“I see the future development of painting
taking place in workshops…
not in any holy temple of the arts.”
taking place in workshops…
not in any holy temple of the arts.”
First International Dada Fair (Erste Internationale Dada-Messe), Berlin Club Dