (London: Reaktion, 1992), 108.
58 Tristan Tzara, “Authorization,” New York Dada, 2. This passage is almost identical
to parts of Tzara’s essay, “Art and the Hunt” (L’art et la chasse), which was published
in the Salon Dada catalog in Paris two months later. However, the catalog text does
not include the sentence characterizing Dada as an anti-nuance cream. Duchamp
asked Tzara for this authorization in a letter to Picabia and Everling. Marcel
Duchamp to Francis Picabia and Germaine Everling, January 20, 1921, trans.
Affectionately, Marcel, 95–6. Hopkins points out the links between the origins of
Dada’s name, tied to a company selling women’s beauty products, to Tzara’s text, as
well as to Duchamp’s cover image for New York Dada. Hopkins, “Selling Dada,” 287.
59 Naomi Sawelson-Gorse, “Preface,” Women in Dada, xi.

60 Man Ray writes, “Duchamp was in correspondence with the young group of
poets and painters in Paris: the Dadaists, who asked for contributions to their
publications. Why not get out a New York edition of a Dada magazine?” Man Ray,
Self Portrait, 100.
61 Andreas Huyssen, After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture and
Postmodernism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 47, and Jones,
Postmodernism and the En-gendering of Marcel Duchamp, 162, both quoted in
Hopkins in the context of New York Dada. Hopkins, “Selling Dada,” 287–8.
62 “Female bodies became the purveyors of commercial value in increasingly
ubiquitous print advertisements.” Jones, “‘Women’ in Dada,” Women in Dada, 146.
63 In his analysis of this piece, Michael Taylor characterizes it as a “caricature of
the female body as a sexually available automaton” that “eroticizes Duchamp’s
readymade gesture … to reveal the sex underneath selling in American
advertising.” Michael Taylor, “New York,” Dada, ed. Dickerman, 296.
64 Michael Taylor notes that American toothpaste companies used the slogan “keep
smiling” at the time. See Michael Taylor, “New York,” Dada, ed. Dickerman, 293.
65 The authorship of the poem is debated in Dada discourse. Man Ray claimed that
Hartley penned it. Arturo Schwarz, Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination, London:
Thames and Hudson, 1977), 49. The April 1921 review of the magazine, too,
attributes the poem to Hartley, possibly based on an interview with Man Ray, and
comments that it is “wonderful and needlessly anonymous.” “New York Dada
Review Appears in New York,” The New York Herald, April 24, 1921, sec. III, 11.
However, the poem’s style, its focus on circus performers, whom the Baroness
admired, and its appearance alongside her photograph and name strongly suggest
that she wrote it. James M. Harding, Cutting Performances: Collage Events, Feminist
Artists, and the American Avant-Garde (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan
Press, 2010), 192, n 71.
66 Amelia Jones, Irrational Modernism: A Neurasthenic History of New York Dada
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004), 7.
67 In the magazine, Man Ray trimmed off the area around the leg. As Tara Clayton
points out, “In the context of New York Dada, the photograph is further sexualized
by the way it has been re-cropped: the area highlighted by the top arrow in and
of itself becomes a suggestive symbol, directing the viewer’s attention straight up
the woman’s skirt.” Tara Clayton, “Man Ray, Reproduction, and Semiotic Slippage:
Shaping the Transatlantic Avant-Garde,” Master’s thesis, New York University, 2016,
16. Dorothy True was a friend of Georgia O’Keeffe. Naumann, New York Dada, 241,
fn 39.
68 The New York Herald claims that in addition to “Yours with Devotion,” New York
Dada features a poem by “Miss Stettheimer.” Ettie Stettheimer is the most likely
possibility of the three Stettheimer sisters. It is also possible that the review is
156 Dada Magazines
referring to the poem on the back page of the magazine. “New York Dada Review
Appears in New York,” The New York Herald, 24 April 1921, sec. III, 11. Katherine S.
Dreier Papers / Société Anonyme Archive. Yale Collection of American Literature,
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Francis Naumann claims that this
unsigned article was written by art critic Henry McBride. Naumann, “New York
Dada: Better Late Than Never,” 147.
69 Anonymous text, New York Dada, 1.
70 For more on women’s magazines from this period, see Mary Ellen Zuckerman, A
History of Popular Women’s Magazines in the United States, 1792–1995 (Westport,
CT, London: Greenwood Press, 1998).
71 “Watch Their Steps,” 291, 3 (New York: 1915): back cover.
72 If one translates Wiland Herzefelde’s words “Achtung, Stufe!” in the First
International Dada Fair catalog as “Watch your step!” (as Hanne Bergius does), this
publication is yet another instance of this phrase in a Dada publication. Bergius,
Berlin Dada, 60.
73 Man Ray, Self Portrait, 101; Scanlon, Inarticulate Longings, 17.
74 Marcel Duchamp to Francis Picabia and Germaine Everling, January 20, 1921,
trans. Affectionately, Marcel, 95–6.
75 In her article, “Introducing Da Da,” which appeared in The Morning Telegraph
on May 1, 1921, Agnes Smith tells her readers where to find New York Dada:
“As for the American attitude towards Da Da, you may learn all about it in
Da Da, the magazine, for sale at the Washington Square book store.” Agnes
Smith, “Introducing Da Da,” The Morning Telegraph (May 1, 1921), quoted in
Naumann, New York Dada, 204. Most likely the bookstore to which she refers is
the Washington Square Bookstore. It was probably also sold at Sunwise Turn: The
Modern Bookshop at 2 East 31st Street, which was owned by Mary Mowbray-
Clarke and Madge Jenison. Beatrice Wood claimed that copies of New York Dada,
as well as Rogue, The Soil, The Blind Man, and Rongwrong, were for sale at the
Sunwise Turn Bookshop. Madge Jenison, “Sunwise Turn: A Human Comedy of
Bookselling” (New York, 1923), quoted in Ars Libri, “Twentieth Century Avant-
Garde, Rare Books and Documents,” catalog 137 (Boston: Ars Libri Ltd, 2006), 22.
76 Hopkins, “Selling Dada: New York Dada and Its Dialogue with the European Avant-
Garde,” 288.
5
Contingency and Continuity: Dada Magazines

and the Expanding Network, 1922–1926
In 1922, across the Atlantic, Dada enthusiasts in Zagreb, Leiden, Berlin,

Hanover, and Bucharest, who had depended on journals to learn about Dada,
also began making their own: Dada Tank, Dada Jazz, Mécano, G, Merz, and 75
HP. These reviews enabled their editors—Theo Van Doesburg, Hans Richter,
Dragan Aleksić, Kurt Schwitters, Victor Brauner, and Ilarie Voronca—to expand
and further diversify the network begun in 1916.1 Although the chronological
structure of this book dictates discussing them at the end, they were by no
means tangential to Dada. Dada lived on in these publications, not only in their
images and texts but also because they sustained Dada’s integrating function.
Timothy Benson points out that the exchange of journals at this time “created
a mobile space for the movement to continue after it had essentially expired as
a manifestation in exhibitions, soirees, performances, and other such events.”2
Earlier Dada journals encouraged liberal interpretations of Dada and enabled it
to take on new meanings. In the internationalizing context of the early 1920s, as
the movement’s fame threatened such changeability, the magazines continued to
serve the function they had from the start—combining various artistic currents,
enabling Dada to maintain its contingency and thus its currency during a period
of crisis for the movement and for the avant-garde overall.
These publications feature poems and drawings deemed “Dada,” but they
also engendered connections with other local and international artistic styles
and approaches. They champion Dada both as a movement, however loosely
defined, and as a strategy for juxtaposing various artistic currents, now, notably,
including Dada. Surrealism is most commonly linked to Dada, as many
Dadaists allied themselves with Breton’s program (Man Ray, Max Ernst, Marcel
Duchamp, among others).3 However, many Dada supporters also established
ties with international Constructivism, and this alliance proved advantageous to
Dada’s longevity.4 This chapter begins by describing Dada’s identity as a widely
158 Dada Magazines
recognized movement in the early 1920s. After establishing the context of the
international avant-garde after the war, it explores how select magazines from
this period integrated Dada and Constructivism. The magazines in this chapter
fall into three categories. In Zagreb, Dada Tank and Dada Jazz brought Dada
ideas to Croatia, sharing contributions from Dadaists in other countries while
expressing editor Dragan Aleksić’s own take on Dada. Mécano and G imitated the
earliest Dada journals by combining movements—this time Constructivism and
Dada—in an international context, in an effort to forge something new. Finally,
Merz and 75 HP adopted Dada’s earlier use of a review to display a wide range of
styles in the name of a nonsense word, but instead of “Dada” they pushed “Merz”
and “Pictopoezie,” allowing Dada to live on, if not in name, in strategy.5 All of
these reviews literally translated Dada, as well, into their own languages, with
texts in French, German, Croatian, Romanian, and Dutch.
From Dada to Dadaism
The early 1920s marked a contested period for Dada. Starting in 1916,
prompted by the magazines, its affiliates had championed Dada as an apparatus
for juxtaposing heterogeneous materials and various art movements, chiefly
Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism. They had insisted that Dada was unlike
other collectives with aesthetic tendencies specific to it alone, and the journals had
spurred and enabled this perception. As Chapter 1 outlines, in the earliest Dada
reviews, the function of Dada was parallel to that of photography, as described by
Malraux in Museum without Walls. Like photography, which enables the placing
of any object of any period, style, or medium alongside another, the journal can
encompass any reproducible visual work of art or text.6 The first Dada magazines
show paintings, drawings, and prints by Expressionists, Futurists, Cubists, and,
increasingly, self-proclaimed Dadaists, who mixed aspects of these artistic styles.
But at this time, readers did not associate such submissions with yet another
movement because Dada had not yet become an established style. Indeed, the
journals obstructed such attempts. As long as audiences did not distinguish
Dada as a distinct entity, Tzara, Huelsenbeck, and their comrades maintained
a certain transcendence above the other movements, whose efforts cohered
on a printed page. Dada—specifically editors and their publications—did the
gathering, juxtaposing, and leveling.
By the early 1920s, however, this function had become unsustainable.
“Dada” had become “Dadaism.” Individuals who had seen the magazines and
Dada Magazines and Expanding Network, 1922–1926 159
exhibitions attended the performances or even just read about Dada in the
news perceived of it as a group, regardless of how vague their understanding
of it. In France, in large part because of Paris Dada journals like Tzara’s
Bulletin Dada and Dadaphone (both from March 1920), Picabia’s Cannibale
(April and May, 1920), and Céline Arnauld’s Projecteur (May 1920), Dada
had become what Marius Hentea calls “the most infamous art movement” in
the country.7 As Michel Sanouillet points out, in the early 1920s in Paris, “the
words ‘Dada, Dadaism, Dadaist’ were literally on everyone’s lips.”8 Dadaists
had from the start drummed up such publicity.9 Articles in the mainstream
press linked Dada with styles of dance, music, and typography, with often
anti-Semitic and nationalist critiques describing Dadaists as anything from
innocuous oddballs to Bolsheviks, madmen, and foreigners.10 Most tied Dada
to nihilism.11 In Berlin, the press characterized Dada as a swindle of sorts,
with members using scandal to get attention.12 Informed audiences linked the
group with chaotic graphic design, sound poetry, collage, and montage, as well
as the embracing of chance and absurdity and the resistance to nationalism
and war. Regardless of their attitude toward or perception of the group, critics
and casual observers alike came to identify particular artists as Dadaists, and
they called their works “Dada.” Accustomed to a long history of isms, and
driven by the common drive to categorize things in order to comprehend
them, people began to shoe-horn the unorthodox movement into a cast set by
a long-standing system of galleries, critics, and museums set up to showcase
and evaluate any given group’s artistic strategies, manifestoes, exhibitions,
and magazines. Despite the Dadaists’ parody of this system and attempts
to undermine it, by the early 1920s, audiences were starting to approach
it as an “ism.”13 Dada’s practices of aggregation had become an identifiable
characteristic in itself. Now Dada magazines also encompassed what many
were classifying as Dada pieces by Dada artists. Dada was no longer just a
brand; it had accrued attributes.
Once this happened, it became more difficult for Dada to serve as an undefined
movement; it was one artistic tendency among many. This state of affairs
threatened Dada’s status as transcendent, limitless, and therefore “unlimitable.”
Picabia accused it of capitulating and becoming yet another school, Hugo Ball’s
fear from the start. In 1921, Picabia lamented, “Then everything changed around
me, I had the impression that like Cubism, Dada would have disciples who
‘understood’ and I had only one idea, to flee as far as possible.”14 Now Dada was
packaged, a turn that threatened Dada’s demise, as therefore it could be shelved
in the history of art and surpassed, like the long line of groups before and since.
160 Dada Magazines
Eluding the “Ism” Trap: Magazines and the Dada and

Constructivism after the War
In the face of this undesired development, the magazines from such cities as
Bucharest and Zagreb enabled Dada to retain its apparatus-like function and
status as a meta-movement of sorts while also offering a means for Dadaists
to form new bonds and reposition themselves.15 The journals carried on the
practice of mixing “schools,” perforating the ever-thickening walls being built
around Dada and connecting it to other movements in these cities, chiefly
Constructivism. Rather than classification, calcification, and obsolescence, they
made it possible for Dada to persist as a morphing, diasporic, and contingent
collective, always allying itself with others. As Jonathan Eburne points out, in the
early 1920s Dada “did not so much ‘die’ as pursue a set of alternative trajectories
and affiliations.” He ties this scheme to Dada’s origins: “Well before 1922, the
very consistency of Dada as an avant-garde collective had already presumed
corrosion and contingency.” 16 At a time when Dada’s fame had become a liability
of sorts, the magazines carried on doing what they had always done: they
encouraged and empowered the Dadaists to reframe, reinvent, and perpetuate
Dada in an increasingly internationalizing world. Taking advantage of how the
journal format invites the integration of disparate artistic currents, a new set of
editors took up the Dada project.
Dada journals’ combining function was particularly important in the early
1920s, a time of competing and opposing artistic ideas and agendas, when the
avant-garde became increasingly multiple and connected. The year 1922 marked
“a threshold,” as Christine Poggi has argued.17 Artists from various countries
and movements, driven by internationalist ambitions, were trying to determine
a path forward. Magazines played a central role in the internationalizing
tendencies of the time, as Polish artist Henryk Berlewi observed at the time:
“A great network of periodicals has spread around the world, arguing for and
propagating new ideas and new forms.”18
Periodicals, by providing a site where conflicts could be resolved and
similarities revealed, offered a means to increase the international, multifaceted
nature of the avant-garde.19 Detlef Mertins and Michael W. Jennings assert that
the journals of the 1920s were the primary means of what they call the “new
avant-garde internationalism” of the time.20
The explosion of magazines after the war coincided with various international
gatherings throughout Europe. In Paris, French poet André Breton planned
the Congrès international pour la détermination des directives et la défense de

l’Esprit Moderne (“International Congress for the Determination and Defense of
the Modern Spirit”), in order to gather representatives of various artistic currents
to determine a new direction for modern art. His words from 1922 convey his
perception of Dada as yet another point on a trajectory and his desire to move
to the next step: “To consider Cubism, Futurism, and Dada in succession is to
follow the flight of an idea that has now reached a certain height, and is only
awaiting a new impetus to continue describing the arc assigned to it.”21
The Paris Congress never took place, due to bitter disagreements, chiefly
between Breton and Tzara, who contested Breton’s attempts to turn Dada’s
variability into something more prescriptive. The Dadaists also divided over the
mock trial of the conservative Maurice Barrès in May 1921.22 And here again
magazines were critical. In what Hentea has called a “print war,” their debate played
out in Paris newspapers and periodicals.23 In the April 1922 issue of Littérature,
for example, Breton went so far as to implore readers: “Lâchez Dada” (“Leave
Dada Behind”).24 Bulletin Dada and Dadaphone, mentioned in Chapter 3, reflect
Tzara’s ongoing preoccupation with resisting a codified Dada while emphasizing
its nihilism, with statements like “The true Dadas are against Dada” and “Dada
is the chameleon of rapid and attentive change / Dada is against the future, Dada
died, Dada is idiotic/ Long live Dada, Dada is not a blaring literary school.”25 This
debate also played out in other newspapers and periodicals, even some targeting
a broader readership, such as Vanity Fair in 1922.26
Beyond Paris, 1922 witnessed two important meetings: the Kongress der
Union Internationaler fortschrittlichen Künstler (“Congress of International
Progressive Artists”) in Düsseldorf in May and Der Internationale Kongress der
Konstruktivisten und Dadaisten (“International Congress of Constructivists and
Dadaists”) in Weimar in September. Representatives of the Bauhaus, De Stijl,
Constructivist, Dada (Hausmann, Höch, Janco, and Richter, e.g.), and Futurist
movements, among others, set out to find commonality, though differences
among them interfered.27 Van Doesburg, Richter, Lissitzky, and others protested
the event and formed the International Faction of Constructivists. Four months
later, Van Doesburg, Schwitters, and Lissitzky organized the Congress of
Constructivists and Dadaists and the International Congress of Constructivists
and Dadaists. At the Dutch artist’s encouragement, Tzara, along with Arp,
attended. Despite various inevitable clashes, an alliance between Dada and what
has come to be known as International Constructivism persisted, primarily in
the magazines.
162 Dada Magazines
This alliance may at first seem surprising to some. There is a tendency to

treat Dada and Constructivism as opposites: the irrational versus the rational,
chance versus order, the negative versus the positive, the destructive versus the
constructive. Yet they also had a lot in common. The periodicals discussed here
highlight the two groups’ common interests, namely abstraction, the machine,
collage, photomontage, assemblage, atypical art materials, a proclivity toward
photography and graphic design, and questioning of artistic autonomy.28 Both
Constructivism and Dada were geographically dispersed, as well, and depended
on the journals as primary sites of interaction and creativity. They also shared an
indeterminate sense of membership, which allowed for a great deal of autonomy,
though Constructivism did not advocate for this to the extent that Dada did.
Stephen Bann distinguishes between an “inclusive” and an “exclusive” definition
of constructivism. He writes, “While some defined it quite narrowly, others used
it to refer to an anti-individualistic stance.”29 This broader interpretation was
advanced by Van Doesburg, Richter, and Lissitzky, who therefore were open to
Dada, as their magazines show.
Dada Tank and Dada Jazz: Promoting Dada, Linking the

Local and the International
In 1922, Croatian poet Dragan Aleksić, based in Zagreb, produced two Dada
journals, DadaTank and Dada Jazz, which he used to bring Dada to local
audiences while attempting to ingratiate himself among Dadaists in Paris, Berlin,
Cologne, and Hanover.30 Aleksić’s introduction to Dada was in Prague, where he
likely attended two Dada soirées put on by Huelsenbeck, Hausmann, Schwitters,
and Baader in March 1920. He based his perception of Dada, which means “yes
yes” in Croatian, on these performances and on earlier Dada journals. At first
Aleksić promoted Dada in the Constructivist-leaning periodical, Zenit (“Zenith”)
(1921–1926, Zagreb, Belgrade), which sought to fuse modernist trends—chiefly
Expressionism, Futurism, Dada, and Constructivism—from many countries
and in many languages toward a distinctly Balkan art movement. Although its
editors, Ljubomir Micić and Branko Ve Poljanski, did not fully support Dada, in
the third issue they allowed Aleksić, then in Prague, to promote “Yugo-Dada”
through a series of texts, like a “Dada poem” and two “Dada Songs.”31 Aleksić’s
formulation of Dada is rather broad: he contrasts art—“darkness, boredom”—
with Dada, “the cry for youth.” He writes, “Dada is primitivism and yearning/
aspiration. The future. … Everything is DADA.”32 This final sentence echoes
Tzara’s declaration, “Dada is tout,” in Bulletin Dada.
By 1922, disagreements between Aleksić and the editors of Zenit regarding

Dada became increasingly divisive. Zenit featured contributions from Aleksić
through issue 13 in April 1922, but the next issue announces the Zenit group’s
excommunication of Aleksić. Poljanski’s scorn was so severe he published his
own spoof of Dada journals, Dada Jok, mentioned in the introduction. In June,
just after Zenit expelled him, Aleksić started Dada Tank with the support of a
group of Croatian artists and writers. After a summer of Dada events—poetry
readings, plays, and exhibitions—in September 1922, Aleksić produced Dada
Jazz, which declares itself to be both an anthology (on the cover) and a Dada
review, recalling the dual identity of Cabaret Voltaire six years earlier (Figures 5.1
and 5.2). Editing Dada reviews was defining for him.33 On the bright poster for
an event in Osijek, which Aleksić sent to Tzara, he connects himself and the event
with Dada Tank; its cover announces him as editor in both Croatian (“urednik”)
and French (“directeur)” (Figure 5.3).34 As Sonja Uzelac puts it, “The axis of his
activity … remained the magazine. That is how he presented himself.”35
Dada Tank aimed primarily to bring Dada to Yugoslav readers. Its cost appears
only in Croatian currency (5 denari), and texts are primarily in Croatian. Eager
to expose his compatriots to Dada writings and images from abroad, Aleksić
aggressively pursued submissions from Dadaists, hyping Zagreb’s commitment
to Dada. His enthusiastic letter to Tzara from May 14, 1922 is representative of his
initial contact with his Dada predecessors. Writing in German, he declares that
he is part of “a new Dada in Yugoslavia!” He explains that the journal’s mailing
address, Peŧrinska 6/II, is the center for “Dada-club, Dada-art, and Dada-Tank”
and announces Dada Tank, an international “review for Dada.” After reporting
on his exposure to Dada in Prague and his contributions to Zenit, he asks for
Dada reviews and books. Emphasizing the international scope of the journal,
he declares, “We appeal therefore to the solidarity of the entire Dada world and
eagerly await your works.”36
Dada Tank bears the fruits of Aleksić’s efforts: Croatian translations of
Tzara’s poem, “Zanzibar,” Schwitters’s then-unpublished “Pesma nr. 48” (“Poem
no. 48”) (c. 1920), and an excerpt from Huelsenbeck’s introduction of Dada
Almanach (Berlin, 1920), which manifests rather than explains Dada: “Dada
is the dancing spirit atop of the world’s morals. Dada is the great parallel to
the relativist philosophies of our times; Dada is not an axiom.”37 The cover
proudly proclaims, “The first dada stars work for this premium dada review,”
and continues with a call to artists in Zagreb to endorse and embrace it as their
own: “Very honorable Yugoslav artists. Promote it! It’s the people’s voice.”38 The
cover also bears the imperative, “Poštujte Dadasofe” (“Honor the Dadasoph”), a
reference to Hausmann.
164 Dada Magazines
Figure 5.1 Dada Tank, ed. Dragan Aleksic, Zagreb, 1922, front cover (photo of
reprint in Ranko Horetzky, Darko Simicic, Graham McMaster, Ljubomir Micic, Zenit,
Svetokret, Dada jok, Dada tank, Dada jazz, 1921–1926 [Zagreb: Horetzky, 2008]).
The magazine integrates these contributions with texts by Aleksić and his
Yugoslav colleagues—Nac Singer, Fer Mill, Vido Lastov, Mihailo Petrov, and
Jim Rad. A passage by Aleksić contrasts Dada with the past, using doomsday
language: “Come together all. The day of reckoning is close at hand. The old
values of ‘art’ will fall. All the crematories do not bring as many calories to the
Figure 5.2 Dada Jazz, ed. Dragan Aleksić, Zagreb, 1922, front cover (photo of reprint
in Ranko Horetzky, Darko Simicic, Graham McMaster, Ljubomir Micic, Zenit, Svetokret,
Dada jok, Dada tank, Dada jazz, 1921–1926 [Zagreb: Horetzky, 2008]).
bodies of rotten mummies as dada does.”39 An essay by Lastov probably further

confounded readers: “Dada has a worldly (worldman) character: Dada is as
much at home on the boullvard [sic] Sebastopol as on the Calle Arsenal, Unten
[sic] den Linden and Zrinjevac.”40 Most texts are in Croatian, but two poems by
Petrov and Aleksić appear in German, likely for the sake of Dadaists from Berlin
166 Dada Magazines
Figure 5.3 “Jugoslavenski, da da, DA DA, DA, DA …: U Osijeku, Royal-kino dne

20. viii. matinée, 1922,” Poster for Dada event, Zagreb, 1922. Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles (2001.PR.1) (see Plate 8).
and Hanover. Aleksić’s poem mimics the nonsensical tone and disregard for
grammar and syntax that initially attracted him to Dada. It begins, “Stock market
decline Triest. / Polyp children applause triangular swords / Saws itself suns deep
wound tragic / Ajax …”41 Like earlier texts in Dada reviews, Aleksić’s presents
English words referring to capitalism and the entertainment industry into his
poems. He also creates new words by imitating the compound word structure of
the German language.42 Juxtaposing works by Dadaists and by Aleksić and his
cohorts, Dada Tank thus frames Zagreb artists as ingrained in Dada, much more
than they actually were—in a manner akin to Die Schammade.
Dada Jazz, too, makes the distant close for Zagreb readers. It contains an
essay on Alexander Archipenko and Aleksić’s Dada manifesto, both in Croatian.
Aleksić printed three texts by Tzara here, this time in French: “Comment je
suis devenu charmant, sympathique et délicieux,” but here, “Pourquoi je suis
devenu charmant, sympathique et délicieux” (“How/Why I became charming,
attractive, and delightful”) (1920), Sillogisme colonial (“Colonial syllogism”),
and Manifeste de Monsieur Aa l’antiphilosophe (“Manifesto of Monsieur Aa the
Anti-philosopher”) (1920). This last piece, notably, negates Picabia’s charge
that Dada had become a school.43 Other than these three, texts from abroad
appear in Croatian, again conveying Aleksić’s desire to bring Dada to readers
in Zagreb.44
Visually, the graphic design of both Dada Tank and Dada Jazz reflects Dada
and Constructivist currents. Repetition and printing with seemingly random
capitalization and font sizes recall Dada publications. The cover of Dada
Tank bombards the reader with Yugo-Dada. “Dada-yougo” appears seven
times along the left-hand side, and words read in five directions in more than
four type fonts and styles. Some words are randomly capitalized. On the top
left-hand side of the cover, “Dada” repeats four times in many sizes; the final
one is upside down. The passage that starts “Come together all” is printed in
a smaller size along the top.45 Dada Jazz’s lively cover prints the title three
times, each with different capitalization, and the title, “Dada anthology,” is
perpendicular to them.46 Inside, a page promotes the journal as a “Dadaistic
review” in English, French, Italian, and Croatian; thick black lines border the
words; and the words “Dadaistic review” are at a diagonal. At the same time, the
typography, layout, bold geometrical graphics, and right angles of Dada Tank
resemble the emerging Constructivist aesthetic apparent in issues of Zenit,
beginning with number six, as well as the first issue of Veshch. Gegenstand.
Objet: Revue international de l’art modern (“Object: International Review of
Modern Art”) (edited by El Lissitzky and Ilya Ehrenburg Berlin, 1922–1923)
and other Constructivist reviews, such as Ma (edited by Lajos Kassák, Vienna,
1916–1925).47 As in these publications, in Dada Tank, texts in sans serif fonts
read horizontally, separated by horizontal and vertical lines, with authors’
names in capital letters just below and to the right of each passage. Page layouts
emphasize balance, if sometimes asymmetry, as well as order and regularity—
quite unlike the idiosyncratic layouts of earlier Dada journals, which had tried
to destabilize accepted graphic design techniques that gave the semblance of
transparency. Similarly, the two abstract linocuts in Dada Tank by Russian
artist Mihailo S. Petrov (Dada Jazz includes no images), despite a somewhat
jumbled composition, are decidedly more restrained than the collages and line
drawings in recent Dada magazines from Paris and Berlin.
Just one month after Dada Jazz, in October 1922, Aleksić declared an end to
Dada in Zagreb until 1999, though he maintained an archive of Dada activity
and continued to go by the name “Dada” until his death in 1958.48 With these
two single-issue reviews, Aleksić established a new Dada center with himself at
its center, promoted the movement, and integrated it with local and international
artistic leanings toward Constructivism. In so doing, he helped Dada to keep
changing and expanding.
Mécano and G: Reconciling Opposites and Showcasing

Similarities
Whereas Aleksić’s Dada Tank and Dada Jazz primarily set out to promote
Dada, despite visual evidence of the increasing influence of Constructivism,
Van Doesburg’s Mécano (Leiden and the Hague, 1922–1923) and Richter’s G
168 Dada Magazines
(Berlin, 1923–1926) set out to merge Dada with Constructivism, though each of
them conceived of the relationship between the two differently.49 Van Doesburg
is best known as a leading member of the Dutch movement, De Stijl, along with
Piet Mondrian, as well as editor of De Stijl (Delft, Leiden, and Meudon, 1917–
1931), which promoted Neo-Plasticism.50 In the early 1920s, De Stijl presented
a significant amount of Dada content, such as contributions from Schwitters,
Hausmann, Tzara, and Ribemont-Dessaignes. Van Doesburg famously even
adopted a Dada pseudonym and alter ego, I. K. Bonset, so that he could express
his support for Dada more freely.51 He became a linchpin for the connections
between Dadaists and Constructivists, evidenced in his involvement in the
Congress of the Constructivists and Dadaists and in Mécano. Dada journals
from France, Germany, and Italy introduced Van Doesburg to Dada. In 1921,
he wrote to Tzara, “Now I put a table in my workshop with all the reviews of the
avant-garde and Dada for the friends of the modern spirit.”52 He began receiving
Dada publications from Zurich and Berlin primarily—Dada, 391, Cannibale,
and Paul Dermée’s Z—as early as February 1919.53 In late 1920 and into 1921,
he visited artists linked with the journals in and near Paris, Berlin, and Weimar,
among them Tzara, Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, Schwitters, and Arp.54
Van Doesburg’s zeal for Dada and for internationalism drove him to produce
Mécano. In his first letter to Tzara, he tells him about it, identifying the editor
as I. K. Bonset, whom he describes as a Dutch colleague and a “pure Dadaist”
(“dadaïste pur-sang”).55 His letter to Dutch poet Antony Kok from June 1921,
after a trip to Paris, recalls the transnational ambitions of the earliest Dadaists:
As far as that Dadaist pamphlet is concerned: I spoke about it in Paris with the
most prominent Dadaists! They thought it was a superb idea, particularly if it
were to appear in Weimar, as it could give rise to an international exchange of
ideas, right across the heads of the members of the Entente!56
Between January 1922 and January 1923, Van Doesburg produced four issues of
Mécano, assigning each one a color: yellow, blue, red, and white.57 The January
1923 issue of De Stijl advertised it as an “Internationall tijdschrift voor geestelijke
Hygiène, mechanische Esthetiek en Neo-Dadaïsme” (“International Magazine
for Mental Hygiene, Mechanical Aesthetics and Neo-Dadaism”). Texts in
French, German, and Dutch, as well as prices in different currencies, also attest
to its global aspirations.58
Mécano features writings and images by artists representing a broad scope
of movements: Van Doesburg, Ezra Pound, Boccioni, Marinetti, Mondrian,
Picabia, Jean Crotti, Éluard, Tzara, Man Ray, Ribbemont-Dessaignes, Malcolm
Cowley, Arp, Hausmann, and Schwitters.59 But its pages are dominated by Dada
and Constructivism, which Mécano’s texts define as opposites even as its images
call out their visual resonances. Mécano’s framing of Dada is complex. On the
one hand, it portrays Dada as nihilistic, a goal Van Doesburg lays out in a letter
when considering making a new periodical: “It is perhaps best to stop producing
De Stijl and to start a Dadaist paper: against everyone and everything.”60 Van
Doesburg’s “Karakteristiek van het Dadaisme” (“Characteristics of Dadaism”),
published in Mécano 4–5, describes Dada as beyond morality and politics, anti-
bourgeois, and irreverent toward art of the past, with a dash of humor: “Dada
is the only successful remedy to heal you of your art and logic diarrhea. Dada is
the cork on the flask of your stupidity.”61 Van Doesburg was attracted to Dada
as what Jane Beckett calls “a destructive and liberating force that could assist in
the abolition of the old world.”62 As Hubert van den Berg points out, although
usually Constructivism is not associated with destruction it had what he calls “a
very specific destructive dimension, demanding a tabula rasa as precondition
for new Constructivist art.”63 Backing up his own writings, Van Doesburg
excerpts, for the cover of Mécano 4/5 (January 1924), an important interview
with Tzara, originally published in Le journal du people the year before, where
he contradicts attempts to compare Dada to other movements and underlines
its nihilistic nature:
I find that it is wrong to say that Dadaism, Cubism and Futurism were based on
common ground. The two last tendencies especially were based on a principle of
technical or intellectual improvement, while Dadaism was never based on any
theory and was only a protest.64
At the same time, Mécano also portrays Dada as a strategy for encompassing
contraries and achieving balance. In what is almost a direct quote from Tzara’s
“1918 Dada Manifesto,” another passage in “Characteristics of Dadaism” reads,
“Dada: at once order and disorder, yes and no, ego and non-ego.”65 This theme
carries on throughout Mécano, with phrases like “Dada is the placing of opposites
next to each other” and
Bound neither to time nor space, the Dadaist loves the positive-negative, the
yes-no, the full-empty, the yesterday-tomorrow, and, in the bold flight of his
creative imagination, he places opposites directly next to one another.66
In “Towards a Constructivist poetry,” printed in the final issue of Mécano, Van

Doesburg, as Bonset, asserts, “The new poet forms only by means of overcoming,
cancellation, destruction ….”67 Multipaged, collaborative, and mechanically
reproduced, the magazine enabled Van Doesburg to bring together what he
deemed to be two unlike entities.
170 Dada Magazines
Mécano’s images and graphic design call out similarities between Dada
and Constructivism. The second issue of Mécano pairs the spiraling forms of
Russian artist Serge Charchoune’s Picabia-like drawing, “Cigarette Dada,” and
an assemblage by Hungarian Constructivist László Moholy Nagy, here called,
“Nickel Sculpture” (“Nickel-Plastik”) (Figure 5.4). Mécano also highlights the
groups’ shared preoccupation with the machine, apparent in its name, which
Figure 5.4 Mécano 2, ed. Theo Van Doesburg, Leiden, 1922, inside pages, unfolded.
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (86-S98).
comes from a kind of DIY toy, “Meccano,” and other contributions. The
first issue reproduces a photo of a cogwheel, and in the second, rather than
reproducing one of Ernst’s biomorphic frottages, Van Doesburg chose one of his
more mechanical pieces, “Photo-mechanische compositie” (“Photo-mechanical
composition”). In Mécano 4, Picabia’s “Les dents viennent aux yeux comme
des larmes” (“Teeth come to the eyes like tears”), a typically enigmatic line
drawing of what looks like a rudimentary contraption, and Man Ray’s “Dancer/
Figure 5.5 Mécano 1, ed. Theo Van Doesburg, Leiden, 1922, inside pages, unfolded.
Kunsthaus Zurich Library.
172 Dada Magazines
Danger” (1920), labeled “Man Ray New York Dada,” in the first issue, also
stress the Dadaists’ machinist aesthetic, one that conflates machine and flesh
(Figure 5.5).68 In his text, “Will to Style,” in the February–March 1922 issue of
De Stijl, Van Doesburg characterized Man Ray’s montage as an example of how
Dadaists “play with the machine.”69
Mécano also exposes Dada’s and Constructivism’s common experimentation
with collages and assemblages. Hausmann’s “Elasticum,” here labeled,
“Construction,” in the second issue, is made up of machine parts one might find
in a Constructivist composition, such as a tire, with two male heads, letters, and
words: “Pipicabia” and, in Dada fashion, “Merde.” Hausmann’s “Mechanischer
Kopf: Der Geist underer Zeit” (“Mechanical Head: The Spirit of Our Time”)
(c. 1921), labeled simply “plastique,” made up of a wooden head adorned with
various items, including a wallet and a ruler, similarly, calls out the Dadaists’
preoccupation with merging the human and the mechanical. Hausmann’s
famous photomontage, “Tatlin lebt zu Hause” (“Tatlin Lives at Home”) (1920),
a non-portrait of the famous Russian Constructivist with mechanical parts for
a brain, reads as an homage to Tatlin, whom Constructivists and Dadaists alike
revered as a leading figure in “machine art.”70
Other pieces embody trends from both movements. Moholy-Nagy’s collage,
“Relief S” (1921), in the second issue, is made up of prefabricated objects like a
measuring device and a cogwheel. However, its spare design and inclusion of the
letter “s,” a black square, and the number one make it decidedly Constructivist.
Van Doesburg’s collage, “La matière dénaturalisée. Déstruction 2” (“Distorted
Material: Destruction 2”) (c. 1923), reproduced in the fourth and final issue of
Mécano, merges elements of Dada and Constructivist collages. Photographs and
clippings from French and German newspapers recall Dada collages, while a
fragment from the floor plan by De Stijl architect J. J. P. Oud and cutouts of solid
blocks of color are closer to Constructivist works.
The graphic design of Mécano is a distinctive mix of Dada and Constructivism.
As in Dada journals, here images are interspersed with texts printed at right
angles from each other and diagonally, creating dynamic page designs. Yet
rather than the idiosyncratic, almost painterly compositions of earlier Dada
publications, here the sans serif font type, thick black lines dividing spreads
into discrete areas, and asymmetrical balance align this periodical with De Stijl
and Veshch. Mécano also emphasizes clarity: larger font sizes, underlining, and
boldface type, for instance, are reserved for words that readers expected to be
highlighted, such as titles.71
A respected editor with extensive international contacts among Dadaists

and Constructivists, Van Doesburg brought representatives of each movement
together, first at the Weimar Conference and then in Mécano. The journal
inspired him to draw out similarities he perceived between the two, effecting a
reinterpretation of Dada. Rather than continuing to use De Stijl to express his
Dada ideas, Van Doesburg produced a Dada journal so he could participate
fully in the Dada network begun in Zurich in 1916. Mécano exemplifies
magazines’ ongoing role in disseminating and reexamining Dada while also
bringing together movements. Van Doesburg understood the juxtaposition
of different entities as a Dada strategy, something he accomplished by placing
Constructivist-inspired submissions alongside ones now deemed “Dada.”
The aims of the new and unrestricted (Dada) and the aims of the enduring
(Constructivism) go together, and condition each other. To embrace and
integrate these two tendencies was the purpose of the magazine G.72
Though widely classified as a Constructivist publication, in its early issues,

Richter’s G: Material zur elementaren Gestaltung (“Materials for Elemental
Construction/Form-Design”) (Berlin, 1923–1926), like Mécano, brought Dada
and Constructivism together and helped perpetuate Dada (Figure 5.6).73 Its pages
manifest continuities between the two collectives. Richter shunned associations
between his magazine and Constructivism as a movement, advancing, instead,
the notion of elementare Gestaltung, meaning elemental form or construction.74
Richter had been affiliated with Dada since 1918, and after the war, he became
increasingly involved in Constructivism. He attended the Dusseldorf Congress,
where he announced his forthcoming journal, and the Weimar Conference,
where he established ties with a wide range of artists who became regular
contributors to G. The First International Russian Art Exhibition in 1922 and
Lissitzky’s Veshch also had a profound effect on him.
Richter produced five issues of G with the help of various other editors with
strong Constructivist leanings: Bauhaus photographer Lissitzky, Werner Gräff,
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and architect and designer Friedrich Kiesler. The
notion of elementare Gestaltung, from the subtitle, placed an emphasis on
objectivity. Richter’s involvement with Constructivism did not signal a full
break from his Dada identity, however. The notion of elementare Gestaltung
was not an “ism” for Richter, and when asked if juxtaposing two tendencies
within a single publication was fence straddling, he answered, “[N]ot at all,”
adding, “our problem was one of a destructive/constructive nature.”75 By 1923,
174 Dada Magazines
Figure 5.6 G 1, ed. Hans Richter, Berlin, 1923, front cover. Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles (87-S1338).
as Dada had changed from an emerging trend to a debated but established

movement, and Constructivism was gaining traction, G set out to connect Dada
and Constructivism by showcasing a wide range of artists associated with both
groups to an international audience.76
Richter maintained that abstraction and structure, two defining characteristics

of Constructivism, had always been present in Dada. In “Dada and the Film,” he
argues, “The nucleus of the artistic endeavor of Dada as it appeared in Zurich
1916/19 was abstract art,” adding, “Abstract art, that was dada.”77 His “Heads”
appeared in Dada 3 and Dada 4/5, and his paintings, prints, and drawings, and
later films became increasingly abstract. By 1919, he had begun collaborating
with Viking Eggeling to produce scroll paintings and films made up of rectangles
and squares. His Dada creations are much closer to the geometrical abstraction
of many Constructivist compositions than they are to Picabia’s bizarre machine
drawings or Hausmann’s busy, politically charged collages that had also been
shown in Dada magazines. Indeed, this distinct interpretation of Dada promoted
by Richter and Eggeling at times tested other Dadaists’ rhetoric of inclusivity.
According to Richter, Tzara tried to exclude two of Eggeling’s abstract lithographs
from Dada 4/5. Comparing them to Renaissance paintings, the Romanian poet
objected that they were too classical for a Dada publication, and Richter had to
convince him otherwise.78
In his introduction to G, Richter underscores the Dadaists’ and Constructivists’
shared emphasis on structure:
The fact is that the tendencies of Constructivism, or more generally speaking
of structure, appeared in Dada itself … the tendencies for an order, a structure,
appeared nonetheless as a counterpart to the law of chance which Dada had
discovered. In this way the Constructivist involvement in Dada and vice versa
may be understood.79
According to his estimation, Constructivism was tied to structure, which he

believed to be present in Dada, if often in tension with chance. G also manifests
Richter’s championing of Dada’s ability to encompass disparate entities. His
words recall Van Doesburg’s: “The realization that reason and anti-reason, sense
and nonsense, design and chance, consciousness and unconsciousness, belong
together as necessary parts of a whole—this was the central message of Dada.”80
He describes Dada as “an attempt to restore the lost balance between reason and
unreason in modernity,” adding, “It was in the interplay of opposites … that the
essence of Dada consisted.”81
G’s juxtaposition of Dada and Constructivism is evident in its artworks and
texts. Constructivist-inspired images dominate: Richter’s film strips, a photo
of Lissitzky’s Proun room and writings about it, and photographs of factory
buildings. Yet we also find here Hausmann’s opinions of German fashion, an
essay by Tzara, and a humorous story by Arp about making a drinking cup
according to the rules of Gestaltung. All are in German, often followed by short
176 Dada Magazines
summaries of featured artists in French, English, and Russian. A text by Grosz

emphasizes Dada’s absurdist, nihilistic nature:
Today I and all other founders of German Dadaism know that our only error
was to have taken the so-called art at all seriously. Dadaism was our awaking
from this self fraud. We saw the lunatic results of the reigning social order and
broke out in laughter.82
Adding to the periodical’s Dada flavor, the first issue shows a mug shot of
Arp, a photograph of Schwitters reading a sound poem from Merz and two of
Hausmann modeling the latest fashions in Germany.
Unlike Mécano, G shows Dada works that depart from the Constructivists’
machine aesthetic, but it frames them as Constructivist. The third issue of G,
for example, displays several of Arp’s organically shaped designs, moving away
from the machine aesthetic of some Dada artworks. However, reproduced
horizontally across the top of the page, they take on a serial quality that
corresponds with Richter’s filmstrips (Figure 5.7). Grosz’s incisive drawings,
which contrast the indulgences of the rich with the hardships of the poor in
postwar Germany, also stand out, as they are figural and hand-drawn, unlike
the Constructivists’ machine-inspired, abstract forms. But here a description
accompanying the drawings asserts, in German, French, and Russian, “George
Groß [sic] hates exploiters but likes producers,” thus situating him in a
Constructivist context.
The graphic design of G reflects Constructivism’s proclivity toward simplicity
and clarity.83 The first two issues, with their dense printing of texts, separated by
thick black lines, and two or three illustrations on each page, strongly resemble
Veshch. Entire pages are printed in only one font type, all texts are sans serif
and most are arranged horizontally or at right angles with one another. G both
demonstrates Moholy-Nagy’s words on typography in a 1923 manifesto in
which he asserts, “Typography must be clear communication in its most vivid
form. Clarity must be especially stressed, for clarity is the essence of modern
printing.”84 Moholy-Nagy’s words mark a noted departure from the Dadaists’
suspicion of such ideas and their assault on graphic design that pretends to be
transparent. With the third issue, there is much less text, and an uptick in the
number of photographs, although each page usually shows only one illustration.
Its overall design probably explains why it has been grouped with Constructivist
magazines almost right from the start. Closer analysis, however, reveals that in its
initial iterations this publication was not simply a Constructivist periodical, but
rather a means by which Richter, a self-proclaimed Dadaist, could intermingle
Dada and Constructivism and thus prolong Dada.
Figure 5.7 G 3, ed. Hans Richter, Berlin, 1923, p. 48. Getty Research Institute
(87-S1338) © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
178 Dada Magazines
Merz and 75 HP: Dada after “Dada”
In the first issue of Merz (1923–1932, intermittently, Hanover), Schwitters

declares, “[W]e who are so decidedly not Dadaists, are best suited to carry on the
Dadaist movement.”85 His comment captures his fraught relationship with Dada
and the fact that his magazine permitted him to express his affinity to Dada
without officially adopting the name of the group that rejected him. Significantly
for our purposes, it suggests a perceptive grasp of the place of Dada in the early
1920s. “Dada” was becoming a thing of the past, but Schwitters was helping it
to live on, in a different guise, by carrying on its members’ appropriation of
the magazine to make connections among disparate movements under another
nonsensical, undefined name, this time, “Merz.”86
The first issue grew out of the Dada tour in 1922 and 1923 that he put on with
Theo and Nelly Van Doesburg, Schwitters, and Vilmos Huszár in Germany and
Holland. As the cover advertises, it is devoted to Dada in Holland.87 In both the
texts and images in the first four regular issues of Merz (the focus of this analysis),
he, like Van Doesburg, connects Dada and Constructivism.88 Merz 4 is the most
Dada in character, with aphorisms by known Dada enthusiasts such as Soupault,
Picabia, Eluard, and Serner, as well as poems by Ribemont-Dessaignes, Tzara,
and Hausmann. It repeats important texts printed in Mécano: the quote from
Tzara, mentioned above, that contrasts Dada and other movements, and parts
of Van Doesburg’s essay, “Dadaisme,” published in Mécano, which emphasizes
Dada’s capacity for juxtaposing disparate styles and approaches. Constructivist
contributions include Lissitzky’s “Topography of Typography” in Merz 4 and
Mondrian’s essay on Neo-Plasticism in Merz 6.
Essays by Schwitters in Merz exploring the relationship between Dada
and Merz reveal his simultaneous preoccupation with Dada, his eagerness to
distinguish himself and Merz from it, and his affinity toward Constructivism.
In “Dadaismus in Holland” (“Dadaism in Holland”) in Merz 1, he grants
Dada two identities. On the one hand it is one of many competing factions,
along with “Anarchists,” “Socialists,” Impressionists, and Expressionists. On
the other hand, it is a reflection of a condition: “Our time is called dada. We
live in the dada period … Nothing is so characteristic of our time as dada.” He
goes on, “DADA is the CONFESSION OF BELIEF in the LACK OF STYLE.
Dada is the style of our time, which has no style.”89 As van den Berg explains,
for Schwitters, “the Dadaist was not Dada himself, but rather helped to make
the Dadaist ‘stylelessness’ of contemporary culture visible to his audience.”90 Yet
this condition is only temporary, according to his formulation. Dada recognizes
the era’s absence of style (“Stillosigkeit”), Schwitters contends, and once people
are aware of this absence, they will turn against Dada and “fight only for style
(Stijl).”91 Here Schwitters allies himself with Van Doesburg, casting Dada as
necessary for the creation of something new, in his case, Merz. Schwitters writes,
“We want style. We mirror Dada, because we want style. For that reason we are
responsible for the Dadaist movement. Out of love for style we deploy all our
force for the Dadaist movement.”92 Beginning with Merz 5 he did pursue a more
defined Constructivist aesthetic. The first four issues, however, seem to play out
the first stage of the process he outlines, when there is no direct connection to
a particular style, calling to mind Dada’s meta role, bringing together various
movements under one term.93
Before reading any of these texts, however, individuals leafing through
Merz would have discovered an eclectic mix of primarily Dada and
Constructivist images. We find in the first issue of Merz two spare linear
drawings by Höch and Picabia. Picabia’s untitled drawing is much like those
reproduced in earlier Dada publications, with its crossing thin curved lines
that flirt with figuration, labeled with words—“doctor,” “narcissus,” “women,”
“convalescent”—whose combined meaning is ultimately enigmatic.94 Höch’s
untitled drawing (1922)—simple, ordered, and architectonic—on the other
hand, is more aligned with Constructivist works (Figure I.3). Curved lines
and hatchings intersect a large oval shape, and two knob-like shapes emerge
from the top and left-hand sides, balanced on a horizontal base-like buildings
on a landscape.
Contributions from De Stijl and Constructivist members in Merz include
Neo-Plastic paintings by Van Doesburg and Mondrian, a photograph of an
interior space designed by Van Doesburg and Oud, another of Lissitzky’s “Proun
(City)” (“Proun (Stadt)),” as well as a drawing of Tatlin’s famous structure,
“Denkal der dritten international” (“Monument to the Third International”).
Merz also presents images that are not collages but share Schwitters’s interest
in mixing dissimilar materials: a photogram by Vilmos Huszar and Lissitzky,
a stamp drawing by Bauhaus architect Günter Hirschel-Prostch, and a photo
by Moholy-Nagy, for instance. A design on the cover of the first issue of Merz
by Hausmann and Baader—showing a windmill made of a square base and
St. Andrew’s cross with “DA” on each arm—recalls Constructivism, even as it
declares a Dada affiliation.95
Schwitters’s contributions demonstrate the Dada and Constructivist strains
in his own oeuvre. In his “Merz drawing” (“Merzzeichnung”), in the first issue,
various found materials overlap with each other but are printed flatly. Like
180 Dada Magazines
Dada collages, it includes newspaper and magazine clippings of fragments

of words in Czech and Dutch (“aver,” “brieken,” “geldig,” “Prah”) and the
number “21.” But his careful placement of these pieces to form a balanced,
abstract, geometrical composition recalls Constructivist works. The materials
themselves—an architectural drawing and a patterned semicircle—link the
collage to Constructivist models, as well. In “Das Kreisen (Merzbild)” (“The
Circle (Merz Picture)”) in Merz 2, six rings float around a canvas divided by the
prongs of the compass (Figure 5.8). The geometric forms and compass manifest
Constructivists’ emphasis on the artist as engineer. At the same time, one of
the circles could be a cutout of the photo of an eyeball that the Berlin Dadaists
arranged on either side of the title on the cover of Dada 3 and throughout the
journal. Merz 6 presents a “Merz Picture” (“Das Merzbild”) (Figure 5.9) that
demonstrates the shared attraction to collage and assemblage among Dadaists
and Constructivists. It is made up of scraps of mesh, paper, wood, and metal
stacked on top of one another, with a small ladder-like object dividing it
diagonally. The photo of this collage (now lost) spans two pages, and the string
of the binding bisects the piece, adding another collage layer.96
Merz’s graphic design, too, juxtaposes Dada and Constructivist models.
Certain characteristics bring to mind earlier Dada journals: images and texts
in many font types mingle, with page numbers printed in varying font sizes and
types. In addition, its inclusion of the pointing hand derived from ads but now
synonymous with Dada, as well as random graphics such as a drawing of a cow
(in the first issue), recall Dada publications. Yet other graphic elements such as
straight lines, arrows, and squares frame images and divide pages into clearly
demarcated registers, creating a geometric, balanced design closer to those
found in Veshch than it is to earlier Dada journals. The Merz logo, a white square
made with arrows, also reflects the Constructivist leanings of the review.
The typography in Merz varies, but according to conventions aimed at
clarity: titles and other emphasized words appear in larger fonts, usually in
boldface type, and font sizes and types remain consistent throughout each
essay and poem. The prevalence of sans serif font types also gives the journal
a decidedly Constructivist look. The hand of the printer is not as evident as in
earlier Dada publications, which look haphazard in comparison to the pages of
Merz. Merz thus reveals Schwitters’s close collaboration with Lissitzky, whose
essay, “Topography of Typography,” emphasizes economy of form and material
and geometrical layout. Whereas the Dadaists set out to manipulate readers’
expectations, Lissitzky argues that how a text is printed should correspond
with its meaning: “The designing of the book-space through the material of
Figure 5.8 Merz 2, ed. Kurt Schwitters, Hanover, 1923, p. 23, 11 7∕16 × 8 2∕3 in. (29 ×
22 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries
© 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
182 Dada Magazines
Figure 5.9 Merz 6, ed. Kurt Schwitters, Hanover, 1923, pp. 8–9, 11 7∕16 × 17 7∕16 in.
(29 × 44 cm) (spread). International Dada Archive, Special Collections, University
of Iowa Libraries © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst,
Bonn.
the type, according to the laws of typographical mechanics, must correspond to

the strains and stresses of the content.”97 Lissitzky’s essay describes many of the
rules that Schwitters was beginning to incorporate into the design of his journal,
which he and Schwitters would employ more emphatically in subsequent issues.
But here the integration of Dada graphic design elements complicates a clear
classification of the magazine as Constructivist only.
In Merz 2, Schwitters asserts that he is “the artist of the work des autres.” He
explains, “I am the artist who turned the song of others, however bad, into a
work of art.”98 We see this drive in his collages and i-poems (made of excerpted
text fragments), certainly, but also in his magazine. It allowed him to incorporate
Dada, along with other artistic currents, chiefly Constructivism, while also
wielding the Dada strategy of joining these currents under a nonsense word,
in this case, “Merz,” without fully explaining what it means. Merz also enabled
him to uphold his own independence while participating in the transnational
network of periodicals that continued to be the lifeblood of the avant-garde. In
a letter from March 1923, just after he published the first issue of Merz, he asked
Tzara, “Do you know addresses for exchange with other periodicals?”99 As his
close friend Käte Steinitz explained, “Schwitters’ Merz journal came into being,
in part, because of his tremendous need for an arena of exchange.”100
A year later, in Bucharest, the single-issue 75 HP (Bucharest, 1924), like
Merz, carried on Dada’s combining function, this time under the banner of
“Pictopoezie” (Figure 5.10).101 Its editors, poet and theoretician Ilarie Voronca
Figure 5.10 75 HP, ed. Ilarie Voronca, Victor Brauner, Bucharest, 1924, front cover.
Kunsthaus Zurich Library (see Plate 9).
184 Dada Magazines
and painter and illustrator Victor Brauner, and poet, editor, and critic Stéphane
Roll felt a special bond to the Dada movement because Tzara and Janco were
Romanian, even though Tzara did not contribute much to Romanian journals.
Yet unlike the other publications discussed in this chapter so far, 75 HP did
not promote Dada directly or include pieces by recognized Dadaists. Like the
earliest Dadaists’ adoption of the word “Dada,” it promoted “Pictopoezie” in a
manner parallel to Merz’s advocacy of “Merz.” It did not define it, saying that it
was a word and nothing more: “Pictopoezie is not painting, Pictopoezie is not
poetry, Pictopoezie is Pictopoezie.”102 The editors come closest to characterizing
it when they describe its function vis-à-vis other movements:
Pictopoezie revives all the revelatory currents of new art. Pictopoezie realized
finally the true synthesis of futurism, dadaism, constructivism. The most distant
attitudes will find themselves universally fruitful again in the Pictopoetic
movement … Pictopoezie triumphs over all, records all, realizes the impossible.103
Voronca and Brauner espoused the Dadaists’ magazine strategy, but now, since
Dada was established, and even historicized, it was one of many. “Pictopoezie”
was the new word and 75 HP was an effective vehicle for synthesizing and
transcending these elements and for resisting categorization. Indeed, 75
HP pledged that “[whenever] what we do becomes a formula, we shall
relinquish it.”104
Like Dada Tank and Dada Jazz, 75 HP empowered its editors to negotiate their
local and international agendas. Emerging amid the contentious environment of
competing avant-garde factions in Bucharest, 75 HP dialogues with readers in
Bucharest and accommodates cultural concerns and international factions.105 Its
editors were familiar with many avant-garde periodicals of the time, as the back
cover proves: we find here a list with such journals as Merz, Noi, Mécano, and
G, as well as De Stijl, Zenit, Il Futurismo, and Le Futurisme.106 By producing a
magazine, they entered into dialogue with these other editors.
Essays and poems in 75 HP are almost exclusively in Romanian and
French, suggesting that the editors wanted to reach both their immediate
audiences and foreign, primarily French-reading ones.107 Requirements for
contributing to the journal and descriptions of the objectives of the group
are in French. With Dadaist hyperbole, Voronca and Brauner declare, “Our
group counts among its collaborators the best writers and artists of the
modernist movement in the world.”108 As in Tzara’s 1918 Dada manifesto,
their requirements poke fun at traditional notions of membership in an
artistic group (see Chapter 2):
To contribute to 75 HP it is necessary: to know how to dance well, urinate on

everything, to respect his/her parents, to have suffered an air crash, not to make
literature, to have a certificate of good conduct, to drink sulfuric acid, to know
boxing, to decapitate oneself twice a week.109
Texts in Romanian demonstrate Dada to Bucharest readers. Voronca’s

“Aviograma (in loc de manifest” (“Aviogram [In Place of a Manifesto]”) calls
for total liberty of expression and invention and, like a Dada poem, offers
nonsensical juxtapositions such as “The logical grammar of sentimentalism like
the flapping of clothes on the line summons the empire of luminous placards.”110
The two pictorial examples of Pictopoezie paintings in 75 HP, both by the
editors, look like collages comprising clippings of words and red and yellow
paper. “Pictopozia no. 5721” is a dynamic convergence of words referring to
the modern metropolis, specifically cameras, cigarettes, and cable cars: words
like “Kodak,” “Maxilar,” and “Cablecardique” (Figure 5.11). “Pictopoezia no.
384” also mixes words written in various fonts arranged in many directions,
interspersed over patches of yellow, red, and black. Here we see such texts
as “H2O,” “Extern,” and “Hear are the straps” (“Voilà des Bretelles”). Red
words describing Pictopoezie flank the piece: “syntheticism,” “simultaneism,”
“rhythm,” “harmony,” “sonority,” “parallelism,” “abstract,” “vocabulary,” and
“mechanism.”111 Both Pictopoezie pieces borrow from the diverse collage
techniques of the Futurists, Dadaists, and Constructivists: they are dynamic,
reference commercial sources, and contain abstract geometrical shapes.
Janco (written in the Romanian “Iancu”) submitted an untitled woodcut
that resembles his earlier contributions to Dada journals in Zurich, while
the geometric shapes evoke Constructivist works. An untitled linoleum
print by Brauner, which depicts a human figure divided into four zones of
black and white, strongly resembles Picasso’s painting Harlequin (1915),
and an untitled linoleum print shows his proclivity toward abstraction.
Its simultaneity calls to mind Constructivist pieces, as well as Prampolini’s
black-and-white woodcuts, which Brauner most likely had seen reproduced
in Noi.
As in self-identified Constructivist publications, here thick lines divide
pages into clearly demarcated sections, almost all texts are in sans serif font
types, some words are in all capital letters, and titles appear in boldface. The
striking combination of red, yellow, black, and white on the front and back
covers also calls to mind Constructivist collages and print media. At the same
time, however, 75 HP’s design is much busier and more disorienting than the
186 Dada Magazines
Figure 5.11 75 HP, ed. Ilarie Voronca, Victor Brauner, Bucharest, 1924, p. 9.
Kunsthaus Zurich Library (see Plate 10).
spare compositions of Constructivist models, as its pages are filled with texts
and images printed in several directions, forcing readers to turn it 360 degrees.
75 HP is the least directly Dada of all the titles discussed in this book, but it
manifests the ongoing impact of Dada magazines well into the 1920s. Voronca
and Brauner used it to participate in an international dialogue among journal
editors and to juxtapose various artistic currents under a new, invented name,
thus forging a new artistic identity for themselves.
Circulating Contingency, Continuing Dada Magazines’

Legacy
Although the circulation and reception of magazines are notoriously evasive,

we know that all of these reviews found their way to other countries, reaching
bookstore browsers as well as leading figures of the avant-garde, gaining for
their collaborators membership in the vibrant network of reviews circulating
throughout Europe. Aleksić attracted the attention of Richter in Berlin, who
commented that Dada Tank “had a powerful impact despite the brevity of
its life” and “carried the unmistakable stamp of Dada.”112 Mécano sold at the
famous bookstore, Librairie Six, in Paris, as well as on Van Doesburg’s Dada
tour throughout Germany and Holland, and Tzara sent Van Doesburg a list of
addresses, granting him access to a host of influential readers.113 Although Van
Doesburg’s Dada tour did not attract much attention, in a letter from January
19, 1923, Van Doesburg tells Tzara that at an event in Haarlem, he sold “all
the numbers of Mécano II Blue!” (“tout le numéros de Mécano II Bleu!”).114 G
had a few dozen subscribers by the time the third issue came out. The print
run was around 2,000 copies by some estimates, and Gräff later claimed that
the editors sent up to 1,000 copies to artists, critics, art libraries, collectors,
and manufacturers.115 Merz circulated in cities throughout Europe, such as
Berlin, Paris, Rome, Milan, as well as New York, and it lists the prices in many
currencies.116 Schwitters gathered contact information from correspondents and
colleagues, and Tzara sent him addresses of many editors, including Aleksić,
Evola, Man Ray, and members of the Societé Anonyme. Beginning in November
1924, 75 HP could be acquired in Paris at the recently established Bureau de
recherches surréalistes (“Bureau of Surrealist Research”). In February of 1925,
Manomètre, the avant-garde review from Lyon, announced 75 HP, and a little
while later, Die Driehoek, published by a Constructivist group in Antwerp,
Belgium, mentioned the Romanian journal in an article on the Romanian
avant-garde. Upon receiving his copy of 75 HP Schwitters wrote from Hanover,
promising future contributions and to send Merz.117 In all of these ways, these
titles spread new interpretations of Dada, as it began to morph and merge with
Constructivism.
188 Dada Magazines
In the early 1920s, almost ten years since the Cabaret Voltaire group first
convened, with the avant-garde in a state of flux, Dada represented one of many
competing factions, but its journals offered a way out of being categorized and
left behind. Dada reviews were transnational, multilingual, and encompassed
many movements, and they endorsed a fluid understanding of their own identity,
a contingency that proved useful at this time. Carrying on what Cabaret Voltaire
and Dada had started in Zurich, these publications helped Dada enthusiasts form
new bonds and reposition themselves. This openness, along with periodicals’
networking capacity, sustained Dada’s relevance even as late as the 1970s, and as
far away as San Francisco, as the next chapter explores.
Notes
1 The journal Mavo (1924– 1925), edited by Murayama Tomoyoshi in Tokyo, also
responded to Dada journals, but was not a Dada magazine, and analysis of this
journal is beyond the scope of this book. See Gennifer Weisenfeld, Mavo: Japanese
Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905–1931 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University
of California Press, 2002) and Toshiharu Omuka, “Tada = Dada (Devotedly Dada)
for the Stage: The Japanese Dada Movement 1920–1925,” in The Eastern Dada
Orbit: Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Central Europe and Japan, ed. Stephen C. Foster,
Gerald Janecek, and Toshiharu Omuka (New York: G.K. Hall; London: Prentice
Hall International, 1998), 223–303; Gennifer Weisenfeld. “Mavo’s Conscious
Constructivism: Art, Individualism, and Daily Life in Interwar Japan,” Art Journal
55, no. 3 (1996): 64–73.
2 Timothy Benson, “Dada Geographies,” Virgin Microbe, Hopkins and White, 22.
3 In his introductory essay, Jean-Michel Rabaté observes, for instance, “Dadaism was
slowly petering out and giving a difficult birth to surrealism.” Jean-Michel Rabaté,
1922: Litterature, Culture, Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 2.
4 Dawn Ades, “Dada-Constructivism,” in Dada-Constructivism: The Janus Face
of the Twenties (London: Annely Juda Fine Art, 1984), 35. For analysis of the
differences between Russian and international constructivism, see The Tradition of
Constructivism, ed. Stephen Bann, The Documents of 20th-Century Art (New York:
The Viking Press, 1974), xxxv–xxxvi.
5 Benson refers to Merz and other such efforts, including those in New York, that
“involved the same artists and are considered crucial to understanding Dada when
defined stylistically or ideologically” as “cognates.” Benson, “Dada Geographies,”
Virgin Microbe, 21.
6 The Dadaists and their magazines do not, however, seek to function as what Crimp
calls an “organizing device,” as Crimp calls it, which “reduces the now even vaster
heterogeneity to a single perfect similitude.” Douglas Crimp, “On the Museum’s

Ruins,” in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (Port
Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1983), 50.
7 Marius Hentea, “Federating the Modern Spirit: The 1922 Congress of Paris,” PMLA
130, no. 1 (January 2015), 39. For more on Cannibale, see Ruth Hemus, “Dada’s
Paris Season,” in The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines,
vol. III, part I, 188–91. Projecteur features texts by Dermée, Picabia, Tzara, Breton,
Aragon, Ribemont-Dessaignes, and the back page announces the “Festival Dada,”
held at the Salle Gaveau on the rue la Boëtie on May 26, 1920.
8 Sanouillet, Dada in Paris, 287.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid., 289–92; Doherty, “Berlin,” Dada, 100. For an account of how the press
covered Dada, see Watts, Dada and the Press.
11 One French article reads, “In Paris, nothing is synonymous with ‘Dada’ The Dadas
or Dadaists think they have to fill an important mission here, protesting against
all the accepted principles of art, science, music, and religion. It’s a word of artistic
anarchy” (“à Paris, rien est synonyme de ‘Dada’. Les Dadas ou Dadaïstes croient
avoir à remplir ici-bas importante mission en protestant contre tous les principes
admis en art, science, musique et religion. C’est un mot d’anarchie artistique.”)
L’Ecouteur, L’avenir, June 17, 1921, quoted in Dada and the Press, 276.
12 Bergius, Dada Triumphs, 135.
13 Marius Hentea writes, “There was something ‘cosmic’ about Dada that transcended
any set of axioms.” Hentea, “Federating the Modern Spirit,” 47.
14 Francis Picabia, quoted in “Francis Picabia et Dada,” L’Esprit nouveau, no. 9 (Paris,
May 1921): 1059–60, trans. Camfield, Francis Picabia, 163. As Sanouillet points out,
his comments target then-Dada enthusiasts Breton, Aragon, Soupault, and their
circle, but for many in Paris these individuals represented what Dada had become.
Sanouillet, Dada in Paris, 196.
15 See Jed Rasula, Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the
Twentieth Century (New York: Basic Books, 2015), 245–7. Benson refers to
Bucharest, among other cities, as a site that “functioned more as part of a social
network and cultural infrastructure … that support Dada than as part of Dada’s
self-indexing.” Benson, “Dada Geographies,” Virgin Microbe, 21.
16 Jonathan P. Eburne, “Dada, Futurism, and Raymond Roussel,” 1922, ed. Rabaté,
131.
17 Chris Poggi, “Circa 1922: Art, Technology, and the Activated Beholder,” in 1922:
Literature, Culture, Politics, 104.
18 Henryk Berlewi, “Miedzynarodowa Wystawa w Düsseldorfie” [“International
Exhibition in Düsseldorf ”], Nasz Kurior (August 2, 1922), trans. Timothy O.
Benson, “Exchange and Transformation: The Internationalization of the Avant-
Garde(s) in Central Europe,” in Central European Avant-Gardes: Exchange and
190 Dada Magazines
Transformation, 1910–1930, ed. Timothy Benson (Cambridge, MA and London:

MIT Press, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2002), 64.
19 Timothy Benson has argued that pluralization and the potential loss of any
semblance of unity threatened to undermine the avant-garde. Benson, “Exchange
and Transformation,” in Central European Avant-Gardes, 64.
20 Mertins and Jennings, “Introduction,” in G: An Avant-Garde Journal of Art,
Architecture, Design, and Film, ed. Mertins and Jennings, 3.
21 André Breton, “Characteristics of the Modern Evolution and What It Consists Of
(November 1922),” in The Lost Steps, trans. Mark Polizzotti (Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1996), 113, quoted in Jonathan P. Eburne, “Dada, Futurism, and
Raymond Roussel,” in 1922, ed. Rabaté, 129–30.
22 Hentea, “Federating the Modern Spirit,” 47. For a discussion of the infighting
among Dada members in Paris in 1921 and 1922, see Sanouillet, Dada in Paris,
209–16; 233–54 and Marius Hentea, Tata Dada, 178–81. For a discussion of
Congress in Paris, see Hentea, “Federating the Modern Spirit” and Jonathan P.
Eburne, “Dada, Futurism, and Raymond Roussel,” in 1922, ed. Rabaté 128.
23 Hentea, “Federating the Modern Spirit,” 38.
24 Breton, “Leave Everything,” The Lost Steps, quoted in Eburne, “Dada, Futurism, and
Raymond Roussel,” 1922, ed. Rabaté, 131. Other periodicals involved in Dadaists’
debates included the French culture magazine, Comoedia, Breton’s Littérature,
Picabia’s Pilhaou-Thibaou (July 1921, Paris), a single issue publication that he
described as an “annexe” to 391, which includes texts criticizing the Barrès trial and
signaling Dada’s demise, Picabia’s La Pomme du Pins (February 1922), answered by
Tzara’s Le Coeur à Barbe (April 1922). For more on Le Coeur à Barbe, see Hemus,
“Dada’s Paris Season,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist
Magazines, vol. III, part I, 198–201.
25 “Les vrais dadas sont contre Dada.” Bulletin Dada, 2. “Dada est le caméléon des
changement rapide et interessé / Dada est contre le futur, Dada est mort / Dada est
idiot / Vive Dada, Dada n’est pas une école littéraire hurle.” Tristan Tzara, untitled
poem, Dadaphone, 4. For more on the Paris issues of Dada, see Hemus, “Dada’s
Paris Season,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, vol.
III, part I, 194–8.
26 Tristan Tzara, “News of the Seven Arts in Europe,” Vanity Fair (November 1922):
88. The other articles were “Some Memoirs of Dadaism” (July 1922): 70, 92, 94, and
“What We Are Doing in Europe” (September 1922): 68, 100.
27 For more on the event, see Rasula, Destruction Was My Beatrice, 242.
28 Stephen Bann, “Introduction,” The Tradition of Constructivism, ed. Bann, xxxvi.
29 Ibid., xxv; John Elderfield, Kurt Schwitters (London: Thames and Hudson, 1985),
125.
30 Dada Tank was printed in two slightly different versions (the second without
material that was deemed obscene by state censors), by Stampirija Gaj on the
second floor of 6 Peŧrinska in Zagreb. It is eight pages long and measures 9½ ×

12½ inches (24 × 32 cm). Dada Jazz is eighteen pages long. For more on Zenit, see
Laurel Seely Voloder and Tyrus Miller, “Avant-Garde Periodicals in the Yugoslavian
Crucible,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines III, part
II, 1100–14.
31 In the second issue of Zenit (March 1921), Micić published his article, “Dada
Dadaizam,” in which he quotes French texts from Dada journals and speaks
critically of Dada. Micić, “Dada-Dadaizam” Zenit 2, 17, trans. Dragan Kujundžić
and Jasna Jovanov, “Yougo-Dada,” in The Eastern Dada Orbit, ed. Janecek and
Omuka, 44. I examined original copies of these issues of Zenit in the Special
Collections of the Getty Research Institute.
32 Aleksić, “Dadaizam” Zenit 3 (April 1921), trans. Jovanov and Kujundžić, “Yougo-
Dada,” in The Eastern Dada Orbit, ed. Janecek and Omuka, 45.
33 Dragan Aleksić to Tristan Tzara, August 20, 1922, Dossiers Tristan Tzara,
Bibliothèque Littéraire, Jacques Doucet, TZRC 44.
34 It also includes a playful element: a postage stamp, which was affixed tilted and
upside down, which one would imagine would be added after the poster was
printed—in fact it was printed as part of the poster—and how it was printed seems
to invite a double take, as the stamp overlaps the second “d” of “Dada” but is
overprinted by the second “a.” The copy of the poster now in the Special Collections
at the Getty Research Institute, most likely the only surviving copy, was once in
Tzara’s collection. It bears the penciled item number for the 1968 Tzara sale in
Berlin as well as the penciled notation “Tzara 52” on the verso.
35 Sonja Briski Uzelac. “Visual Arts in the Avant-Gardes between the Two Wars,” in
Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-Gardes, Neo-Avant-Gardes, and Post-Avant-
Gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918–1991, ed. Dubravka Djurić and Miško Šuvaković
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), 135.
36 Aleksić to Tzara, May 14, 1922, Dossiers Tristan Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire,
Jacques Doucet, TZRC 43.
37 Richard Huelsenbeck, “Introduction,” The Dada Almanac, 9–10.
38 “Prvi dada-staovi rade u ovoj prima dada-reviji. Urlo zaslužni jugosl. Umetnici.
Propagujte to je glas naroda.” Dada Tank, cover, trans. Andrea Walsh.
39 “Svi na okup blizu je dan razračuna pasti če stare vrednote ‘umetnosti’ Sveukupni
krematorijl ne donašaju toliko kalorija u teto istrullh mumija kao dada.” Dada
Tank, cover, trans. Andrea Walsh.
40 “Dada ima svetski (worldman) karakter: Dada je produckt inernacijonainih hotel
foyera, dada je na boullvard sevastopolu tako kod kuće kao I na Calle arenal,
Untern den linden I na Zrinjevcu. Vido Lastov, trans. Jovanov and Kujundžić,
“Yougo-Dada,” in The Eastern Dada Orbit, ed. Janecek and Omuka, 51.
41 “Börse dekliniert triest / Polypkinder aplaus [sic] dreieckiger schwert / Sägt sich
sonne tiefwund tragic / Ajax /”
192 Dada Magazines
42 Kujundžić and Jovanov, “Yougo-Dada,” in The Eastern Dada Orbit, ed. Janecek and
Omuka, 50.
43 “Manifesto of Monsieur Aa” and “Colonial syllogism” had been published in
Littérature in 1920 and 1921, and Tzara may have sent Aleksić copies of these
publications or manuscripts of the poems. “Manifesto of Monsieur Aa” was
published in no. 13, May 1920, and “Colonial syllogism” was published in no. 18,
March 1921. “Comment je suis devenu charmant, sympathique et délicieux” was
published in La Vie des lettres, no. 4, 1921. Tzara, Oeuvres Complètes I, 704.
44 After the war, in 1918, the region unified under the name the Kingdom of Serbs,
Croats, and Slovenes.
45 “Svi na okup … ” Dada Tank, cover, trans. Andrea Walsh.
46 The cover of Dada Jazz promotes it as a Dada “anthology,” and it includes excerpts
from Huelsenbeck’s Dada Almanach, but like Dada Tank, it functioned like a
journal, that is, a portable publication meant to circulate locally and internationally
and to promote the efforts of its editors.
47 For more on Veshch. Gegenstand. Objet see Stephen Bury, “‘Not to Adorn Life But
to Organize It,’” The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines,
vol. III, part II, 855–60. For more on Ma see Éva Forgács and Tyrus Miller, “The
Avant-Garde in Budapest and in Exile in Vienna,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural
History of Modernist Magazines, vol. III, part II, 1128–41.
48 Jovanov and Kujundžić, “Yougo-Dada,” in The Eastern Dada Orbit, ed. Janecek
and Omuka, 58. Unfortunately, his collection of letters and Dada ephemera does
not survive. Uzelac, “Visual Arts in the Avant-Gardes between the Two Wars,” in
Impossible Histories, ed. Djurić and Šuvaković, 132.
49 Sascha Bru writes, “Whereas the first and final issues stated that the magazine’s
administration was based in Leiden … the two other issues referred readers to The
Hague.” Sascha Bru, “‘The Will to Style’: The Dutch Contribution to the Avant-
Garde,” The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, vol. III,
part I, 306.
50 For more on De Stijl, see Hubert F. van den Berg, The Import of Nothing: How Dada
Came, Saw, and Vanished in the Low Countries (1915–1929), vol. VII, Crisis and
the Arts: The History of Dada, ed. Stephen C. Foster (New York: G.K. Hall and Co.,
2002), 111–49, and Bru, “The Will to Style,” 296–306.
51 For more on this pseudonym, see Craig Eliason, “‘All the Serious Men Are Sick’:
van Doesburg, Mondrian and Dada,” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the
History of Art 34, no. 1 (2009/2010), 50–2. As van den Berg argues, Dada was not
very popular in Holland after the war. Hubert van den Berg, “Some Reflections on
the Margins of Dada,” in Virgin Microbe, ed. Hopkins and White, 77–9.
52 Van Doesburg to Tzara, n.d. (most likely toward the end of 1921), Dossiers Tzara,
53 van den Berg, The Import of Nothing, 113, and Jane Beckett, “Dada, Van Doesburg
and De Stijl,” Journal of European Studies 9, no. 3 (1979): 9.
54 Beckett, “Dada, Van Doesburg and De Stijl,” 14, 5, 11. Eliason, “All the Serious Men
Are Sick,” 50–1.
55 Theo Van Doesburg to Tristan Tzara, June 6, 1920, Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque
Littéraire Jacques Doucet, TZRC 4084. Mécano identifies Van Doesburg as its visual
arts technician (“mécanicien littéraire”) and Bonset as the literary editor (“gérant
littéraire”). Bru, “The Will to Style,” 306.
56 Theo Van Doesburg to Antony Kok, June 24, 1921, trans. Els Hoek, Theo van
Doesburg (Utrecht: Centraal Museum, 2000), 308. His emphasis.
57 A letter from the summer of 1923 indicates that he planned another issue of
Mécano, but it never appeared. Van Doesburg blames lack of funds, rising costs,
and a slow editor for delays in publishing the magazine. Van Doesburg to Tzara,
n.d., Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, TZRC 4090. The first
three numbers are one folded sheet measuring about 12½ × 19½ in. (32 × 50 cm)
and the final issue is four folded sheets. An average of 200 copies per issue was
printed. Bru, “The Will to Style,” 306, 309.
58 An annual subscription cost 50 marks, 20 francs, and 22 lira. The first three
numbers are one folded sheet measuring about 12½ × 19½ in. (32 × 50 cm) and the
final issue is four folded sheets. Bru, “The Will to Style,” 306–7.
59 One example is a satirical “manifesto” in the first issue, which reflects on the 1922
International Congress of Constructivists and Dadaists. For more on Mécano and
the Bauhaus, see Bru, “The Will to Style,” 308. Van Doesburg did not show Bauhaus
works, however. In fact, he used the journal to critique the religious/romantic
tendencies of the Bauhaus. Bru, “The Will to Style,” 308.
60 Theo Van Doesburg to Antony Kok, November 12, 1920, cited in Hoek, Theo van
Doesburg, 308.
61 Theo Van Doesburg, “Karakteristiek van het Dadaisme,” Mécano 4/5.
62 Beckett, “Dada, Van Doesburg and De Stijl,” 5.
63 van den Berg, “Some Reflections on the Margins of Dada,” in Virgin Microbe, ed.
Hopkins and White, 83.
64 Tristan Tzara, interview with Roger Vitrac, “Tristan Tzara va cultiver ses vices”
(“Tristan Tzara Is Going to Cultivate His Vices”), Le journal du people (April 14,
1923): 135–7, trans. Sanouillet, Dada in Paris, 236. Schwitters also cited it in Merz 4
in July 1923, with the appended title, “L’arriviste Tzara va cultivar ses vices.” Merz 4,
38, 40.
65 I. K. Bonset, “Karakteristiek van het Dadaisme.” Van Doesburg, trans. Claire White,
Dadas on Art, ed. Lucy R. Lippard (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.,
1971), 112. Tzara’s manifesto reads, “order = disorder, ego = non-ego, affirmation
= negation” (“ordre = désordre, moi = non=moi, affirmation=negation”). Tristan
Tzara, “Manifeste Dada 1918,” Dada 3.
194 Dada Magazines
66 Quoted in Beckett, “Dada, Van Doesburg and De Stijl,” 22.

67 I. K. Bonset, “Tot een constructieve dichtkunst,” Mécano no 4–5 (1923): 7, quoted
in van den Berg, “Some Reflections on the Margins of Dada,” in Virgin Microbe, ed.
68 Judging from Tzara’s October 1921 letter to Van Doesburg, Tzara sent all of them.
Tristan Tzara to Theo Van Doesburg, October 4, 1921, Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque
Littéraire Jacques Doucet, TZRC 4088, quoted in Hoek, Theo van Doesburg, 308.
69 Van Doesburg, “The Will to Style” (“Der Wille zum Stil”), trans. Joost Baljeu, Theo
van Doesburg (New York: Macmillan, 1974), 123.
70 Biro, The Dada Cyborg, 136, 139.
71 For more on Constructivist graphic design, see Drucker, The Visible Word, 223–47.
72 Hans Richter, Introduction, “G,” in “Great Little Magazines,” series, ed. Mike
Weaver, Form no. 3 (December 15, 1966), 27.
73 For a discussion of the multiple meanings of Gestaltung, see Mertins and Jennings,
“Introduction,” G: An Avant-Garde Journal of Art, Architecture, Design, and Film,
5–6. The magazine measured approximately 41 × 29 cm (about 16 × 11.5 inches).
The first two issues were four pages long, but subsequent issues were longer. Bury
claims that it brought together Dada, Expressionism, Futurism, Constructivism,
and De De Stijl. Bury, “Not to Adorn Life but to Organize It,” 867.
74 See Mertins and Jennings, “Introduction,” G: An Avant-Garde Journal of Art,
Architecture, Design, and Film, 12.
75 Hans Richter, quoted in Marion von Hofacker, “Introduction,” in G: Material zur
Elementaren Gestaltung, ed. Hans Richter (Munich: Der Kern, 1986), np.
76 A list of other journals, printed in each issue, attests to its participation in an
international network of journals, including Zenit, De Stijl, Mécano, Merz, and Noi.
77 Hans Richter, “Dada and the Film,” in Dada: Monograph of a Movement, ed. Willy
Verkauf (London: Academy Editions; New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975), 39. His
emphasis.
78 The two works by Eggeling in Dada 4–5 are “Basse générale de la peinture:
orchestration de la ligne” (“General Bass of Painting: Orchestration of the
Line”) and “Basse générale de la peinture: extension” (“General Bass of Painting:
Extension”).
79 Hans Richter, Introduction, “G,” “Great Little Magazines,” series, ed. Mike Weaver,
no. 3, Form no. 3 (December 15, 1966), 27.
80 Hans Richter, Dada: Art and Anti-Art (1965), trans. David Britt (London: Thames
& Hudson, 1997), 64.
81 Richter, Dada: Art and Anti-Art, 59.
82 “Heute weiß ich I und mit mir alle anderen Begründer des deutschen Dadaismus,
daß unser einziger Fehler war, die sogenannte Kunst überhaupt ernst genommen
zu haben. Der Dadaism war unser Erwachen aus diesem Selbstbetrug. Wir sahen
die irrsinnigen Endprodukte der herrschenden Gesellschaftsordnung und brachen
in Gelächter aus.”
83 As Mertins and Jennings write that Lissitzky’s design “ensured that a constructivist
visual sensibility inflected every linguistic utterance on the journal’s pages.” Mertins
and Jennings, “Introduction,” G: An Avant-Garde Journal of Art, Architecture,
Design, and Film, 12. For more on the graphic design of G, see Maria Gogh,
“Contains Graphic Material: El Lissitzky and the Topography of G,” G: An Avant-
Garde Journal of Art, Architecture, Design, and Film, 21–51.
84 László Moholy-Nagy, in Staatliches Bauhaus, Weimar, 1919–23, trans. Bauhaus
1919–28, ed. Hebert Bayer, Walter Gropius and Ise Gropius, The Museum of
Modern Art, 1938, quoted in Lewis Blackwell, Twentieth-Century Type (New York:
Rizzoli, 1992), 64.
85 Schwitters, “Dadaismus in Holland,” Merz 1 (January 1923), 7, trans. Dorothea
Dietrich, “Hanover: ‘True Art’ and ‘True Dada,’” The Oxford Critical and Cultural
History of Modernist Magazines: Europe 1880–1940, 967. He was speaking for
himself, Theo and Petro Van Doesburg, and Vilmos Huszár. Merz was published
by Merzverlag, Hanover. For a discussion of Schwitters and his travels to and
relationships with Dadaists in other European cities, see Michael White, “Dada
Migrations: Definition, Dispersal, and the Case of Schwitters,” 54–69.
86 For more on the postwar publishing context out of which Merz emerged, including
the magazines Das Hohe Ufer, Der Zweemann, which published some Dada content
as well as contributions from Schwitters, and, the most Dada of them all, the single-
issue magazine, Der Marstall, which included many Dada texts, see Dorothea
Dietrich, “Hanover: ‘True Art’ and ‘True Dada,’” in Oxford Critical and Cultural
History of Modernist Magazines, vol. II, part II, 947.
87 In his call for contributions in the first issue of Merz, Schwitters declares, “I dedicate
Merz I to Dadaism in Holland.” Dietrich, Oxford, 966.
88 The first four regular issues are Merz 1, 2, 4, and 6. The third and fifth are folios of
lithographs by Schwitters and Arp. After Merz 6, the journal adopted a decidedly
more Constructivist identity.
89 van den Berg, “Some Reflections on the Margins of Dada,” in Virgin Microbe, ed.
90 Ibid., 75.
91 Kurt Schwitters, “Dadaism in Holland,” Merz 1, 5, 7–8, trans. Michael Kane, Dada
Reader, 291–3.
92 Schwitters, “Dadaismus in Holland,” Merz 1 (1923), 5, quoted in van den Berg,
“Some Reflections on the Margins of Dada,” in Virgin Microbe, ed. Hopkins and
White, 76.
93 Dietrich writes that Schwitters brought together “a variety of activities within one
overarching term,” “Merz.” Dietrich, 967.
94 “médecin,” “narcis” [sic], “femmes,” “paysages,” “convalescent”
95 van den Berg, The Import of Nothing, 152.
196 Dada Magazines
96 It is notable that Schwitters did not include collages by Hausmann and Höch,
given his close ties to them. Before Merz 6 came out, Schwitters rejected a collage
by Höch, saying it was “too Dadaist for Merz,” possibly referring to its political
content. It is possible he simply did not want to share the stage with other collagists,
but it may have also wanted to highlight his own collages by ignoring other similar
efforts. Kurt Schwitters to Hannah Höch, September 12, 1923, Hannah Höch: eine
Lebenscollage. Vol. II, 1921–1945, ed. Eberhard Roters, Heinz Ohff, Ralf Burmeister,
Eckhard Fürlus (Berlin: Ostfildern-Ruit: Künstlerarchiv der Berlinischen Galerie:
Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Photographie und Architektur; G. Hatje,
1995), 126–7.
97 El Lissitzky, “Topography and Typography,” in Merz 4, 1923, trans., ed. Henry
Hongmin Kim, Graphic Design Discourse: Evolving Theories, Ideologies, and
Processes of Visual Communication (New York: Princeton Architectural Press), 120.
98 Kurt Schwitters, Merz 2, 17–18, trans. Elderfield, 188.
99 “Weisst du Adressen pour exchange avec autres periodiques?” Schwitters to Tzara,
March 16, 1923, quoted in Schrott, Dada 15/25, 326. Kurt Schwitters to Tristan
Tzara, March 16, 1923, quoted in Dada 15/25, 326. His emphasis.
100 Käte T. Steinitz, Kurt Schwitters: A Portrait from Life (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1968), 18, quoted in Elderfield, Kurt Schwitters, 128.
101 75 HP measures 27.5 × 23.3 cm (about 11 × 9 inches)
102 “Pictopoezia nu e pictura. Pictopoezia nu e poezie. Pictopoezia e Pictopoezie.”
103 “La pictopoésie revivifie tous les courents révélateurs d’art nouveau LA
PICTOPOESIE réalise enfin la vraie synthése [sic] des futurismes dadaismes
constructivismes. Les attitudes plus éloignées se retrouvent universellement
fécondées dans le mouvement pictopoétique … Pictopoèsie triomphe sur tout
enregistre tout realize l’impossible.”
104 75 HP, October 1924, np, quoted in S. A. Mansbach, “The ‘Foreignness’ of
Classical Modern Art in Romania,” The Art Bulletin, 80, no. 3 (September 1998),
542.
105 For more on Bucharest and the art scene there, see Tom Sanqvist, Dada East:
The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006), 340, 357.
Also Irina Livezeanu, “Romania: ‘Windows toward the West’: New Forms and
the ‘Poetry of True Life,’” The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist
Magazines, vol. III, part II, 1157–83.
106 Closer to home, Contimporanul (1922–1932), co-edited by Janco, Ion Venia, and
M. H. Maxy, which set out to support the “Stil Nou” (new style), served as a model
for them as well. Ioana Vlasiu, “Bucharest,” Central European Avant-Gardes, 252.
See also Sanqvist, 345 ff.
107 Voronca and Brauner were very active members of the French avant-garde later.
108 “Notre Groupement compte parmi ses collaborateurs les meilleurs écrivains et
artistes du mouvement moderniste de tout le monde.”
109 “Pour collaborer a [sic] 75 HP il faut: savoir bien danser, uriner sur tout, respecter
ses parents, avoir un certificat de bonne conduite, boire de l’acide sulfurique,
connaître la boxe se décapiter deux fois par semaine.”
110 “Gramatica logical sentmentalismul ca agătătoare de rufe pe frânghi chiamă
inpărătia afişelor luminoase,” trans. Michael H. Impey, “Before and After Tzara:
Romanian Contributions to Dada,” The Eastern Dada Orbit, ed. Janecek and
Omuka, 134.
111 “sinteza,” “simultanism,” “ritm,” “armonie,” “sonor,” and “paralelism,” “abstract,”
“vocabular,” “interstitial,” and “mecanism.”
112 Hans Richter, Dada: Art and Anti-Art (London: Thames and Hudson, 1997), 199.
113 Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, TZRC 4113. “Envoyez
moi SVP la liste d’adresses pour Mécano!”) Theo Van Doesburg to Tristan Tzara,
October 20, 1922, Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, TZRC
4104.
114 The final issue of Mécano reported on Van Doesburg’s Dada tour with Nelly Van
Doesburg, Schwitters, and Huszár as if it had garnered much attention, though
in fact this was not the case. Bru, “The Will to Style,” 309. Theo Van Doesburg to
Tristan Tzara, January 19, 1923, Dossiers Tzara, Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques
Doucet, TZRC 4103. For an analysis of the tour, see van den Berg, “Some
Reflections on the Margins of Dada,” in Virgin Microbe, ed. Hopkins and White,
72–4.
115 Bury, “Not to Adorn Life but to Organize It,” 866. Werner Gräff, “Concerning the
So-Called G Group,” Art Journal 23 (Summer 1964), 282.
116 Schwitters to Tzara, June 20, 1923, quoted in Schrott, ed., Dada 15/25, 330.
117 Kurt Schwitters to Ilarie Voronca and Victor Brauner, quoted in Marina Vanci-
Perahim, “75 HP, La Revue Pictopoétique,” preface to 75 HP (reprint) (Paris:
J.-M. Place, 1993), 7.
198
Epilogue: Magazines to Zines: Echoes of Dada
in 1970s America
The words “dada triumphs,” a reproduction of Man Ray’s photomontage,

“Dadaphoto,” and Francis Picabia’s “Funny Guy” handbill—such contributions
would not be surprising in a Dada magazine. But in fact they appear in a 1973
issue of the NYCS Weekly Breeder, one of many zines published in San Francisco
in the 1970s (Figure E.1). The Bay Area Dadaists—Bill “Picasso” Gaglione, Anna
Banana, Tim Mancusi, Charles Chickadel, Monte Cazazza, Irene Dogmatic, and
Monte Cazazza, among others—gathered in the Bay Area (many coming from
New York) in the late 1960s and early 1970s.1 Besides putting on performances
and staging various pranks, they produced zines—underground, amateur, small-
circulation serials—they dubbed “Dadazines”: NYCS Weekly Breeder (1972–
1973), Dogarithms (1973), West Bay Dadaist (later Quoz?) (1974–1975), Vile
(1974–1977), Punks (1975), and Insult (1979), among others (Figure E.2).2 The
Bay Area Dadaists’ interpretations of Dada were neither studious nor thorough,
but they responded to Dada journals in their content and in their combining
function, exposing cultural, political, social, and artistic similarities between
the early and late twentieth century. These quirky publications speak to Dada’s
ongoing relevance. Among the many ways that Dada has informed the work of
later artists, the magazines fostered print media- and network-based movements
that broke from conventional, object-based notions of art and collectivity.3
The Bay Area Dadaists affiliated with the Fluxus movement that originated
in the 1950s and 1960s and with Mail Art, or postal art, the worldwide collective
linked to Ray Johnson and the New York Correspondence School, which
depends on the postal service to circulate pieces.4 Both groups adopted Dadaists’
strategies, including their engagement with periodicals. Dada was primarily
defined for the Bay Area Dadaists by Fluxus and Mail Art, but enthusiasm for
Dada among members of these groups was not universal.5 Dick Higgins declared,
“I knew several of the old Dadaists, had been raised on their work, and there was
200 Dada Magazines
Figure E.1 The NYCS Weekly Breeder, ed. Tim Mancusi, San Francisco, 1973, The
Bay Area Dadaists, instant print. Museum of Modern Art © Bill Gaglione dadaland.
no doubt in my mind that what we happenings and Fluxus people were doing
had rather little to do with Dada.”6 Performance artist and Fluxus affiliate Allan
Kaprow later explained, “No one said, ‘Oh isn’t it wonderful that you’re a Neo-
Dadaist.’ It was a criticism, not a joyous utterance.”7 Despite such distancing,
Epilogue 201
Figure E.2 The West Bay Dadaist, vol. 1, no. 2, ed. Arthur Cravan (Charles Chickadel),
San Francisco, June 1973, Trinity Press/Foundling Publications, front cover, instant
print, Qwik Print. John Held, Jr. Collection of Mail Art Periodicals, The Museum of
Modern Art Library.
they drew on Dada’s resistance to the art market, manipulation of language,

transnational reach, subversive, sardonic sense of humor, collage techniques,
self-publishing, dependence on the postal system, and emphasis on creating a
transnational network. Others embraced the Dada connection. Johnson went
by “Sugar Dada” and “Dada Daddy.”8 In his declaration, “Mail Art and the New
202 Dada Magazines
Dada,” Mail Artist Klaus Groh declares, “Mail art is Dada art!” and then lists their
similarities, saying that both are “explosive,” “easy to do,” and “for everyone.”9
Fluxus affiliates, too, linked their activities with those of the Dadaists.10 Ben
Vautier credited Dada with the emergence of almost every postwar art trend,
asserting, “Because of Dada everything, anything, everywhere, anywhere, is art/
Before Dada, art was in form, after Dada, art is in attitude.”11
The Bay Area Dadaists were more like this latter group, though their serials’
explicit references to Dada journals are notable. Their “Dadazines” unabashedly
allied themselves with Dada and directly referenced Dada magazines. They
quoted these publications, imitated their understanding of the ethos of Dada,
and adopted Dada strategies, chiefly the integration of past and present. This
tendency is particularly extraordinary in 1970s San Francisco, where various
artists were interested in Dada but resented labels, often assigned by critics who
compared them unfavorably to earlier artists. Although figures such as William
T. Wiley, Clay Spohn, and Bruce Conner called upon Dada predecessors in their
work, they shunned the association. Spohn contended that while Dada wanted
to destroy the power of art he wanted to build it up.12 Conner, who studied under
Max Ernst’s son, Jimmy Ernst, played down his familiarity with Dada, saying
that all he knew about it came from Robert Motherwell’s book, Dada Painters
and Poets (1951, 1967).13
The Bay Area Dadaists, by contrast, embraced and invited association with
Dada, even as they mocked their choice. A handwritten passage in Chickadel’s
The West Bay Dadaist, for example, reads, “Boy are we ever being Dada here.
It was redundant by 1920. What is this? Method teaching in art history?
(Picabia) … ”14 They assumed Dada nicknames: Gaglione was “Dadaland”
(or “Daddaland”), Banana became “Ms. Canadadda,” Mancusi was “Dada
Processing,” and Chickadel took on the name of the proto Dada pugilist poet,
Arthur Cravan. Some of their performances, too, are Dada-inspired. Examples
include Dada sound poetry readings, a production of Tzara’s play, Gas Heart,
strutting in the San Francisco Columbus Day parade wearing huge letters
spelling “Dada,” and “Dada Shave,” held at La Mamelle Center in 1978. For
this event they shaved “Dada” onto their chests (captured in a photo Banana
used on the cover of Vile), a nod to Duchamp’s shaving of a star onto his head
(“Tonsure”) in 1921.15
The Bay Area Dadaists also built on the print culture of their adoptive
city—including the Beats’ literary journal Beatitude (1959–1975), the hippie
newspaper, Oracle of the City of San Francisco (1966–1968), and Berman’s
magazine, Semina (1955–1964). They looked to Fluxus and Mail Art periodicals,
Epilogue 203
which, like the Dadaists before them, recognized periodical production as a

major form of creative expression. File magazine (1972–1989) had the largest
circulation (between 3,000 and 5,000) and was the longest running and best
known.16 Initiated principally by A. A. Bronson in Canada, it was a parody of
Life magazine with a glossy cover disguising low budget, tabloid-like inside
pages. Serial publishing was fundamental to Fluxus. Issues of its longest-running
publication, the newspaper V TRE (later cc V TRE, 1963–1979), edited by George
Brecht and George Maciunas, present pseudo-scientific illustrations, cutouts
from mass media journals and advertisements, arbitrary headlines, event scores,
Fluxus works, and advertisements for (actual and imagined) Fluxus events and
publications. Fluxus serials—along with other examples of underground DIY
publishing and the printed materials of groups such as Black Mask/Up against
the Wall Motherfucker and the Situationist-inspired Point Blank!, edited by
David Jacobs in Berkeley in the early 1970s—encouraged and informed the Bay
Area Dadaists’ zine production.
Dadazines vary in size, length, and content, reflecting the eclecticism of
their editors and contributors. Most are between twenty and forty pages, but
they can be anywhere from two to over a hundred. Some, such as Punks (1975),
measuring only 2¾ × 2¼ inches, are miniscule, whereas others, like Banana’s
Vile, at 14 × 10¾ inches, are much larger. In addition to using instant printing
and photocopying, for a brief period the Bay Area Dadaists employed an offset
printer in Chickadel’s garage, under the name Trinity Press.17 Limited to print
runs of about fifty to three hundred, the Dadazines came out erratically; some
in only single issues.
Like the Dadaists, these 1970s artists used periodicals as a way to assume
the role of critics and to publish their own work. They recognized that they
could use them as a means of exchange, a deviation from the mainstream
and press, and as an oppositional medium providing a space for critical and
artistic dialogue and collaboration. Additionally, they embraced the continued
currency of print media as a spontaneous means of responding to political,
artistic, and cultural concerns. Prompted by the increasingly pervasive and
predatory nature of mass media in the late twentieth century, the zinesters
found self-publishing to be an effective means of critiquing its channels of
production and distribution. Their decision to hijack the zine and circulate
it in an underground and small, if international, sphere manifests their
sense of a rising need to resort to ever-more dissident measures to evade a
media and commercial culture that was devouring and assimilating even the
most fundamental interrogations of the status quo. The zines also offered
204 Dada Magazines
an alternative approach to museum practice at a time when artists were

interrogating conventional exhibition spaces within an ever-expanding and
commercialized artistic community.
Dadazines demonstrate a perception of Dada that is at once ambiguous and
specific. Mancusi’s description of the NYCS Weekly Breeder bears this out. He
claimed that the publication gave him “an opportunity to merge my interests in
Dada and Mail Art with my skills in graphic arts,” adding, “I could draw like an
underground cartoonist, do interesting designs with type and lettering, make
Max Ernst-type collages, all the while poking fun at politics and religion.”18
Encouraged by Dada magazines’ refusal to nail down a system of belief,
Dadazines describe Dada as an attitude, something that coincides with others’
perception of the movement. Bay Area Dadaists’ knowledge of Dada’s history
was not thorough, yet their zines indicate that they recognized parallels between
their time and that of the Dadaists and appreciated the earlier group’s efforts to
confront disillusionment with satire and nonsense. A 1973 issue of the NYCS
Weekly Breeder calls Dada “a savage anarchism, a deliberate program devised to
undermine the moral and social assumptions of existing middle-class society.”19
But more common is the kind of characterization found in Vile, a parody of
Bronson’s parodic File. She identifies her magazine’s “true nature” as being “subtle
put-down of the mass culture with nasty, Dada, ‘up-yours’ type messages.”20 Even
more vague was Mancusi’s claim that he and others were drawn to Dada “not just
as a period of art but as a way of living.”21
The San Francisco group’s imprecise understanding of Dada did not
prevent them from stealing physical, visual, and textual material from Dada
publications. A passage over photographs of contemporary artist Vito Acconci
in an issue of The West Bay Dadaist reads, “Ladies and Gentlemen: I don’t
have to tell you that for the general public and for you, the refined public, a
Dadaist is the equivalent of a leper,” a quotation from Tzara’s 1922 “Lecture on
Dada.”22 A banner on the bottom right-hand corner of the cover identifies it as
a “Special Neo-Merz Issue,” although nothing in the body of the zine refers to
Merz or Schwitters in any way. A page (that Mancusi identified as one of his
favorites) of a 1973 issue of the NYCS Weekly Breeder is particularly notable
(Figure E.1). It includes many excerpts from Dada art journals and related
ephemera, some of them copied from reproductions in Motherwell’s Dada
Painters and Poets. Here we find Man Ray’s photomontage, “Dadaphoto,” as it
appeared in New York Dada. The piece’s lambasting of censorship is repeated
elsewhere on the page by photographs of nude women strategically covered
by black stars. Dominating the top half is a cutout of playboy Dadaist Francis
Epilogue 205
Picabia’s “Funny Guy” handbill (1921) with Mancusi’s name replacing Picabia’s,
so that it is printed seven times amid the illogical French text. A photograph of
the back of a head obscures the original text and visually rhymes with the back
of Dagwood Bumstead’s head in the “Blondie” comic just to the left. Inserted
nonsensically into this collage of a page are the words “dada siegt!” (“Dada
triumphs”), from Der Dada 2’s cover, as well as the cryptic composition from
the Cologne Dadaists’ 1920 catalog exhibition.23
Mixing cutouts from reproductions of Dada art journals with ones from
today’s classifieds, Banana, Gaglione, and their affiliates dialogued with the past
while engaging present-day absurdities. By juxtaposing 1970s magazine and
newspaper clippings with Dada journals published in the 1910s, they stressed
the historical specificity of their own media critique in a way that evokes the
Dadaists’ practice in their journals. Their adoption of collage to mingle these
materials, of course, is yet another way they were indebted to Dada, something
Mancusi and Gaglione highlighted in the 1981 anthology issue of NYCS Weekly
Breeder: “Collage, [sic] itself owes its existence to the early Dadaists, who in the
1920’s [sic]broke through the formal design and composition standards of their
day.”24 This technique enabled their distinctively unschooled response to Dada.
Unlike the many 1970s exhibitions and books on Dada, such as Marcel Duchamp
at the Museum of Modern Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1973 and
Dada and Surrealism Reviewed in London in 1978, the Dadazines de-historicized
Dada, generating disjointed, decontextualized peeps of the past, not a careful,
retrospective account.25 Dada’s own eluding of logic and exact parameters gave
these later artists license to take such liberties.
Even when they did not draw directly from Dada sources, the Bay Area
Dadaists imitated their sense of humor and interactive nature. Dadazines resist
defining Dada, often drolly degrading it, much like Tzara, Huelsenbeck, and
the other earlier Dadaists had. In a 1972 issue of the Dadazine, Weekly Reader
Da-jest, a Dada manifesto by “R. Man” (Mancusi—a play on R. Mutt) is altered
so that the line “Is Dada beginning to speak to you” is replaced with “Dada
utterly useless and only $2.98.”26 The cover of the ninth issue of Banana’s The
Sometimes Monthly Banana Rag (1973–1979) shows a drawing of Jesus, probably
taken from a religious flyer, next to the words “Jesus Christ was the first Dada”
and “Dada is idiotic.”27 Additionally, Dadazine 3 includes blunt, Dada-sounding
appeals to readers, such as “You’ve come to the page worth tearing out” and
“This newspaper isn’t written for everyone.” Such passages force recipients to try
to relate the bizarre and varied materials, a task made even more difficult by the
low quality of the photocopying.
206 Dada Magazines
In making zine pages, Dadazine editors foregrounded their appropriations

by highlighting the glitches in their Dada-inspired processes, generating more
visual noise (see Chapter 2). They photocopied images of journals reproduced
in published sources, cut them out, pasted new words on them, enlarged and
shrunk them, pasted them into place, and copied them again for distribution.
These multiple layers of duplication resulted in fuzzy resolution and cut off
words, and the mediated nature of the zines interferes with easy comprehension
and shifts attention away from content. They flatten Dada, as it were, reducing it
to just another source. The zine medium allowed and encouraged this approach.
Serials allowed the Bay Area Dadaists to link themselves with the former
movement and with their own immediate context.28 They peppered their
zines with Dada content, but rather than trying to revise, reinvent, or return
to Dada, their zines appropriate, excerpt, and fragment the magazines, mixing
various contemporary and historical cultural, religious, and political materials.
These amateur, small-circulation publications were part of a larger surge of
art magazines in the late twentieth century, but their primary inspiration was
Dada magazines, speaking to the ongoing relevance of serials and Dada. Today,
zines continue to circulate, particularly among teens and young adults, despite
the advent of digital publishing, a testament to the continued power of printed
periodicals in an era of ever-growing and ever-more-sophisticated digital
connectedness.
Notes
1 Gaglione, Chickadel, and Steve Caravello worked at Baron’s art supply store in San
Francisco in 1968. Mancusi, Gaglione’s cousin, arrived a year later, followed by
Banana from Victoria, British Columbia, in 1973.
2 The NYCS Weekly Breeder was edited by Tim Mancusi and Steve Caravello, Irene
Dogmatic edited Dogarithms and Insult, Charles Chickadel edited West Bay
Dadaist (later Quoz?), Anna Banana edited Vile, Punks was coedited by the “Bay
Area Daddaists” [sic]. For a definition of a zine, see Stephen Duncombe, Notes
from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture (Bloomington, IN:
Microcosm Publishing, 2008), 6–21.
3 See Allen, Artists’ Magazines.
4 For more on Fluxus serials see Owen Smith, “Developing a Fluxable Forum: Early
Performance and Publishing,” in The Fluxus Reader, ed. Ken Friedman (West
Sussex: Academy Editions, 1998), 12–21; Owen F. Smith, “The Middle Years: The
Development of Fluxus Multiples and Publications from 1965 to 1969,” in Fluxus:
Epilogue 207
The History of an Attitude, ed. Owen F. Smith (San Diego, CA: San Diego State
University Press, 1998), 165–202. For a detailed discussion of many correspondence
art zines, see Michael Crane, “Exhibitions and Publications,” in Correspondence Art:
Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity, ed. Michael Crane
and Mary Stofflet (San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1984), 301–48; “Mail
Art Magazines,” Appendix 5, in Eternal Network: A Mail Art Network, ed. Chuck
Welch (Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 1995), 270–80.
5 Gaglione, Banana, and the others maintained close ties with Fluxus, particularly
through friendships with Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles, as well as California
affiliates Ken Friedman and Jeff Berner. John Held Jr., Bay Area Dada (San
Francisco, New York: Snowman Publications, 1998), np.
6 Dick Higgins, quoted in Craig Saper, Networked Art (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 2001), 164, n. 3.
7 Allan Kaprow, interview with Susan Hapgood, Neo-Dada: Redefining Art, 1958–62
(New York: The American Federation of Arts in association with Universe
Publishing, 1994), 132.
8 Michael Crane, “The Origins of Correspondence Art,” Correspondence Art, 83.
9 Klaus Groh, “Mail Art and the New Dada,” Correspondence Art, 75.
10 In September 1962, Maciunas discussed the renewed interest in Dada among
Fluxus artists in his lecture, “Neo-Dada in Music, Theater, Poetry, Art.” He
described the movement as “what one might call neo-Dada in the United States, or
what in any case we would like to view as such renewed Dadaism.” Hapgood, Neo-
Dada, 27–8.
11 Ben Vautier, quoted in Saper, Networked Art, 164, n. 3.
12 Clay Spohn, interview with Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art,
January–February 1976. http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-
interview-clay-spohn-11671.
13 Kevin Hatch, Looking for Bruce Conner (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012), 73.
Daniel Spoerri explained the art critics’ position: “Dada was originally a strong
movement, and we were just a remake, reheated coffee. That’s what they said. Neo-
Dada was more or less an insult.” Daniel Spoerri, interview with Susan Hapgood,
Neo-Dada, 132.
14 The West Bay Dadaist 2: 8, December 1974, np.
15 Held, The Bay Area Dadaists, np.
16 For more on File, see Allen, “The Magazine as Mirror: File, 1972–1989,” in Artists’
Magazines, 147–74.
17 Bill Gaglione, telephone interview with author, September 2012. Instant print
shops housed customer-friendly small offset presses. In offset printing, ink is
transferred from an inked plate to a cylinder covered with a rubber blanket that
transfers the ink to the paper. By contrast, photocopying (also known as xerography
or electrophotography) is a dry copying technique in which images are produced
208 Dada Magazines
using an electrically charged photoconductor-coated cylindrical drum. See

Handbook on Printing Technology (Offset, Gravure, Flexo, Screen), 2nd edition, ed.
NIIR Board (Delhi: Asia Pacific Business Press Inc, 2011), 2, and “The Big Boom in
Instant Printing,” in Book Production Industry, vol. 44 (June 1968): 67–9.
18 Tim Mancusi, quoted in John Held, Jr., “The Pink Dot Caper,” San Francisco Bay
Guardian (August 12–18, 1998): 34.
19 The New York Correspondence School Weekly Breeder 3:6, Fall 1973, np.
20 Anna Banana, About Vile, Vancouver, 1983, quoted in Held, The Bay Area Dadaists,
np.
21 Tim Mancusi, quoted in “Mail Interview Project by Ruud Janssen—Part 2,” June 17,
1996, 73. Available at https://www.academia.edu/6769512/Mail-Interview_Project_
by_Ruud_Janssen_-_Part_2.
22 West Bay Dadaist 1:2, June 1973, np.
23 The “Funny Guy” handbill and New York Dada were reproduced in Motherwell’s
book. The others most likely derived from related scholarly publications.
24 The New York Correspondence School Weekly Breeder 3, 1981, np.
25 The 1970s witnessed several notable books and exhibitions about the movement,
including Ades, Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, 1978; Tashjian, Skyscraper
Primitives (1975); Lippard, Dadas on Art (1971). Exhibitions included Marcel
Duchamp at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Philadelphia
Museum of Art in 1973 and Dada Artfacts at the University of Iowa Museum of
Art in 1978. Other sources include Dada: réimpression intégrale …, ed. Sanouillet
and Baudouin (1976–1983), The Art Press, ed. Fawcett and Phillpot, from 1976,
Anne d’Harnoncourt and Kynaston McShine, eds., Marcel Duchamp (New York:
The Museum of Modern Art and The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973), and
Camfield, Francis Picabia from 1979.
26 Weekly Reader Da-jest 1:1, November/December 1972, np.
27 The Sometimes Monthly Banana Rag 9, June 1973, cover.
28 Mail Art zine editors also took to the stage, putting on Dada- and Futurist-inspired
performances. For a listing of their performances, see Suzanne Foley, Space, Time,
Sound: Conceptual Art in the San Francisco Bay Area (San Francisco: The San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1981), 173, 175, 179, 183.
Bibliography
Archival sources
Archives of American Art. Dorothea A. Dreier Papers. Joaqin Torres-Garcia Papers,

1921–1974, Washington, DC
Beinecke Library, Yale University Connecticut. Katherine Dreier Papers, New Haven
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre de documentation et de recherche du Musée national
d’art moderne, Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris
Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris. Dossiers Francis Picabia. Dossiers Tristan
Tzara
George Grosz Archives, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
Getty Research Institute. Jean Brown Papers. Yves Poupard-Lieusseau Papers, Los
Angeles
International Dada Archive, Iowa City
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin
Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich
Musée Départemental, Rochechouart. Archives Raoul Hausmann, France
New York Public Library. The Elaine Lustig Cohen Dada Collection, New York
Philadelphia Museum of Art. Alexina and Marcel Duchamp Papers. The Arensberg
Archives, Philadelphia
Spencer Collection, New York Public Library, New York
Published sources
[in addition to Dada and other avant-garde journals discussed throughout the book]
Adamowicz, Elza, Eric Robertson, eds. Dada and Beyond. Amsterdam, New York:
Rodopi, 2011–2012.
Ades, Dawn. “Dada-Constructivism.” In Dada-Constructivism: The Janus Face of the
Twenties. London: Annely Juda Fine Art, 1984.
Ades, Dawn. “Dada and Abstract Art in Zurich, 1915–20.” In Abstraction: Towards a
New Art, Painting 1920–20. London: The Tate Gallery, 1980.
Ades, Dawn. Dada and Surrealism Reviewed. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978.
Ades, Dawn. The Dada Reader: A Critical Anthology. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2006.
210 Bibliography
Ades, Dawn, Alastair Brotchie, eds. Three New York Dadas and the Blind Man: Marcel
Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché, Beatrice Wood. Translated by Chris Allen with
introduction by Dawn Ades. London: Atlas Press, 2013.
Adorno, Theodor. “Words from Abroad.” In Notes on Literature, vol. 1, edited by Rolf
Tiedemann, translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1991.
Allen, Gwen. Artists’ Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art. Cambridge: MIT Press,
2011.
Allen, Roy F. Literary Life in German Expressionism and the Berlin Circles. Göppingen:
Verlag Alfred Kümmerle, 1974.
Altshulter, Bruce. The Avant-Garde in Exhibition: New Art in the 20th Century. New
York: Abrams, 1994.
Altshulter, Bruce. Salon to Biennial, Exhibitions that Made Art History, vol. I. London,
New York: Phaidon, 2008.
Apollinaire, Guillaume. “Le cas de Richard Mutt.” Mercure de France 16, VI (June 16,
1918): 764.
Appignanesi, Lisa. The Cabaret. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Ardis, Ann L., Patrick Collier. Transatlantic Print Culture, 1880–1940: Emerging Media,
Emerging Modernism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Arp, Hans. “Dadaland.” In Arp on Arp: Poems, Essays, Memories, edited by Marcel Jean,
translated by Joachim Neugroschel. New York: Viking Press, 1972.
Avner, Janna, “How the Dirty New Media Movement Informed the First Virtual Art
Galleries.” Locating Technology, Art Practical, February 27, 2018. https://www.
artpractical.com/column/how-the-dirty-new-media-movement-informed-the-first-
virtual-art-galleries/
Bal, Mieke, “On Grouping: The Caravaggio Corner,” Looking In: The Art of Viewing.
Amsterdam: G+B Arts International, 2001, 161–90.
Baljeu, Joost. Theo van Doesburg. New York: Macmillan, 1974.
Ball, Hugo. Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary. 2nd ed. Edited with an introduction by
John Elderfield. Translated by Ann Raimes. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1996.
Banash, David. “From Advertising to the Avant-Garde: Rethinking the Invention of
Collage.” Postmodern Culture 14, no. 2 (January 2004).
Bann, Stephen, ed. The Tradition of Constructivism, The Documents of 20th-Century
Art. New York: The Viking Press, 1974.
Baudrillard, Jean. The System of Objects. Translated by James Benedict. London, New
York: Verso, 1996.
Baumberger, Christa, Nicola Behrmann, eds. Emmy Hennings Dada. Zurich:
Scheidegger & Spiess, 2015.
Beals, Kurt. “Dada: Art and the Discourse of Advertising.” New German Critique 44, no.
2 (2017): 45–50.
Beals, Kurt. “Redefining Dada: The Avant-Garde Movement as Network,” presented at
the 2016 Conference of the German Studies Association.
Bibliography 211
Beckett, Jane. “Dada, Van Doesburg and De Stijl.” Journal of European Studies 9, parts
1/2, no. 33/34 (1979): 1–25.
Béhar, Henri, ed. Tristan Tzara: Œuvres Complètes, Tome I (1912–1924). Paris:
Flammarion, 1975.
Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project, translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin
McLaughlin. Cambridge, MA and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard
University, 1999.
Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” In
Illuminations, translated by Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken, 1968.
Benson, Timothy O., ed. Central European Avant-Gardes: Exchange and Transformation,
1910–1930. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, Los Angeles County Museum
of Art, 2002.
Benson, Timothy O. Raoul Hausmann and Berlin Dada. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research
Press, 1987.
Benson, Timothy O., Éva Forgács, eds. Between Worlds: A Sourcebook of Central
European Avant-Gardes, 1910–1930, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.
Berghaus, Günter. “Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism: Some Cross-Fertilizations among
the Historical Avant-Garde.” In International Futurism in Arts and Literature. Berlin
and New York: De Gruyter, 2000.
Bergius, Hanne. Dada Triumphs! Dada Berlin, 1917–1923: Artistry of Polarities:
Montages, Metamechanics, Manifestations. Farmington Hills, MI: New Haven, CT:
G.K. Hall, 2003.
Berns, Andreas, New York Dada Magazines, 1915–1921. Forschungsschwerpunkt
Massenmedien und Kommunikation an der Universitätsgesamthochschule des
Saarlandes: Siegen 1986.
Biro, Matthew. The Dada Cyborg: Visions of the New Human in Weimar Berlin.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Blackwell, Lewis. Twentieth-Century Type. New York: Rizzoli, 1992.
Bochner, Jay. “Dadamags.” In Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York. New York:
Whitney Museum of Art, 1996.
Bohan, Ruth L. The Société Anonyme’s Brooklyn Exhibition: Katherine Dreier and
Modernism in America. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1982.
Bohn, Willard. “The Abstract Vision of Marius de Zayas.” The Art Bulletin 42, no. 3
(September 1980): 434–52.
Bolliger, Hans. Dada in Zürich. Zurich: Kunsthaus Zurich, 1985.
Braddock, Jeremy. Collecting as Modernist Practice (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2012), 16.
Brooker, Peter, Andrew Thacker, eds. The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of
Modernist Magazines, vol. I: Britain and Ireland 1880–1955. Edited by Peter Brooker
and Andrew Thacker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
212 Bibliography
Brooker, Peter, Andrew Thacker, eds. The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of
Modernist Magazines, vol. II: North America 1894–1960, ed. Peter Brooker and
Andrew Thacker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Brooker, Peter, Sascha Bru, Andrew Thacker, and Christian Weikop, eds. The Oxford
Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, vol. III: Europe 1880–1940.
Edited by Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Browning, Gordon Frederick. Tristan Tzara: The Genesis of the Dada Poem or from
Dada to Aa. Stuttgart: Akademischer Verlag Heinz, 1979.
Bru, Sascha, ed. Regarding the Popular: Modernism, the Avant-garde, and High and Low
Culture (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2012).
Bruenig, Leroy. “From Dada to Cubism: Apollinaire’s ‘Arbre.’” In About French Poetry
from Dada to “Tel Quel,” edited by Mary Ann Caws. Detroit: Wayne State University
Press, 1974.
Brühl, Georg. Herwarth Walden und Der Sturm. Cologne: DuMont, 1983.
Bulson, Eric, Little Magazine, World Form. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017.
Burmeister, Ralf, Eckhard Fürlus, ed. Hannah Höch: eine Lebenscollage. Berlin: Verlag
Gerd Hatje, Künstlerarchive der Berlinishcen Galerie Landesmuseum für Moderne
Kunst, Photographie und Architecktur, 1995.
Burmeister, Ralf, Michaela Oberhofre, Esther Tisa Francini, eds. Dada Africa: Dialogue
with the Other. Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2016.
Bury, Stephen, ed. Breaking the Rules: The Printed Face of the European Avant Garde
1900–1937. London: British Library, 2007.
Busi, Frederick. “Dada and the ‘Trial’ of Maurice Barrès.” Boston University Journal 23,
no. 2 (1975): 63–71.
Camfield, William A. Francis Picabia: His Art, Life, and Times. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1979.
Camfield, William A. Max Ernst: Dada and the Dawn of Surrealism. Munich: Prestel-
Verlag; Houston: The Menil Collection, 1993.
Camfield, William A. Marcel Duchamp: Fountain. Houston: The Menil Collection,
Houston Fine Arts Press, 1989.
Caws, Mary Ann, ed. Manifesto: A Century of Isms. Lincoln and London: University of
Nebraska Press, 2001.
Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics: The Basics. London/New York: Routledge, 2002.
Churchill, Suzanne W., Adam McKible, eds. Little Magazines and Modernism: New
Approaches. Burlington: Ashgate, 2007.
Clarke, Graham, ed. The Portrait in Photography. London: Reaktion, 1992.
Clayton, Tara. “Man Ray, Reproduction, and Semiotic Slippage: Shaping the
Transatlantic Avant-Garde,” Masters thesis, New York University, 2016.
Cole, Lori. Surveying the Avant-Garde: Questions on Modernism, Art, and the Americas
in Transatlantic Magazines. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2018.
Crane, Michael, Mary Stofflet, eds. Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of
International Postal Art Activity. San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press, 1984.
Bibliography 213
Crimp, Douglas. “On the Museum’s Ruins.” In The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern
Culture, edited by Hal Foster. Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1983, 46–56.
Crispolti, Enrico. “Dada a Roma: Contributo alla partecipazione italiana al Dadaismo.”
Palatino: Rivista Romana di Cultura 1, nos 3–4 (July–December 1966): 241–58.
Dachy, Marc. Dada: The Revolt of Art. New York: Abrams, 2006.
“Dada and Modernist Magazines” (http://www.dada-companion.com/journals/), the
University of Iowa’s International Dada Archive (http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/
collection.html)
“The Dadas,” New York Times, March 30, 1919.
de Pisis, Filippo. Futurismo, Dadaismo, Metafisica. Milan: Libri Scheiwiller, 1981.
De Zayas, Marius. How, When, and Why Modern Art Came to New York. Edited by
Francis M. Naumann. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.
Demos, T.J. “Circulations: In and around Zurich Dada,” October 105 (Summer 2003):
147–58.
d’Harnoncourt, Anne, Kynaston McShine, eds. Marcel Duchamp. New York: The
Museum of Modern Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973.
Dickerman, Leah, ed. “Dada Gambits,” “Dada: A Special Issue,” October 105 (Summer
2003): 3–12.
Dickerman, Leah. The Dada Seminars. Washington, DC: Center for Advanced Study in
the Visual Arts, the National Gallery of Art, 2005.
Dickerman, Leah. Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris,
Washington, DC and New York: National Gallery of Art in association with
Distributed Art Publishers, 2005.
“Dirty New Media Art” Chicago Art Magazine, October 25, 2011. http://
chicagoartmagazine.com/2011/10/dirty-new-media-art2/
Doherty. “The Work of Art and the Problem of Politics in Berlin Dada,” October 105
(Summer 2003): 73–92.
Drucker, Johanna, The Visible Word: Experimental Typography and Modern Art,
1909–1923. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Duchamp, Marcel. Affectionately, Marcel: The Selected Correspondence of Marcel
Duchamp. Edited by Francis M. Naumann and Hector Obalk. Translated by Jill
Taylor. Ghent, Amsterdam: Ludion Press, 2000.
Duchamp, Marcel. Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp. Interview with Pierre Cabanne.
Translated by Ron Padgett. London: De Capo Press, 1979.
Duncombe, Stephen. Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative
Culture. Bloomington, IN: Microcosm Publishing, 2008.
Elderfield, John. “On the Dada-Constructivist Axis.” Dada/Surrealism 13 (1984): 5–16.
Elderfield, John. Kurt Schwitters. London: Thames and Hudson, 1985.
Eliason, Craig. “‘All the Serious Men Are Sick’: van Doesburg, Mondrian and Dada,”
Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 34, no. 1 (2009/2010): 50–2.
Erickson, John D. Dada: Performance, Poetry, and Art (Boston: Twayne Publishers,
1984).
214 Bibliography
Fawcett, Trevor, Clive Phillpot, eds. The Art Press: Two Centuries of Art Magazines: Essays
Published for the Art Libraries Society on the Occasion of the International Conference
on Art Periodicals and the Exhibition, the Art Press at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London. Art Documents. No. 1. London: The Art Book Company, 1976.
Flint, F. S. “The Younger French Poets: The Dada Movement.” The Chapbook (A Monthly
Miscellany) 2, no. 17 (November 1920).
Florman, Lisa Carol. Myth and Metamorphosis: Picasso’s Classical Prints of the 1930s.
Foley, Suzanne. Space, Time, Sound: Conceptual Art in the San Francisco Bay Area (San
Francisco: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1981).
Foster, Hal. “Close Up: A Rrose in Berlin,” Artforum 49, no. 8 (April 2011).
Foster, Stephen C., ed. Dada: The Coordinates of Cultural Politics. New York: G.K. Hall;
London: Prentice Hall International, 1996.
Foster, Stephen C., ed. Dada/Dimensions. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1985.
Foster, Stephen C., Rudolf E. Kuenzli, eds. Dada Spectrum: The Dialectics of Revolt.
Madison: Coda Press; Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1979.
Franks, Pamela, ed. The Tiger’s Eye: The Art of a Magazine. New Haven: Yale University
Art Gallery: Distributed by Yale University Press, 2002.
Freeman, Judi. The Dada & Surrealist Word-Image. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County
Museum of Art and Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.
Friedman, Ken, ed. The Fluxus Reader. West Sussex: Academy Editions, 1998.
Füllner, Karin. Richard Huelsenbeck: Texte und Aktionen eines Dadaisten. Carl Winter
Universitatsverlag: Heidelberg, 1983.
Gammel, Irene. Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity: A Cultural
Biography. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 2003.
Gaughan, Martin Ignatius, ed. Dada New York: New World for Old, vol. VIII, Crisis and
the Arts: The History of Dada. Edited by Stephen C. Foster. New Haven: G.K. Hall,
2003.
Gibson, Ann E. Issues in Abstract Expressionism: The Artist-Run Periodicals. Ann Arbor,
MI: UMI Research Press, 1990.
Goodyear, Anne Collins, James W. McManus, eds. aka Marcel Duchamp: Meditations on
the Identities of an Artist. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press,
2014.
Gräff, Werner. “Concerning the So-Called G Group.” Art Journal 23 (Summer 1964):
280–2.
Gross, Jennifer R., Ruth L. Bohan, eds. The Société Anonyme, Modernism for America.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Guilbeaux, Henri. “L’art de demain,” La Guerre Mondiale 6, no. 580 (July 18, 1916):
4634.
Hage, Emily. “Bay Area Dadazines and Punk Zines in 1970s San Francisco: Interactive,
Ephemeral, Live,” American Periodicals 27, no. 2 (2017): 180–205.
Bibliography 215
Hage, Emily. “A ‘Living Magazine:’ Hugo Ball’s Cabaret Voltaire,” Germanic Review 91,
no. 2 (Fall 2016): 395–414.
Hage, Emily. “The Magazine as Strategy: Tristan Tzara’s Dada and the Seminal Role of
Dada Art Journals in the Dada Movement,” The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies
2, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2011): 33–53.
Hammill, Faye, Mark Hussey. Modernism’s Print Cultures. London and New York:
Bloomsbury, 2016.
Hancock, Jane, Stefanie Poley. Arp. New York: Press Syndicate of the University of
Cambridge, 1987.
Handbook on Printing Technology (Offset, Gravure, Flexo, Screen), 2nd edition. Edited by
NIIR Board. Delhi: Asia Pacific Business Press Inc., 2011.
Hanson, Anne Coffin. Severini futurista: 1912–1917. New Haven: Yale University Art
Gallery, 1995.
Hapgood, Susan. Neo-Dada: Redefining Art, 1958–62. New York: The American
Federation of Arts in association with Universe Publishing, 1994.
Harding, James M. Cutting Performances: Collage Events, Feminist Artists, and the
American Avant-Garde. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2010.
Hartley, Marsden. “The Importance of Being ‘Dada.’” In Marsden Hartley, Adventures
in the Arts: Informal Chapters on Painters Vaudeville and Poets. New York: Boni and
Liveright, 1921.
Haskell, Barbara. Joseph Stella. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, Harry N.
Abrams, Inc, 1994.
Hatch, Kevin. Looking for Bruce Conner. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.
Haxthausen, Charles W. “Bloody Serious: Two Texts by Carl Einstein.” October 105
(Summer 2003), 117–18.
Held, John, Jr. Bay Area Dada. San Francisco, New York: Snowman Publications, 1998.
Held, John, Jr. “The Pink Dot Caper,” San Francisco Bay Guardian 32 (August 12–18,
1998): 34.
Hemus, Ruth. Dada’s Women. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.
Hentea, Marius. “Federating the Modern Spirit: The 1922 Congress of Paris,” PMLA
130, no. 1 (January 2015), 37–53.
Hentea, Marius. TaTa Dada: The Real Life and Celestial Adventures of Tristan Tzara.
Herbert, Robert L., Eleanor S. Apter, and Elise K. Kenney, eds. The Société Anonyme
and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 1984.
Hoek, Els, ed. Theo van Doesburg. Utrecht: Centraal Museum, 2000.
Hopkins, David. A Companion to Dada and Surrealism. Chichester, West Sussex,
Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016.
Hopkins, David. Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
216 Bibliography
Hopkins, David. Dada’s Boys: Masculinity after Duchamp, New Haven and London: Yale
Hopkins, David. “Selling Dada: New York Dada and Its Dialogue with the European
Avant-Garde.” In Regarding the Popular: Modernism, the Avant-Garde and High and
Low Culture, edited by Sascha Bru et al. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2011.
Hopkins, David, Michael White, eds., Virgin Microbe: Essays on Dada. Evanston:
Northwestern University Press, 2014.
Howard, Michael, Debbie Lewer, A New Order: An Evening at the Cabaret Voltaire.
Manchester: The Manchester Metropolitan University, 1996.
Huelsenbeck, Richard. En Avant Dada: A History of the Dada Movement, 1920.
Hamburg: Edition Nautilus, 1984.
Huelsenbeck, Richard. The Dada Almanac. Edited by Malcolm Green. Translated by
Derk Wynand. London: Atlas Press, 1993.
Huelsenbeck, Richard. “Dada Lives.” Transition 25 (Fall 1916): 77–8.
Huyssen, Andreas. After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture and
Postmodernism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
“Intolerance at Zurich,” New York Times, June 8, 1919.
Jakobson, Roman. “Dada.” In Language in Literature, edited by Krustyna Pomorska
and Stephen Rudy. Cambridge, MA and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 1987, 34–40.
Janecek, Gerald, Toshiharu Omuka, eds. The Eastern Dada Orbit: Russia, Georgia,
Ukraine, Central Europe and Japan, Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada. Edited
by Stephen Foster, vol. IV. New York: G.K. Hall and Co., 1998.
Jenison, Madge. “Sunwise Turn: A Human Comedy of Bookselling” (New York, 1923),
in Ars Libri, “Twentieth Century Avant-Garde, Rare Books and Documents,” catalog
137. Boston: Ars Libri Ltd, 2006.
Jones, Amelia. “Equivocal Masculinity: New York Dada in the Context of World War I.”
Art History 25 no. 2 (April 2002): 162–205.
Jones, Amelia. Irrational Modernism: A Neurasthenic History of New York Dada.
Jones, Amelia. Postmodernism and the En-gendering of Marcel Duchamp. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Kane, Carolyn L., Cory Arcangel, Jon Satrom, Rosa Menkman, Team Doyobi, and
Andrew Benson, “Exhaustion Aesthetics,” Leonardo 50, no. 1 (2017): 5–11.
Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society. New York,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Kimmelman, Michael. “‘Dada’ at MoMA: The Moment When Artists Took over the
Asylum,” The New York Times, June 16, 2006.
Kittler, Freidrich. Discourse Networks 1800/1900. Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1990.
Klonk, Charlotte. Spaces of Experience: Art Gallery Interiors from 1800 to 2000. New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.
Bibliography 217
Kriebel, Sabine T. Revolutionary Beauty: The Radical Photomontages of John Heartfield.

Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.
Kuenzli, Rudolf E., ed. Dada. London and New York: Phaidon Press Ltd, 2006.
Kuenzli, Rudolf E. New York Dada. New York: Willis Locker and Owens, 1986.
Latham, Sean, Robert Scholes, “The Rise of Periodical Studies,” PMLA 121, no. 2 (2006):
517–31.
Latour, Bruno. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Latour, Bruno. “On Technical Mediation: Philosophy, Sociology, Genealogy.” Common
Knowledge III, no. 2 (Fall 1994): 29–64.
Leavens, Ileana B. From “291” to Zurich: The Birth of Dada. Studies in the Fine Arts: The
Avant-Garde, No. 39. Edited by Stephen C. Foster. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research
Press, 1983.
Le Bon, Laurent, ed. Dada. Paris: Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2005.
Lippard, Lucy R., ed. Dadas on Art. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1971.
Lista, Giovanni. “Encore sur Tzara et le futurisme.” Les Lettres Nouvelles 5 (December
1974): 114–49.
Lista, Giovanni. “Tristan Tzara et le Dadaïsme italien.” Europe 53 no. 555–6 (July–
August 1975): 173–91.
Lista, Giovanni, Arturo Schwarz, Rosella Siligato, eds. Dada: l’arte della negazione.
Rome: De Luca, 1994.
“Little Magazines & Modernism. A Select Bibliography,” site maintained by Suzanne W.
Churchill, Associate Professor of English, and hosted by Davidson College; Dada
Companion (http://www.dada-companion.com/journals/).
Malraux, André. Museum without Walls. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc.,
1967.
Man Ray. Self-Portrait. Boston: Little Brown, 1963.
Mancusi, Tim, Ruud Janssen. “Mail Interview Project by Ruud Janssen—Part 2,” June
17, 1996. https://www.academia.edu/6769512/Mail-Interview_Project_by_Ruud_
Janssen_-_Part_2.
Mansbach, S. A. “The ‘Foreignness’ of Classical Modern Art in Romania.” The Art
Bulletin, 80, no. 3 (September 1998): 534–54.
Marcus, Greil, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge,
MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1990.
Marquardt, Virginia Hagelstein, ed. Art and Journals on the Political Front, 1910–1940.
Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997.
McEvilley, Thomas. Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. Santa
Monica: Lapis Press, 1986.
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, MA and
London: MIT Press, 1994.
Melzer, Annabelle. Latest Rage the Big Drum: Dada and Surrealist Performance. Ann
Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1980.
218 Bibliography
Mertins, Detlef, Michael W. Jennings, eds. G: An Avant-Garde Journal of Art,

Architecture, Design, and Film, 1923–1926. Translated by Steven Lindberg with
Margareta Ingrid Christian. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2010.
Meyer, Raimund. Dada Global. Zurich: Limmat Verlag, 1994.
Monoskop, “Avant-Garde and Modernist Magazines,” https://monoskop.org/Avant-
garde_and_modernist_magazines
Morrisson, Mark S. The Public Face of Modernism: Little Magazines, Audiences, and
Reception, 1905–1920. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2001, 5.
Motherwell, Robert, ed. The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology, Boston: G.K. Hall,
1981 [1951, 1967].
Mundy, Jennifer, ed. Man Ray: Writings on Art. Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research
Institute, 2015.
Murphy, J. Stephen. “Introduction: Visualizing Periodical Networks.” Journal of Modern
Periodical Studies 5, no. 1 (2014): iii–xv.
Naumann, Francis M., ed. Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York. New York:
Whitney Museum of American Art and Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996.
Naumann, Francis M. New York Dada, 1915–1923. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994.
Naumann, Francis M. “The New York Dada Movement: Better Late Than Never.” Arts
Magazine 54, no. 6 (February 1980): 143–9.
“New York Dada Review Appears in New York,” The New York Herald, April 24, 1921,
sec. III, p. 11.
Niebisch, Arndt. Media Parasites in the Early Avant-Garde: On the Abuse of Technology
and Communication. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Noordegraaf, Julia. Strategies of Display: Museum Presentation in Nineteenth-and
Twentieth-Century Visual Culture. Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen:
NAi Publishers, 2004.
“Nothing Is Here: Dada Is Its Name: Extremist Philosophy, Imported with Cubistic
Paintings, Is Negation of Everything in World.” American Art News, April 2, 1921.
O’Doherty, Brian, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. Santa
Monica and San Francisco: The Lapis Press, 1986.
Packer, Randall, “Glitch Expectations: A Conversation with Jon Cates,” Hyperallergic,
June 25, 2014. https://hyperallergic.com/134709/glitch-expectations-a-conversation-
with-jon-cates/
Patterson, Cynthia Lee, Art for the Middle Classes: America’s Illustrated Magazines of the
1840s. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2010.
Peterson, Elmer, ed. Paris Dada: The Barbarians Storm the Gates, vol. VI, Crisis and the
Arts: The History of Dada. Edited by Stephen C. Foster. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale
Group, Inc., 2001.
Peterson, Elmer. Tristan Tzara: Dada and Surrational Theorist. New Brunswick: Rutgers
Peterson, Elmer. Z [reprint with notes]. Colorado Springs: The Colorado College, 1972,
1977.
Bibliography 219
Pichon, Brigitte, Karl Riha Foster, eds. A Clown’s Game for Nothing: Dada Zurich, vol.
II, Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada. Edited by Stephen C. Foster, New York:
G.K. Hall and Co., 1996.
Pindell, Howardena, “Alternative Space: Artists’ Periodicals,” Print Collectors Newsletter
4 (September–October 1977).
Poggi, Christine. “Lacerba: Interventionist Art and Politics in Pre-World War I Italy.”
In Art and Journals on the Political Front, 1910–1940, edited by Virginia Hagelstein
Marquardt. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1997.
Puts, Henk, Yve-Alain Bois, S.O. Chan-Magomedov, Kai-Uwe Hemken, Jean Leering,
and M.A. Nemirovskaya. El Lissitzky, 1890–1941: Architect, Painter, Photographer,
Typographer (Eindhoven: Municipal Van Abbemuseum; New York: Thames and
Hudson, 1990).
Rabaté, Jean-Michel. 1922: Literature, Culture, Politics. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2015.
Rasula, Jed. Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth
Century. New York: Basic Books, 2015.
Reaves, Wendy Wick. Celebrity Caricature in America. New Haven and London:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in association with Yale University
Press, 1998.
Richter, Hans. Dada 1916–1966. Documents of the International Dada Movement.
Munich: Goethe-Institut zur Pflege Deutscher Sprache und Kultur im Ausland e.V.,
München, 1966.
Richter, Hans. Dada: Art and Anti-Art. Translated by David Britt. New York, Abrams, 1966.
Richter, Hans. Introduction, “G.” In “Great Little Magazines,” series, edited by Mike
Weaver. Form no. 3 (December 15, 1966).
Ring, Nancy. “New York Dada and the Crisis of Masculinity: Man Ray, Francis Picabia,
and Marcel Duchamp in the United States, 1913–1921.” Ann Arbor, MI: UMI
Dissertation Services, 1993.
Roters, Eberhard, Heinz Ohff, Ralf Burmeister, Eckhard Fürlus, ed. Hannah Höch:
eine Lebenscollage. Band II, 1921–1945. Berlin: Ostfildern-Ruit: Künstlerarchiv
der Berlinischen Galerie: Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Photographie und
Architektur; G. Hatje, 1995.
Rothschild, Deborah Menaker, Ellen Lupton, Darra Goldstein, eds. Graphic Design in
the Mechanical Age: Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection. New Haven:
Yale University Press in conjunction with Williams College Museum of Art and
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 1998.
Sandqvist, Tom. Dada East: The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 2006.
Sanouillet, Michel, ed. 391; revue publiée de 1917 à 1924 par Francis Picabia. Paris: Le
Terrain Vague, 1960–1966.
Sanouillet, Michel. Francis Picabia et 391. Paris: E. Losfeld, 1966.
220 Bibliography
Sanouillet, Michel. Dada in Paris, revised and expanded by Anne Sanouillet, first
English-language edition, translated by Sharmila Ganguly. Cambridge, MA and
London: MIT Press, 2009.
Sanouillet, Michel, Dominique Baudouin, eds. Dada: réimpression intégrale et dossier
critique de la revue publiée de 1917 à 1922 par Tristan Tzara II. Nice: Centre du XXe
siècle, 1976–1983.
Saper, Craig. Networked Art. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
Sawelson-Gorse, Naomi, eds. Women in Dada: Essays on Sex, Gender, and Identity.
Scanlon, Jennifer. Inarticulate Longings: The Ladies Home Journal, Gender, and the
Promises of Consumer Culture. New York and London: Routledge, 1995.
Schaub, Gerhard, Ernst Teubner, eds. Sämtliche Werke und Briefe/Hugo Ball. Göttingen:
Wallstein, 2003.
Scholes, Robert, Clifford Wulfman, Modernism in the Magazines: An Introduction. New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010.
Schrott, Raoul, ed. Dada 15/25: Dokumentation und chronologischer Überblick zu Tzara
& Co. Neuauflage. Cologne: DuMont Verlag, 2005.
Schwarz, Arturo. Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination. London: Thames and Hudson,
1977.
Seita, Sophie, “The Blind Man Sees the Fountain: New York Dada Magazines in 1917;
An Introduction.” In The Blind Man. Brooklyn: Ugly Duckling Press, 2017.
Senelick, Laurence, ed. Cabaret Performance, vol. I: Europe 1890–1920: Sketches, Songs,
Monologues, Memoirs. New York: PAJ Publications, 1988.
Sheppard, Richard W. Modernism-Dada-Postmodernism. Evanston, IL: Northwestern
Sheppard, Richard W. Zürich—Dadaco—Dadaglobe: The Correspondence between
Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara and Kurt Wolff (1916–1924). Fife, Scotland:
Hutten Press, 1982.
Sheppard, Richard W., ed. New Studies in Dada: Essays and Documents, Driffield:
Hutton Press, 1981.
Shipe, Timothy. “Dada Periodicals at Iowa.” Books at Iowa 46 (April 1987): 37–58.
Short, Robert. Dada and Surrealism. New York: Mayflower Books, 1980.
Siligato, Rossella, ed. Prampolini Carteggio, 1916–1956. Rome: Edizioni Carte segrete,
1992.
Simmons, Sherwin. “Advertising Seizes Control of Life: Berlin Dada and the Power of
Advertising.” Oxford Art Journal 22, no. 1 (1999): 119–46.
Smith, Owen F. Fluxus: The History of an Attitude. San Diego, CA: San Diego State
Société Anonyme Inc. (Museum of Modern Art) Report, 1920–1921. New York, 1920–
1921.
Bibliography 221
Spies, Werner. Max Ernst Collages: The Invention of the Surrealist Universe. Translated by
John William Gabriel. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1991.
Spies, Werner. Max Ernst Werke 1906–1925. Houston: Menil Foundation and Cologne:
Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg, 1975.
Spohn, Clay. Interview with Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art,
January–February 1976. http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-
interview-clay-spohn-11671
Stark, Trevor, “Complexio Oppositorum: Hugo Ball and Carl Schmitt,” October 146 (Fall
2013): 47.
Steinberg, Leo. “Reflections on the State of Criticism,” Artforum 10, no. 7 (March 1972):
37–49.
Steinitz, Käte T. Kurt Schwitters: A Portrait from Life. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1968.
Stephen C. Foster, Richard Sheppard, and Rudolf E. Kuenzli University of Iowa Museum
of Art, Dada Artifacts. Iowa City: University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1978.
Stokes, Charlotte, Stephen C. Foster, eds. Dada Cologne Hanover, Crisis and the Arts:
The History of Dada. Edited by Stephen C. Foster, vol. III. New York: G.K. Hall &
Company, 1997.
Subotić, Irina. “Avant-Garde Tendencies in Yugoslavia.” Art Journal 19 (Spring 1990):
21–7.
Sudhalter, Adrian, ed. Dadaglobe Reconstructed. Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2016.
Sumner, David E. The Magazine Century: American Magazines since 1900. New York:
Peter Lang Publishing, 2010.
Tashjian, Dickran, Skyscraper Primitives: Dada and the American Avant-Garde, 1910–
1925. Middletown, CN: Wesleyan University Press, 1975.
Taylor, Michael R. “Blind Man’s Bluff: Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain and the Reception of
the Readymades, 1913–1968.” Ph.D. diss., Courtauld Institute of Art, University of
London, 1998.
Tomkins, Calvin. Duchamp: A Biography. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996.
Turvey, Malcolm. “Dada between Heaven and Hell: Abstraction and Universal
Language in the Rhythm Films of Hans Richter.” October 105 (Summer 2003):
13–36.
Tzara, Tristan. Chanson Dada: Tristan Tzara Selected Poems. Edited and translated by
Lee Harwood. Toronto: Coach House Underwhich Editions, 1987.
Tzara, Tristan. “Chronique Zurichoise.” In Œuvres Complètes, edited by Henri Béhar
(1912–1924). Paris: Flammarion, 1975–1982.
Tzara, Tristan. “News of the Seven Arts in Europe,” Vanity Fair (November 1922): 88.
The other articles were “Some Memoirs of Dadaism” (July 1922): 70, 92, 94, and
“What We Are Doing in Europe” (September 1922): 68, 100.
Umland, Anne, Catherine Hug, eds. Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our
Thoughts Can Change Direction. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2016.
222 Bibliography
Umland, Anne, Adrian Sudhalter with Scott Gerson, Dada in the Collection of the
Museum of Modern Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2008.
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Dada Artifacts. Iowa City: University of Iowa
Museum of Art, 1978.
Uzelac, Sonja Briski. “Visual Arts in the Avant-Gardes between the Two Wars.” In
Impossible Histories: Historical Avant-Gardes, Neo-Avant-Gardes, and Post-Avant-
Gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918–1991, edited by Dubravka Djurić and Miško Šuvaković.
Van Doesburg, Theo, “Qu’est-ce que Dada?” Edited by Marc Dachy. Paris: L’Echoppe, 1992.
Van den Berg, Hubert F., ed. The Import of Nothing: How Dada Came, Saw, and
Vanished in the Low Countries (1915–1929), vol. VII, Crisis and the Arts: The History
of Dada. Edited by Stephen C. Foster. New York: G. K. Hall and Co., 2002.
Vanci-Perahim, Marina. “75 HP, La Revue Pictopoétique,” preface to 75 HP (reprint).
Paris: J. M. Place, 1993.
Verkauf, Willy. Dada: Monograph of a Movement. London: Academy Editions; New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975.
Von Asten, Astrid, Sylvie Kyeck, Adrian Notz, eds. Genesis Dada: 100 Years of Dada
Zurich, translated by Michael Wolfson. Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2016.
Watts, Harriett, ed. Dada and the Press, vol. IX, Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada.
Edited by Stephen C. Foster. Farmington Hills, MI: G.K. Hall, 2004.
Weinstein, Katherine, “Subversive Women: Female Performing Artists in Zurich Dada”
(Ph.D. diss., Tufts University, 2001).
Weisenfeld, Gennifer. Mavo: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905–1931. Berkeley,
Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2002.
Weisenfeld, Gennifer. “Mavo’s Conscious Constructivism: Art, Individualism, and Daily
Life in Interwar Japan,” Art Journal 55, no. 3, 1996: 64–73.
Welch, Chuck, ed. Eternal Network: A Mail Art Network. Calgary, AB: University of
Calgary Press, 1995.
“What Is Dadaism?” New York Tribune, July 9, 1918.
White, Eric B., Transatlantic Avant-Gardes: Little Magazines and Localist Modernism.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.
White, Michael. “Johannes Baader’s Plasto-Dio-Dada-Drama: The Mysticism of the
Mass Media.” Modernism/Modernity 8, no. 4 (November 2001): 583–602.
Willet, John. Art and Politics in the Weimar Period: The New Sobriety, 1917–1933. New
York: Pantheon Books, 1978.
Wood, Beatrice. I Shock Myself: The Autobiography of Beatrice Wood. Edited by Lindsay
Smith. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1988.
Wünsche, Isabel. “Exile, the Avant-Garde, and Dada: Women Artists Active in
Switzerland during the First World War.” In Marianne Werefkin and the Women
Artists in Her Circle, edited by Tanja Malycheva and Isabel Wünsche. Leiden and
Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2017, vol. 3, Avant-Garde Critical Studies, edited by Ferd
Drijkoningen, Klaus Beekman, and Geert Buelens, 48–67.
Bibliography 223
Zervigón, Andrés Mario. John Heartfield and the Agitated Image: Photography,
Persuasion, and the Rise of Avant-Garde Photomontage. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2012.
Zilczer, Judith K. “Robert J. Coady, Forgotten Spokesman for Avant-Garde Culture in
America,” American Art Review 2, no. 6 (November–December 1975): 77–89.
Zuckerman, Mary Ellen. A History of Popular Women’s Magazines in the United States,
1792–1995. Westport, CT, London: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Index
“0–10, The Last Futurist Exhibition of Aragon, Louis 96, 106

Pictures,” Petrograd 92 “Rivelazioni sensazionali” 111
291 magazine 37, 44, 54 n.81, 63, 144, 150 Arbeitsgemeinschaft bildender Künstler
n.8 96
391 magazine 4, 10, 19 n.20, 57–8, 63, 82 Archipenko, Alexander 166
n.3, 97, 104–5, 129, 168 Ardis, Ann 10, 22 n.41
75 HP magazine 7, 13, 157–8, 178–87, 196 Arensberg, Louise 44
n.101 Arensberg, Walter 44, 133
Arnauld, Céline 7, 159
Acconci, Vito 204 Arp, Hans 1, 38, 47 n.4, 48 n.7, 57, 60, 67,
Ackerman, Phyllis 132 94, 96, 113, 161, 168, 175–6
actor-network theory (ANT) 20 n.24, 20 “Aus die Wolkenpumpe” 85 n.19
n.28, 89 n.71 “Der Arp is da!” 97
Ades, Dawn 55 n.82 untitled artworks 27, 38, 42, 47 n.6, 67,
Dada and Surrealism Reviewed 10, 19 75, 78, 83 n.7, 85 n.19, 85 n.21, 176,
n.22, 56 n.97, 208 n.25 195 n.88
“Dada-Constructivism” 188 n.4 Arte Astratta magazine 129, 151 n.22
The Dada Reader: A Critical Anthology Aspen magazine 23 n.50
10, 22 n.39 Avalanche magazine 23 n.50
“The Blind Man: Notes and avant-garde 3, 17 n.6, 25–6, 36, 40–1,
Commentary” 153 n.45 43–5, 60, 85 n.26, 91–2, 111,
Three New York Dadas and the Blind 116, 148–9, 157–8, 160, 168,
Man 118 n.16 182, 187
Die Aktion magazine 37 magazines in 1910s 62–3
Albert-Birot, Pierre 60, 64 Avner, Janna, “How the Dirty New Media
“Crayon Bleu” 78 Movement Informed the First
“le triangle” 67 Virtual Art Galleries” 86 n.39, 87
“Pour Dada” 52 n.52 n.41
Aleksić, Dragan 157–8, 162–7, 187
“Dadaizam” 191 n.32 Baader, Johannes 57, 60, 64, 79–80, 87
Altshuler, Bruce 91, 117 nn.4–6 n.44, 92, 97, 120 n.26, 162
Salon to Biennial, Exhibitions That “Collage Dada (Raoul Hausmann)”
Made Art History 19 n.17 81
anarcho-communism 87 n.44 images by 64, 97
Anthologie Dada. See Dada magazine, texts by 60, 64, 79
Dada 4–5 “Tretet Dada bei” 71
anthology 26–7, 34–5, 40, 50 n.33, 73–5, Baargeld, Johannes (Alfred E. Gruenwald)
82 n.1, 124 n.66, 132, 163, 192 n.46 91–2, 95–6, 104, 106–7, 121 n.46,
anti-Dadaism 1, 104 129
Apollinaire, Guillaume 62 “Antropofiler Bandwurm” 97
“Arbre” 26, 48 n.9 “Fluidoskeptrik” 99
“Le cas de Richard Mutt” 45, 56 n.94 “Le Dirigeable Dada” 111
Tzara and 41–2, 53 n.63 Balla, Giacomo 53 n.64
Index 225
Ball, Hugo 1, 18 n.14, 25–8, 30, 33–7, 47 Polarities:Montages, Metamechanics,

n.4, 48 n.7, 48 n.9, 48 n.12, 49 n.21, Manifestations, vol. V 82 n.4, 119
109, 117 n.8, 159 n.25, 120 n.39
“Als ich das Cabaret Voltaire gründete Berlewi, Henryk 160
… ” 50 n.27 “Miedzynarodowa Wystawa w
and Brodnitz 52 n.56 Düsseldorfie” 189 n.18
Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary by Berlin (Germany) 46, 82 n.4, 87 n.44, 92,
Hugo Ball 17 n.11, 48 n.7 96–7, 100, 159
and Hoffmann 50 nn.28–9 Dada events in 57
international collaboration of Dadaists 46, 61, 77, 87 n.46, 96, 99,
periodicals 47 n.4 104, 109, 117 n.1, 117 n.8, 119 n.25,
and Tzara 51 n.38, 51 n.43 130, 165, 180
Banana, Anna 199, 202–3, 207 n.5 exhibition catalog 101, 104, 109,
About Vile 208 n.20 129–30
The Sometimes Monthly Banana Rag growth of 57
205 Berner, Jeff 207 n.5
Banash, David, “From Advertising to Blast magazine 62, 85 n.27
the Avant-Garde: Rethinking the Der Blaue Reiter Almanach 92
Invention of Collage” 89 n.73 Bleu magazine 7, 106, 109–12, 122 n.54,
Bann, Stephen 162 129, 151 n.22
The Tradition of Constructivism 188 Bleu 1 111
n.4, 190 n.28 Bleu 2 112
Barrès, Maurice 161, 190 n.24 Bleu 3 110
Bartok, Béla 96 The Blind Man magazine 4, 13, 22 n.43,
Beals, Kurt 44–5, 55 n.86, 95, 118 n.16, 127,
Dada Networks Project 9 129, 134–5, 156 n.75
“Redefining Dada: The Avant-Garde Der blutige Ernst magazine 109
Movement as Network” 20 n.32 Boccioni, Umberto 168
Beatitude magazine 202 Bochner, Jay 52 n.59
Beckett, Jane 169 Bonset, I. K. See Van Doesburg, Theo
“Dada, Van Doesburg and De Stijl” Braddock, Jeremy 35
193 n.54 Collecting as Modernist Practice 50 n.36
Benjamin, Walter 34, 77 Bragaglia, Anton 53 n.64, 120 n.35
on anthology 50 n.33 Brauhaus Winter 99
The Arcades Project 50 n.33 Brauner, Victor 157, 184–6, 196 n.107, 197
“The Work of Art in the Age of n.117
Mechanical Reproduction” 89 n.67 Brecht, George 203
Benson, Timothy O. 3, 8–9, 86 n.37, 157, Breton, André 106, 116, 157, 160–1
188 n.5 “Characteristics of the Modern
“Dada Geographies” 17 n.10, 17 n.12, Evolution and What It Consists Of
188 n.2, 189 n.15 (November 1922)” 190 n.21
“Exchange and Transformation” 190 “Leave Everything” 190 n.24
n.19 Breuer, Bessie 148
Bergius, Hanne 66 La Brigata magazine 42–3, 54 n.76
Berlin Dada 120 n.33, 156 n.72 Bru, Sascha 192 n.49
Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada “The Will to Style” 193 n.58, 197 n.114
82 n.4 Bucharest, Romania 3, 7, 13, 149, 157, 160,
Dada Triumphs! Dada Berlin, 183–5, 189 n.15, 196 n.105
1917–1923: Artistry of Buchholz, Tanja, “Galerie Dada” 118 n.14
226 Index
Buffet-Picabia, Gabrielle 57, 83 n.7, 129, Cologne, Germany 95–6, 99, 121–2 n.46,
133 129–30
and Dreier 150 n.9 Dada Early Spring show 96, 99, 104,
Bulletin Dada magazine. See Dada 131
magazine, Dada 6 Dadaists 95, 106, 130, 205
Bulletin D magazine 95, 119 n.18, 121 exhibition catalog 101, 104,
n.46, 129 119 n.25
Bulson, Eric 12 commercial magazines 46, 67, 71, 128,
Little Magazine, World Form 20 n.29 134–5, 142, 144, 149, 149 n.2, 154
Burchard, Otto 99, 130 n.51, 203
Bureau de recherches surréalistes 187 commodity 71, 133, 136, 139
Comoedia magazine 190 n.24
Cabanne, Pierre 55 n.87, 118 n.15 Conner, Bruce 202
Cabaret Voltaire magazine 25–30, 32–6, Constructivism 7, 157–87, 188 n.4
38, 40–6, 48 n.8, 48 n.11, 55 n.82, Constructivist(s) 7, 161, 166–9, 172–3,
65, 94, 163, 188 175–6, 178–80, 185–6, 195 n.83
Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich 1, 25–7, 30, 42, Contimporanul magazine 196 n.106
47 n.2, 94, 188 Cowley, Malcolm 168
calligrammes 62, 67, 85 n.28 Crane, Michael, “The Origins of
Camera Work magazine 150 n.8 Correspondence Art” 207 n.8
Camfield, William A. 22 n.43 Cravan, Arthur 199, 202–3, 206 n.1
Francis Picabia 189 n.14 Crehan, Hubert 56 n.90
Max Ernst: Dada and the Dawn of Crimp, Douglas, “On the Museum’s Ruins”
Surrealism 122 n.46 188–9 n.6
Cannibale magazine 111, 122 n.48, 130, Crispolti, Enrico, “Dada a Roma:
159, 168, 189 n.7 Contributo alla partecipazione
Cannibale 2 150 n.8 italiana al Dadaismo” 53 n.64
Cantarelli, Gino 38, 42–3, 92–3, 96, 110 Croatia 158, 163, 166
“Costellazione” 32–3 Crotti, Jean 168
and Tzara 54 n.73 Crowninshield, Frank 134
Caravello, Steve 206 nn.1–2 Cubism 3, 26–7, 38, 113, 128, 158–9, 161,
Carrà, Carlo 53 n.64 169
Cates, Jon 64 Cubist(s) 7, 27, 38, 40, 94, 158
Catholicism 102 Cummings, Paul 207 n.12
Cazazza, Monte 199
Chapbook magazine 92, 150 n.8 Dada (art movement) 1, 4, 26, 38, 43, 45,
Chaplin, Charlie 67 56 n.91, 60, 62, 92, 97, 106, 113,
Charchoune, Serge, “Cigarette Dada” 170 132–3, 138, 157–9, 161–3, 168, 170,
Chickadel, Charles. See Cravan, Arthur 172, 174–6, 178–9, 184, 186, 199,
Ciacelli, Arturo 113 201, 204
Clayton, Tara, “Man Ray, Reproduction, aphorisms 64, 178
and Semiotic Slippage: Shaping the and avant-garde groups 3, 7, 17 n.6
Transatlantic Avant-Garde” 155 Dadaists 1, 3–4, 8–12, 20 n.29, 25, 27,
n.67 34, 38, 40, 45, 53 n.64, 57, 59–60,
Club Dada magazine 63 63–5, 71, 75, 77, 80–1, 87 nn.45–6,
Coady, Robert 44 93, 98–99, 103, 104, 106, 116, 123
Cohen, Arthur 70 n.63, 129, 131–2, 157–60, 168,
collage 2, 11, 27, 38, 63, 77–8, 80, 89 172–3, 175–6, 178, 180, 184, 188
nn.73–4, 101, 102, 109, 131, 134, n.6, 189 n.11, 199, 202–3, 205
172, 180, 182, 185, 204 diversity 3, 7–8, 38, 65
Index 227
promoting/promotion of 8, 13, 26, Dada-Vorfrühling exhibition 14, 91, 99,

36–40, 43, 45, 57, 60–1, 109, 113, 104, 129, 131
138–9, 162–7, 175, 192 n.46 Dadazines 199–206
scholarship 9–13 Dadazine 3 205
transnationalism (see d’Arezzo, Maria 38, 118 n.11
transnationalism) Das Hohe Ufer magazine 195 n.86
Dada Augrandair: Der Sängerkrieg Intirol. Das neue Leben exhibition 94
See Dada magazine, Dada 8 DdO4H2 magazine 4, 19 n.19
Dada-Austellung: Modernste Malerei, de Chirico, Giorgio 53 n.64
Negerplastik, alte Kunst 94 The Evil Genius of a King 38
Dadaco magazine 124 n.66 Delaunay, Robert, “La Fenêtre sur la Ville
Dadaglobe 75, 89 n.72, 124 n.66, 132–3, II” 38
139 Delaunay, Sonia 151 n.22
Dadaism 92, 111, 113, 132, 158–9, 188 n.3 Demos, T. J. 4, 19 n.21
“Dadaïsme Vénitien” 92 “Circulations in and around Zurich
Dada Jazz magazine 13, 157–8, 162–7, Dada” 18 n.15
184, 191 n.30, 192 n.46 The Exiles of Marcel Duchamp 18 n.14
Dada-Jok magazine 1–2, 16 n.1, 163 “Zurich Dada: The Aesthetics of Exile”
Dada magazine 1, 4, 8–11, 13, 25–6, 31, 18 n.14
36–8, 40–6, 62, 73, 94, 129, 168, 188 De Nieuwe Amsterdammer magazine 30
Dada 1 25, 36–8, 42–3, 51 n.48, 52 de Pisis, Filippo
n.52, 54 n.76, 65, 94 Emporio 43
Dada 2 25, 32–3, 37–8, 42, 51 n.48, and Tzara 54 n.77
65, 79 Dermée, Paul 60, 123–4 n.63, 132
Dada 3 42, 57, 59–61, 64–7, 69–71, 73, “à Kisling” 71
75, 77, 83 n.7, 84 n.18, 85 n.21, 86 and Tzara 82 n.1
n.32, 87 n.46, 109, 132, 134, 152 De Stijl magazine 111, 161, 168–9, 172–3,
n.32, 175, 180 179, 184, 192 n.50
Dada 4–5 – Anthologie Dada 52 n.52, de Zayas, Marius 42–5, 86 n.35
57, 60–1, 66, 73–7, 83 n.7, 85 n.21, and Guillaume 54 n.79
95, 175 and Tzara 55 n.82, 55 n.86
Dada 6 – Bulletin Dada 92, 113–14, The Dial magazine 150 n.8
118 n.11, 123 nn.62–3, 151 n.22, Dickerman, Leah 8, 19 n.21
159, 161–2 Dada 47 n.2
Dada 7 – Dadaphone 109, 132, 159, “Dada Gambits” 20 n.29
161 Dietrich, Dorothea, “Hanover: ‘True Art’
Dada 8 – Dada Augrandair: Der and ‘True Dada’” 195 n.93
Sängerkrieg Intirol 113, 115 Digital Museum of Digital Art (DiMoDa)
deluxe edition of 83 n.7, 85 n.21 64
regular edition of 83 n.7 Dirty New Media (DNM) 1, 59, 64, 86
Der Dada magazine 13, 57, 60, 62–3, 71, n.38
82 n.4, 89 n.75, 129, 134 Dix, Otto, “Bewegliches Figurenbild” 98
Der Dada 1 11, 60–1, 66–7, 69, 79, 81, Dogarithms magazine 199
83–4 n.7, 89 n.76, 111, 121 n.41 Dogmatic, Irene 199
Der Dada 2 61, 64, 67, 71–2, 78, 80, 83 Doherty, Brigid 151 n.19
n.7, 97, 205 “Berlin” 189 n.10
Der Dada 3 67–9, 97, 101, 104, 106–9, Doyobi, Team 86 n.37
122 n.47 Dreier, Dorothea A. 129, 133
Dada Tank magazine 1, 7, 157–8, 162–7, Dreier, Katherine 7, 128–32, 151 n.22,
184, 187, 190 n.30, 192 n.46 152 n.27
228 Index
and Buffet-Picabia 150 n.9 Erste Ausstellung der Redaktion Der Blaue
and Duchamp 153 n.41 Reiter, Munich 92
and Ernst 150 nn.12–14, 151 n.15 Erste Internationale Dada-Messe, Berlin
and Grosz 151 n.16, 151 n.21 14, 91, 98, 102, 117 n.1, 130, 156
Die Driehoek magazine 187 n.72
Drucker, Johanna 12, 71 Europe 1, 4, 26, 36–7, 41, 43–4, 46, 96,
The Visible Word: Experimental 116, 128–9, 134, 149, 160, 187
Typography and Modern Art, Everling, Germaine 148, 154 n.58, 156
1909–1923 22 n.44 n.74
du Bief, André 1, 17 n.3 Evola, Julius 91–2, 96, 99, 106, 111, 118
Duchamp, Marcel 1, 44–5, 56 n.89, 116, n.12, 119 n.20, 120 n.35, 130, 151
124 n.64, 127–33, 144, 148–9, 149 n.22, 187
n.2, 202 and Tzara 109, 118 n.12, 119 n.22, 122
“Boîte-en-valise” 127 n.50, 123 n.58, 123 n.60
and Cabanne 55 n.87, 118 n.15 exhibition(s) 1, 4, 9, 13, 21 n.36, 22 n.43,
and Crehan 56 n.90 44, 46, 81–2, 91, 94, 97, 99, 116, 118
and Dreier 153 n.41 n.14, 119 n.21, 124 n.68, 128–32,
Exposition Internationale du 129, 150 n.11, 152 nn.27–8, 159,
Surréalisme 116 205. See also specific exhibitions
“Fountain” 4, 22 n.43, 44–5, 94–5, 127, 1916–1918 94–5
148 1920–1921 95–100
and Picabia 150 n.5, 154 n.58, 156 n.74 catalogs 101–4, 119 n.25, 121 n.40, 151
and Sweeney 45, 55 n.88 n.18
Dunan, Renée 111 Dadaists’ 43, 82, 91
“Assassiniamo l’intelligenza e l’estetica spaces 59, 91, 94, 116, 204
se vogliamo comprendere la Expressionism 3, 17 nn.6–7, 26–7, 38, 158,
bellezza” 123 n.56 162
“Dada?” 123 n.55 Expressionist(s) 7, 27, 40, 92, 94, 158,
178
Eburne, Jonathan 160
“Dada, Futurism, and Raymond femininity 136, 144. See also gender
Roussel” 189 n.16, 190 nn.21–2 female bodies/female identity 142, 149,
eclecticism 26–7, 37, 63–5, 203 155 nn.62–3
Edme, René 1, 17 n.3 File magazine 203
Eggeling, Viking 168, 175 Fiozzi, Aldo 43, 92, 96, 109, 111, 130, 151
Eilshemius, Louis, “Supplication” 94 n.22
Elaine Lustig Cohen Dada Collection 48 First International Russian Art Exhibition
n.10, 85 n.21 173
electrophotography. See photocopying First World War 1, 25, 57
technique Flint, F. S., “The Younger French
Éluard, Paul 19 n.19, 106, 168, 178 Poets: The Dada Movement”
Die Erde magazine 77 117 n.10
Ernst, Jimmy 202 Fluxus movement 1, 199–200, 202–3, 206
Ernst, Max 91–2, 95–6, 99, 104, 106–7, n.4, 207 n.5
117 n.8, 121 n.41, 129, 171, 202, 204 Foster, Hal 128, 149 n.3
“Aquis submerses” 95 Foster, Stephen, Crisis and the Arts: The
and Dreier 150 nn.12–14, 151 n.15 History of Dada 20 n.35, 23 n.46
“Parafulmine giurabacco dei dada arp France 10, 41, 129, 159, 168
tzara ERNST baargeld picabia ecc” Freeman, Judi, The Dada and Surrealist
111 Word-Image 22 n.44
Index 229
Die freie Straße magazine 86 n.30, 120 Groh, Klaus, “Mail Art and the New
n.26 Dada” 207 n.9
Die Freie Zeitung magazine 51 n.39 Grosz, George 57, 59, 62, 64, 76, 80, 91–2,
Freytag-Loringhoven, Elsa von 133, 143 97, 101, 108–9, 130, 151 n.19, 176
Friedman, Ken 207 n.5 “‘Daum’ marries her pedantic
Frueh, Al 134, 153 n.46 automaton ‘George’ …” 107
Füllner, Karin, Richard Huelsenbeck: Texte and Dreier 151 n.16, 151 n.21
und Aktionen eines Dadaisten 56 Phantastische Gebete 46
n.95 untitled artworks 69, 101, 108
Futurism 3, 17 n.6, 26, 37–8, 51 n.47, 111, Guilbeaux, Henri, “L’art de demain”
113, 128, 158, 161–2 51 n.43
Futurist(s) 7, 40, 53 n.64, 92, 94, 158, Guillaume, Paul 41, 43
161 and de Zayas 54 n.79
Le Futurisme magazine 184 and Tzara 52 nn.60–1
Gurk, Paul 78
Gaglione, Bill “Picasso” 199, 205, 206 n.1,
207 n.5, 207 n.17 halftone block printing technology 36, 64,
Galerie Beaux-Arts, Paris 116 87 n.46
Galerie Corray, Zurich 35–6, 43, 51 n.48, Hammer, Steve 86 n.38
52 n.52, 83 n.5, 94, 118 n.14 Hardekopf, Ferdinand 76
Galerie Dada. See Galerie Corray, Zurich “Regie” 84 n.18
Galerie Montaigne, Paris 100 Harding, James M., Cutting Performances:
gender 4, 10, 18 n.16, 136, 138–9. See also Collage Events, Feminist Artists,
femininity and the American Avant-Garde
Geneva Grand Dada Ball, Paris 96 155 n.65
Germany 10, 41, 81, 129, 151 n.19, 168, Hartley, Marsden 131–3, 136, 155 n.65
176, 178, 187 “The Importance of Being Dada” 152 n.31
Gesamtkunstwerk. See Galerie Corray, Haskell, Barbara, Joseph Stella 153 n.48
Zurich Hatch, Kevin, Looking for Bruce Conner
Getty Research Institute 48 n.8, 54 n.74, 207 n.13
88 n.65, 191 n.34 Hausmann, Raoul 11, 46, 56 n.95, 57, 63,
Giacometti, Augusto 76 69, 76–80, 83 n.7, 85 n.22, 87 n.44,
Gleizes, Albert 151 n.22 91–2, 97, 99, 104, 107, 162–3, 168,
“La Peinture Moderne” 63 175–6, 178
glitch art 1, 59, 86 n.38 “Collage Dada (Raoul Hausmann)” 81
G magazine 157–8, 167–77, 173, 175–6, “Dada in Europa” 67, 109
184, 187, 195 n.83 “Elasticum” 172
G 1 174 “Erste international Dada-Messe:
G 3 177 Katalog” 120 n.37
Goldberg, Rube 133, 136, 148 “Mechanischer Kopf: Der Geist
Goltz, Hanz 95 underer Zeit” 172
Golyscheff, Jefim 77 “Tatlin lebt zu Hause” 172
Gräff, Werner 173, 187 “Tretet Dada bei” 71
“La grande complainte de mon obsurité” untitled artworks 11, 63, 69, 76–9
54 n.72 “Was die Kunstkritik nach Ansicht des
graphic design 1–2, 12, 28, 57, 59, 62–7, Dadasophen zur Dadaausstellung
69–73, 75–6, 83 n.5, 85 n.26, 101, sagen wird” 101
106, 111, 113, 159, 166, 169, 172, Haviland, Paul B. 43
180, 182, 194 n.71 Heartfield, John 46, 59, 62–3, 81, 91–2, 98,
Grecia magazine 111 102, 104, 107, 130
230 Index
“Leben und Treiben in Universal City En Avant Dada: A History of the Dada
um 12:05 Uhr” 102 Movement 23 n.47
“The Pneuma Travels around the “Erklärung” 25–6
World” 80 “L’Amiral cherche une maison à louer”
Preussischer Erzengel 98, 117 n.1 27, 36
untitled artworks 62–3, 69, 102 “Der Neue Mensch” 46
Hemus, Ruth and Tzara 46, 56 nn.95–6, 61–2
“Dada’s Paris Season” 83 n.6 Huidobro, Vincente 61
Dada’s Women 18 n.16 Huszár, Vilmos 178–9, 197 n.114
Hennings, Emmy 1, 18 n.14, 25, 27, 35, Huyssen, Andreas, After the Great Divide:
117 n.8 Modernism, Mass Culture and
“Puppen” 30 Postmodernism 155 n.61
Hentea, Marius 159, 189 n.13
“Federating the Modern Spirit: The Il Futurismo magazine 184
1922 Congress of Paris” 189 n.7, Impressionism 113, 178
190 n.22 Independent Society of Artists 44
print war 161 Insult magazine 199
Herzefelde, Wieland 46, 63, 69, 86 n.29, 102, Der Internationale Kongress der
121 n.43, 130, 151 n.20, 156 n.72 Konstruktivisten und Dadaisten,
Heuberger, Julius 26, 28, 37, 83 n.7 Weimar 161
Higgins, Dick 199, 207 nn.5–6 International Constructivism 157, 161,
Hirschel-Prostch, Günter 179 188 n.4
Höch, Hannah 1, 5–6, 11, 76, 79, 92, 179, Internationale Kunstausstellung, Dresden
196 n.96 116
untitled artworks 5–6, 11, 76, 79, 179 “International Exhibition of Modern Art
Hoerle, Angelika Fick 7, 92 Assembled by Société Anonyme”
“Reiterin” 95 exhibition 150 n.11
Hoerle, Heinrich 92, 95 International Faction of Constructivists 161
“Porträt einer Liliputanerin” 95 Italy 38, 41–2, 92, 96, 109, 113, 168
Hoffmann, August 50 nn.28–9
Hollaender, Friedrich 62 Jacob, Max, Saint Matorel 48 n.9
Holland 178, 187, 192 n.51 Jacobs, David 203
Hopkins, David 3, 17 n.7, 133, 149 n.2, Janco, Marcel 25, 27, 42–3, 47 n.6, 60, 65,
156 n.76 67, 76, 85 n.21
on The Blind Man (second issue) 45 “Chant Nègre” 27
A Companion to Dada and Surrealism “Construction 3” 38
19 n.22 “L’Amiral cherche une maison à louer”
Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short 27, 36
Introduction 19 n.22 untitled artworks 38, 42, 47 n.6, 185
Dada’s Boys: Masculinity after Jedermann sein eigner Fussball magazine
Duchamp 18 n.16 134
Huelsenbeck, Richard 1, 18 n.14, 25, 27, Jenison, Madge, “Sunwise Turn: A Human
31, 34–5, 38, 41, 47 nn.3–4, 59, 61, Comedy of Bookselling” 156 n.75
77, 87 n.44, 92, 106, 158, 162, 205 Jennings, Michael W. 160, 190 n.20, 195
“Die Arbeiten von Hans Arp” 84 n.18 n.83
“Collective Dada Manifesto” 80–1 Johnson, Ray 199, 201
Dada Almanac 124 n.66, 163, 192 n.46 Jolles, Adam, “Artists into Curators: Dada
Dadaistsches Manifest 82 n.4 and Surrealist Exhibition Practices”
“Dada Lives” 49 n.23 19 n.17, 117 n.2, 124 n.68, 125 n.72
Index 231
Jones, Amelia 136 actor-network theory (ANT) 20 n.24,

Irrational Modernism: A Neurasthenic 20 n.28, 89 n.71
History of New York Dada 155 n.66 Reassembling the Social: An
Postmodernism and the En-gendering of Introduction to Actor-Network
Marcel Duchamp 154 n.56 Theory 20 n.25
“‘Women’ in Dada” 155 n.62 Leavens, Ileana B., From “291” to Zurich:
Joselit, David 152 n.25 The Birth of Dada. Studies in the
Le journal du people magazine 169, 193 Fine Arts: The Avant-Garde 55 n.82
n.64 Le Bon, Laurent, Dada 17 n.12
journals. See magazines Leiden 157, 192 n.49
L’Esprit Nouveau magazine 124 n.63
Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henry 48 n.9 letterpress printing technology 64, 67, 87
Kandinsky, Wasilly 26, 38, 76, 92, 131 n.46
Kane, Carolyn L. Lewer, Debbie 35, 47 n.6, 88 n.63
“Exhaustion Aesthetics” 86 n.37, 87 “The Avant-garde in Swiss Exile
n.42 1914–20” 18 n.14
“Glitch Art: Failure from the Avant- A New Order: An Evening at the
Garde to Kanye West” 86 n.37 Cabaret Voltaire 47 n.2
Kaprow, Allan 200, 207 n.7 Life magazine 203
Kiesler, Friedrich 173 line block reproduction 64, 87 n.46
Kittler, Friedrich, Discourse Networks linocut 77, 167
1800/1900 87 n.48 linotype printing technology 36, 64, 87
“Klebebilder” (glued pictures) 77 n.46
Klee, Paul 133, 152 nn.29–30 Lippard, Lucy R., Dadas on Art 208 n.25
Klonk, Charlotte, Spaces of Experience: Art Lissitzky, El 116, 161–2, 173, 175, 182, 195
Gallery Interiors from 1800 to 2000 n.83
117 n.3 “Demonstrationsräume” 124 n.69
Knowles, Alison 207 n.5 “Proun (City)” 175, 179
Kok, Antony 168, 193 n.56, 193 n.60 “Topography of Typography” 178, 180,
Kölner Kunstgewerbemuseum 96 196 n.97
Kölner Kunstverein 95 L’Italia Futurista magazine 54 n.76
Kongress der Union Internationaler literature 9–13, 20 n.31
fortschrittlichen Künstler, Littérature magazine 4, 111, 161, 190 n.24,
Düsseldorf 161 192 n.43
Kriebel, Sabine T., Revolutionary Beauty: Locher, Robert 146–7
The Radical Photomontages of John Lupton, Ellen, “Design and Production in
Heartfield 89 n.73 the Mechanical Age” 88 n.52
Kuenzli, Rudolf, “Survey” 17 n.5, 17 n.9
“Künstlerkneipe ‘Voltaire’” art pub 30 Maciunas, George 203, 207 n.10
magazines 1–2, 4–5, 7, 10–11, 13, 15–16,
Lacerba magazine 37, 51 n.47 22 n.43, 33–4, 46, 59, 65, 82, 89 n.73,
parole in libertà 62–3, 94 93, 96–7, 106, 159–62, 180, 185, 199,
Lacroix, Adon 133 206. See also specific magazines
Ladies Home Journal magazine 134, 153 avant-garde (in 1910s) 62–3
n.42, 154 n.51 Bulson on 20 n.29
Lastov, Vido 164–5 commercial (see commercial
Latham, Sean, “The Rise of Periodical magazines)
Studies” 22 n.45 Dadaists and 20 n.28, 25, 40
Latour, Bruno 8, 89 n.71 extension of network 43
232 Index
in graphic design 12 media network 2, 5, 8. See also network

images 77, 81 Menkman, Rosa 64, 86 n.37
learning from 95–100 Mercure de France magazine 45
production, history of 51 n.45 Meriano, Francesco 38, 42–3
women’s 135–6, 148, 154 n.51, 156 n.70 on Dada 52 n.52
Mail art movement 1, 16, 17 n.4, 199, and Tzara 53 n.70
201–2, 204, 208 n.28 “Walk” 42
Malevich, Kazimir, Black Square 92 Mertins, Detlef 160, 190 n.20, 195 n.83
Malik-Verlag publishing house 86 n.29, 87 Merz magazine 5–6, 147, 157–8, 176,
n.44, 109 178–87, 195 n.88, 195 nn.85–7
Malraux, André 40 Merz 1 178
Museum without Walls 52 n.55, 158 Merz 2 180–1
Ma magazine 150 n.8, 167 Merz 4 178
M’amenez’y magazine 4, 19 n.19 Merz 5 179
Mancusi, Tim 199, 204–5, 208 n.18, 208 Merz 6 178, 180, 182, 196 n.96
n.21 Meyer, Agnes Ernst 43
Manifeste de Monsieur Aa l’antiphilosophe “Woman” 86 n.35
166, 192 n.43 Meyer, Raimund, Dada Global 10, 22 n.39,
Manomètre magazine 187 119 n.21
Man Ray 4, 44–5, 127–33, 140–1, 144, Michaelides, Chris, “Futurist Periodicals
148–9, 149 n.4, 149 nn.1–2, 153 in Rome” 83 n.5
n.40, 155 n.65, 155 n.67, 168, 187 Micić, Ljubomir 162
“Belle Haleine” 136, 138, 154 nn. 54–5 “Dada Dadaizam” 191 n.31
“Dadaphoto” 199 Miller, Tyrus, “Avant-garde Periodicals in
“Dancer/Danger” 171–2 the Yugoslavian Crucible” 16 n.2
“Portmanteau” 141 Mill, Fer 164
Self Portrait 156 n.73 Der Mistral magazine 47 n.4
Marcel Duchamp exhibition 208 n.25 modern art (movement) 40, 44, 109, 129,
Marc, Franz 92 145–6, 161
Marcus, Greil, Lipstick Traces: A Secret modern movement 43–4
History of the Twentieth Century 28, modes of address 49 n.15
49 n.18 Moholy-Nagy, László 176, 179
Marinetti, Filippo Tomasso 26, 86 n.34, “Nickel Sculpture” 170
94, 168 “Relief S” 172
Der Marstall magazine 195 n.86 Staatliches Bauhaus, Weimar 195 n.84
Marxism 87 n.44 Mondrian, Piet 168, 179
Mavo magazine 188 n.1 Monsieur Antipyrine magazine 46
McBride, Henry, “News and Views of Art, The Morning Telegraph magazine 156 n.75
Including the Clearing House for Morrisson, Mark 12, 135
Works of the Cubists” 152 n.25 The Public Face of Modernism:
McEvilley, Thomas 116 Little Magazines, Audiences, and
Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of Reception, 1905–1920 22 n.45
the Gallery Space 124 n.67 Moscardelli, Nicola 38, 42–3
Mécano magazine 1, 13, 157–8, 167–78, Motherwell, Robert, Dada Painters and
184, 187, 193 n.57, 193 n.59, 197 Poets 202, 204
n.114 “Mouvement” 54 n.72
Mécano 1 171 “Mouvement Dada-Marcel Janco” 54 n.72
Mécano 2 170 Museum of Modern Art, New York 9, 129,
Mécano 4–5 169, 171 205, 208 n.25
Index 233
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Dada in 117 n.9, 130, 132, 159
9 Dadaists 106, 131, 151 n.22, 162
nationalism 2–3, 25, 159 exhibition (catalog) 101, 102, 117 n.1,
Naumann, Francis M. 156 n.68 130, 154 n.58
“The New York Dada Movement: Paris Congress 161
Better Late Than Never” 55 n.82 Paris Dada exhibition 130, 151 n.22
Neo-Plasticism 168, 178–9 periodicals. See magazines
The Netherlands. See Holland Petrov, Mihailo S. 164–5, 167
network 2–3, 5, 7–10, 13, 17 n.12, 20 n.29, Philadelphia Museum of Art 205
37, 40–6, 57, 63, 93, 106, 132–3, photocopying technique 203, 205–6, 207
139, 157, 160, 173, 182, 194 n.76, n.17
199, 201 photograph(s)/photography 27, 40, 64, 71,
Neue Jugend magazine 46, 62, 81, 86 n.29 79, 81, 89 n.77, 106, 118 n.14, 140,
New York, The United States 3, 9, 14, 26, 144, 147, 152 n.26, 155 n.67, 158,
41–6, 94, 116, 128–33, 144–5, 149, 162, 172, 175, 179, 204–5
187 photolithography 64, 87 n.46
New York Dada magazine 1, 127–8, photomontage 62, 89 n.73, 140–1, 172,
132–49, 154 n.51, 155 n.68, 204, 199, 204
208 n.23 Picabia, Francis 19 n.20, 19 n.23, 20 n.33,
New York Herald magazine 155 n.68 45, 58, 61, 63, 67, 83 nn.6–7, 86
New York World magazine 134 n.32, 92, 96, 113, 129–31, 133, 148,
Niebisch, Arndt 40, 65 159, 166, 168, 175, 178–9
“Dada Media Subversion” 52 n.54 “Abri” 64
Media Parasites in the Early Avant- “Les dents viennent aux yeux comme
Garde: On the Abuse of Technology des larmes” 171
and Communication 47 n.3, 87 n.47 and Duchamp 150 n.5, 154 n.58, 156
Noi magazine 39, 42–3, 83 n.5, 184 n.74
Non: Critique individualiste, anti-dada “Francis Picabia et Dada” 189 n.14
magazine 1, 17 n.3 “Funny Guy” 199, 205, 208 n.23
NYCS Weekly Breeder magazine 199–200, “Manifeste Cannibale Dada” 109, 132
204–5, 206 n.2 Poèmes et dessins de la fille née sans
mère 64
O’Day, Caroline Goodwin 129, 150 n.6 “Tamis du vent” 97
Oppenheimer, Max 27, 47 n.6 and Tzara 82 n.3, 118 n.11, 119 n.23,
Oracle of the City of San Francisco 151 n.22
newspaper 202 Picasso, Pablo 26, 48 n.9
Oud, J. J. P. 172, 179 “Girl’s Head with Small Bird” 101
The Oxford Critical and Cultural History Harlequin 185
of Modernist Magazines 10, 12, 18 Pictopoezie 158, 183–5
n.13 Pierre, Arnauld, “The ‘Confrontation of
Modern Values’: A Moral History
Packer, Randall, “Glitch Expectations: A of Dada in Paris” 52 n.58
Conversation with Jon Cates” 87 Pilhaou-Thibaou magazine 190 n.24
n.40 Pindell, Howardena, “Alternative Space:
La Pagine magazine 43, 54 n.76 Artists’ Periodicals” 23 n.48, 84 n.9
Paliyenko, Adriana M., “Apollinaire and Die Pleite magazine 109
Dada: Influence Matters,” 52 n.61 “Pneuma” 89 n.77
Paris 17 n.12, 19 n.22, 41, 46, 57, 83 n.6, Poggi, Christine 160
95–100, 109, 113, 159–60, 187, 189 “Circa 1922: Art, Technology, and the
n.11 Activated Beholder” 189 n.17
234 Index
“Lacerba: Interventionist Art and The Ridgefield Gazook magazine 44, 54

Politics in Pre-World War I Italy” n.81
51 n.47 Rilla, Walter 77
Poljanski, Branko Ve 1, 16 n.1, 162–3 Ring, Nancy, New York Dada and the
La Pomme du Pins magazine 190 n.24 Crisis of Masculinity: Man Ray,
postal art 199 Francis Picabia, and Marcel
postcard 93, 130 Duchamp in the United States,
Pound, Ezra 168 1913–1921 154 nn.54–5
Prampolini, Enrico 26, 38–9, 42, 53 n.64, Roché, Henri-Pierre 44–5
61, 64, 77, 118 n.12, 185 Victor 95, 118 n.16
and Tzara 53 n.66, 53 n.68 Rogue magazine 146–7, 156 n.75
Preiss, Gerhard 69, 101 Roll, Stéphane 184
Prezzolini, Giuseppe 43 Romania/Romanian 7, 158, 184–5, 187
printing process 63–5, 73, 81, 97, 136, Rome 42, 92, 95–6, 99, 111, 187
144, 166, 176, 203. See also specific Rongwrong magazine 156 n.75
printing technologies Rousseau, Henri 101
mistakes in printing of “Movimento
Dada” 54 n.74 Sachlichkeit, Neue 17 n.7
offset 207 n.17 Salazar-Caro, Alfredo 64, 87 n.41
Procellaria magazine 43 “Salon Dada Exposition Internationale”,
Projecteur magazine 111, 159, 189 n.7 Paris 91, 99–100, 103, 106, 113, 119
Proverbe magazine 4, 19 n.19, 111, 122 n.23, 151 n.22
n.48 Salon des Indépendants 113, 119 n.23
Punks magazine 199, 203 Sanminiatelli, Bino 42
Sanouillet, Michel 10, 40, 159, 189 n.14
Rabaté, Jean-Michel 188 n.3 “Dada: A Critical History of the
Räderscheidt, Anton 119 n.18 Literature in France and the United
radio 20 n.29, 63 States” 21 n.35
Rad, Jim 164 “Dada: A Definition” 52 n.53
Raimondi, Giuseppe 50 n.31, 61 Dada in Paris 21 n.36, 21 n.38, 52 n.60,
readymades 2, 13, 44–5, 67, 94, 117, 86 n.32, 117 n.9, 119 n.23, 124
127–8, 136, 148–9 nn.63–4, 189 n.14, 190 n.22
Rebacci, Otello 92–3 Satrom, Jon, “Exhaustion Aesthetics” 86
Reverdy, Pierre 60–1, 109 n.37, 87 n.42
Rhoades, Katharine Nash 86 n.35 Savinio, Alberto 38, 43, 53 n.64, 61
Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges 106, “Seconde origine de la voie lactée” 84
130–1, 133, 168, 178 n.18
“The Richard Mutt Case” 95, 134 Sbarbaro, Camillo 61
Richter, Hans 60, 77, 84 n.18, 157, 161–2, “Mörar” 84 n.18
167–8, 173, 175–6, 187, 194 n.72 Scanlon, Jennifer, Inarticulate Longings
“Dada and the Film” 175 154 n.57
Dada: Art and Anti-Art 194 n.80 Schad, Christian 47 n.4, 119 n.21
elementare Gestaltung 173, 175, 194 Die Schammade magazine 1, 97, 104,
n.75 106–7, 111, 119 n.17, 121 n.46, 129,
“Gegen Ohne Für Dada” 60, 85 n.19 166
Material zur elementaren Gestaltung Schlichter, Rudolf, Prussian Archangel 98,
173 117 n.1
and Tzara 89 n.68 Scholes, Robert E. 12
untitled artworks 77, 176 Modernism in the Magazines 22 n.45
Index 235
Schönberg, Arnold 96 Steinberg, Leo 81, 97

Schwarz, Arturo, Man Ray: The Rigour of “psychic address” 81
Imagination 155 n.65 “Reflections on the State of Criticism”
Schwitters, Kurt 5–6, 128, 131, 133, 147, 89 n.78
152 n.27, 152 n.29, 157, 161–2, 168, Steinitz, Käte 183
176, 178–9, 183, 195 n.87, 196 n.96, Stella, Joseph 131, 133, 136
197 n.114 “Battle of Lights, Mardi Gras, Coney
“Dadaismus in Holland” 178, 195 n.85, Island” 94
195 nn.91–2 “Coney Island” 134
“Merz drawing” 179 Stettheimer, Ettie 144, 155 n.68
“Pesma nr. 48” 163 Stieglitz, Alfred 133–4, 147
Segal, Arthur 47 n.6, 60, 76 “Portrait of Dorothy True” 144
Seita, Sophie 10 Stokes, Charlotte, “Rage and Liberation:
“The Blind Man Sees the Fountain: Cologne Dada” 119 n.32
New York Dada Magazines in 1917: Stravinsky, Igor 96
An Introduction” 21 n.38 Stupid magazine 119 n.17
Seiwart, Franz Wilhelm 119 n.18 Der Sturm gallery 38, 53 n.64, 118 n.14,
Semina magazine 202 131, 152 n.27
Serner, Walter 47 n.4, 178 Der Sturm magazine 37, 53 n.63, 63, 111,
“Der Letze Lockerung” 60 150 n.8
“Letzte Lockerung Manifesto” 85 n.19 Sudhalter, Adrian 35, 89 n.72, 153 n.37
Sheppard, Richard “How to Make a Dada Anthology” 50
“Chronology” 53 n.64 n.35, 88 n.64
Modernism-Dada-Postmodernism 17 n.6 “War, Exile, and the Machine” 19 n.20,
SIC magazine 150 n.8 19 n.23, 20 n.33
Sillogisme colonial 166, 192 n.43 Sumner, David E., The Magazine Century:
Simultanism 128 American Magazines since 1900
Singer, Nac 164 153 n.42
Sinn und Form magazine 130 Suprematists 92
Sirius magazine 47 n.4 Surrealism 7, 19 n.22, 157
Skyscraper Primitives exhibition 208 n.25 Sweeney, James Johnson 45, 55 n.88
Slodki, Marcel 27
Smith, Agnes, “Introducing Da Da” 156 Taeuber-Arp, Sophie 1, 25, 27
n.75 Tatlin, Vladimir 92
Société Anonyme, Inc. 128–33, 150 “Denkal der dritten international” 179
nn.6–7, 152 n.26, 152 n.28, 152 Taylor, Michael 155 nn.63–4
n.30, 187 Tice, Clara 134
Society of Arts exhibition 95, 129 TNT magazine 150 n.8
Society of Independent Artists 45, 94 Tomkins, Calvin 56 n.91
The Soil magazine 14, 44 Tomoyoshi, Murayama 188 n.1
Les Soirées de Paris magazine 37, 41–2, 62 transnationalism 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 26–7, 33,
Soupault, Philippe 60, 106, 178 40–1, 104, 106, 168, 182
“Flamme” 84 n.18 typewriter 31, 36, 63, 87 nn.46–7
“Portrait of a Fool” 98 typography and layout. See graphic design
Spaïni, Alberto 42, 53 n.64 Tyrell, Henry, “The Cheerless Art of
Spiegelgasse 1, Zurich. See Cabaret Idiocracy” 153 n.36
Voltaire, Zurich Tzara, Tristan 1, 4, 12, 18 n.14, 25–9, 31,
Spies, Werner 121 n.46 33–6, 38, 40–3, 53 n.69, 54 n.74,
Spohn, Clay 202, 207 n.12 59–60, 63, 67, 69, 86 n.32, 88 n.66,
236 Index
92–3, 96, 104, 106, 109, 111, 132, and Van Doesburg 169, 187, 192 n.52,
149, 158, 161–2, 168, 175, 178, 182, 193 n.55, 193 n.57, 194 n.68
205 and Vitrac 193 n.64
and Aleksić 163, 191 n.33, 191 n.36, “Zanzibar” 163
192 n.43 “Zurich Chronicle 1915–1919”
“Ange” 111 49 n.24
and Apollinaire 41–2, 53 n.63
“Art and the Hunt” 154 n.58 The United States 10, 36, 41, 128–9, 133,
“Authorization” 23 n.49, 128, 133, 136, 207 n.10
148, 154 n.58 American art 44
and Ball 51 n.38, 51 n.43 Dada to New York 128–32
“Bulletin” 67, 71, 106, 134, 153 n.44 New York Dada (see New York Dada
and Cantarelli 54 n.73 magazine)
Dadaglobe 20 n.34 Uzelac, Sonja Briski 163
“Dada ne signifie rien” 59–60 “Visual Arts in the Avant-Gardes
and de Pisis 43, 54 n.77 between the Two Wars” 191 n.35,
and Dermée 82 n.1 192 n.48
and de Zayas 42–5, 55 n.82, 55 n.86
and Dreier 130 Vallotton, Félix 82 n.3, 86 n.32
and Evola 111, 118 n.12, 119 n.22, 122 Valori Plastici magazine 150 n.8
n.50, 123 n.58, 123 n.60 van den Berg, Hubert 169, 178
“Froid Jaune” 42 The Import of Nothing 193 n.53
Gas Heart 202 “Some Reflections on the Margins of
and Guillaume 52 nn.60–1 Dada” 193 n.63, 195 n.89
and Huelsenbeck 46, 56 nn.95–6, 61–2 van der Rohe, Ludwig Mies 173
“L’Amiral cherche une maison à louer” Van Doesburg, Nelly 178–9, 197 n.114
27, 36 Van Doesburg, Theo 109, 157, 161–2,
“Manifeste Dada 3” 84 n.10 168–9, 172–3, 175, 178, 187, 197
“Manifeste Dada 1918” 59, 118 n.12, n.114
132, 169, 184 “Karakteristiek van het Dadaisme” 169,
and Meriano 53 n.70 193 n.65
“Movimento Dada” 43 and Kok 193 n.56, 193 n.60
“News of the Seven Arts in Europe” “La matière dénaturalisée. Déstruction
190 n.26 2” 172
“Pélamide” 43 “Photo-mechanische compositie”
and Picabia 82 n.3, 118 n.11, 119 n.23, 171
151 n.22 “Tot een constructieve dichtkunst” 194
25 poèmes 67 n.67
and Prampolini 53 n.66, 53 n.68 and Tzara 169, 187, 192 n.52, 193 n.55,
La Première Aventure Céleste de M. 193 n.57, 194 n.68
Antipyrine 44, 55 n.82 “Der Wille zum Stil” 194 n.69
“Proclamation sans Pretension” 60–1, van Hoddis, Jakob (“Jacob”) 26, 61
84 n.11 “Der Idealist” 84 n.18
and Raimondi 50 n.31 Vanity Fair magazine 127–8, 134, 136,
“La revue Dada 2” 29, 36 139–40, 143–4, 146, 154 n.51, 161,
“Les Revues d’avant-garde” 88 n.54 190 n.26
and Richter 89 n.68 Van Rees, Otto 27, 48 n.11
Stationery: Mouvement Dada 5 Varèse, Edgar 134
“Texte sur Dada” 52 n.49 Der Ventilator magazine 95, 118 n.17, 121
“Une nuit d’échecs gras” 104 n.46
Index 237
Veshch. Gegenstand. Objet: Revue Witkovsky, Matthew 64–5

international de l’art modern 167, “Pen Pals” 20 n.29, 83 n.6, 87 n.45, 87
172–3, 176, 192 n.47 n.50
View magazine 116 Wood, Beatrice 44, 128, 156 n.75
Vile magazine 199, 203–4 woodcut technique 27, 38, 42–4, 63–6, 69,
Villon, Jacques 151 n.22 77, 83 n.7, 185
“Figure” 152 n.26 wood engraving 47 n.6, 64, 85 n.21, 87
Vincent-Millay, Edna St. 144 n.46
Vitrac, Roger 193 n.64 Wulfman, Clifford 12
La Voce magazine 43 Modernism in the Magazines
Vogue magazine 127 22 n.45
Voloder, Laurel Seely, “Avant-garde
Periodicals in the Yugoslavian xerography. See photocopying technique
Crucible” 16 n.2
Voronca, Ilarie 157, 184, 186, 196 n.107 Yugo-Dada 162, 166
“Aviograma (in loc de manifest)” 185
and Schwitters 197 n.117 Zagreb, Croatia 3, 7, 13, 149, 157–8, 160,
Vorticism 37 162–3, 166–7
V TRE (cc V TRE) newspaper 203 Der Zeltweg magazine 94, 122 n.48
Zénit magazine 162–3, 167, 184, 191
Walden, Herwarth 37, 53 n.63, 118 n.14, nn.30–1
131 Zervigón, Andrés Mario, John Heartfield
Weekly Reader Da-jest 205 and the Agitated Image:
Weikop, Christian 82 n.4, 87 n.44 Photography, Persuasion, and the
“Berlin dada and the Carnivalesque” Rise of Avant-Garde Photomontage
82 n.4, 86 n.29, 89 n.75 89 n.73
“Transitions: From Expressionism to zines 203–4, 206, 206 n.2
Dada” 86 nn.29–30, 87 n.44, 120 Z magazine 4, 19 n.19, 123 n.63, 132, 150
n.26 n.8, 168
West Bay Dadaist (Quoz?) magazine 199, Zurich, Dada in 34–5, 47 n.2, 57, 61, 67,
201–2 73, 83 n.6, 173, 185
White, Michael 3, 17 n.7 Cabaret Voltaire 1, 25–7, 30, 42, 47 n.2,
“Dada Migrations: Definition, 94, 188
Dispersal, and the Case of Dadaists in 46, 47 n.6
Schwitters” 18 n.14 growth of 46
Wiley, William T. 202 Der Zweemann magazine 195 n.86
Winter, Gundolf, “Zurich Dada and the
Visual Arts,” 49 n.17
238
239
240
241
242
Plate 1 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag, front cover,
10 5∕8 × 8 11∕16 in. (27 × 22 cm). International Dada Archive, Special Collections,
Plate 2 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag, front cover, 10
5∕8 × 8 11∕16 in. (27 × 22 cm). Spencer Collection, New York Public Library.
Plate 3 Dada 3, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1918, Mouvement Dada, front cover,
c. 1917, 13¼ × 911∕16 in. (33.7 × 24.6 cm). International Dada Archive, Special
Plate 4 Der Dada 3, ed. George Grosz, John Heartfield, and Raoul Hausmann,
Plate 5 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919, Mouvement
Dada, limited issue front cover, letterpress and collage on newsprint, 10 13∕16 × 7 5∕16 in.
(27.4 × 18.5 cm), Bibliotheque des Musees de Strasbourg, Photo by Mathieu Bertola.
Licensed under Creative Commons © 2020 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York /
VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Plate 6 Dada 4–5: Anthologie Dada, ed. Tristan Tzara, Zurich, 1919, Mouvement Dada,
limited issue front cover, letterpress and collage on newsprint, 10 13∕16 × 7 5∕16 in. (27.4 ×
18.5 cm). Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (85-S55) © 2020 Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Plate 7 Bleu 3, ed. Gino Cantarelli, Mantua, 1921, front cover. Getty Research
Institute, Los Angeles (87-S869).
Plate 8 “Jugoslavenski, da da, DA DA, DA, DA …: U Osijeku, Royal-kino dne
20. viii. matinée, 1922,” Poster for Dada event, Zagreb, 1922. Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles (2001.PR.1).
Plate 9 75 HP, ed. Ilarie Voronca, Victor Brauner, Bucharest, 1924, front cover.
Kunsthaus Zurich Library.
Plate 10 75 HP, ed. Ilarie Voronca, Victor Brauner, Bucharest, 1924, p. 9. Kunsthaus
Zurich Library.

Dada Magazines - The Making of A Movement (2021)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Dada Magazines - The Making of A Movement (2021)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

List of Illustrations viii

1 Cabaret Voltaire, ed. Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, Meierei Verlag,

I.1 Dada-Jok, ed. Ljubomir Micic, Zagreb, 1922, front cover 2

3.6 391 14, ed. Francis Picabia, Paris, 1920, p. 4 105

In 1922, Croatian painter and writer Branko Ve Poljanski published an anti-

Confronting nationalism and rationality with transnationalism and absurdity,

Through these efforts, they capsized entrenched expectations of art’s originality,

Dada Magazines: A New Vision of Dada

by well-known Dadaists, such as a drawing by Hannah Höch in the first issue of

Literature on Dada Magazines and Book’s Approach

The large number of studies on Dada speak to its ongoing resonance.35

Dada’s most distinguishing and enduring qualities, such as its transnationalism

an avant-garde network. It traces how Tzara framed Cabaret Voltaire, originally

pieces, demanding audience interaction, and exposing the venue as anything

reinvented, and perpetuated Dada as a strategy for aggregating heterogeneous

1 Branko Ve Pokjanski, Dada-Jok, insert in Zenit, 2, 7, 1922, trans. Maja Starćević

24 Here I am borrowing from Bruno Latour’s formulation of actor-network theory

information on the movement, as is Robert Motherwell, ed., The Dada Painters

In 1920, German Dadaist Richard Huelsenbeck recalled,

Intended to insult, Huelsenbeck’s words capture Romanian poet Tristan Tzara’s

“Erklärung” (“Declaration”), presented in spring 1916 at the Cabaret Voltaire,

Cabaret Voltaire: From Anthology to Magazine

Such dynamism in Ball’s publication usually goes unnoticed. Accounts

Promoting a Movement: Cabaret Voltaire

Figure 1.4 Gino Cantarelli, “Costellazione,” manuscript/mock-up of poem published

This exchange, besides expressing irrationality, humor, transnationalism,

ensemble performance at the Cabaret Voltaire and Hennings’s singing of

Promoting a Movement: Dada

Tzara seized upon the periodical to propagate unprecedented heterogeneity.

Dada was a parody of the kind of publication expected of an emerging

Joining the Magazine Network: Cabaret Voltaire and Dada

1 Richard Huelsenbeck, “En Avant Dada: A History of Dadaism” (1920), in The

25 Ball, “Als ich das Cabaret Voltaire gründete … ,” 5. Emphasis mine.

quoted in Dada 15/25: Dokumentation und chronologischer Überblick zu Tzara &

71 Tzara to de Pisis, quoted in Sanouillet, Dada: réimpression intégrale II, 185.

“Every Page Must Explode”: Manipulating the

By thwarting readability, they call attention to magazines’ mediated quality.8

Disseminating “Dada,” Multiplying Interpretations

In response, Tzara reminded Huelsenbeck that Dada was born in Zurich,

Models to Be Outdone: Avant-Garde Magazines in the 1910s

Dada editors looked for inspiration regarding graphic design to preceding

header, “Preisausschreiben! Wer ist der Schönste??” (“Competition! Who is the

Printing Eclecticism, Making Noise

Exposing Codes, Sabotaging Communication, Provoking

The layout of the Dada magazines highlights the diversity of materials it

issues, the woodcut is hand-painted in pale salmon and green watercolor,

triangular woodcut on the same page. In Der Dada 1, a woodcut by Hausmann

Dadaglobe.64 In a limited edition, deluxe issue of Dada 4/5, a woodblock print

From Reproductions of Art to Art for Reproduction

Similarly, Baader used the Dada 2 cover collage to make another

characteristics of exhibitions; they stressed the printed nature of the magazine.

Figure 2.12 Johannes Baader, “Collage Dada (Raoul Hausmann),” c. 1919,

40 Randall Packer, “Glitch Expectations: A Conversation with Jon Cates,”

67 Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in

Printing Artworks, Exhibiting Ephemera: Dada

[The avant-garde’s] force depended on confrontation with a complex social

Interleaved Trajectories of Display: Dada Journals and

Learning from the Magazines: Dada Exhibitions 1920–1921

the Arbeitsgemeinschaft bildender Künstler (Association of Fine Artists, or

des Oberdada” (“The Great Plasto Dio-Dada-Drama: Germany’s Greatness

Figure 3.2 Installation view, Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (“First International

Like the journals, Dada exhibitions goaded audience interaction. Rather

List of Illustrations viii

I.1 Dada-Jok, ed. Ljubomir Micic, Zagreb, 1922, front cover 2

3.6 391 14, ed. Francis Picabia, Paris, 1920, p. 4 105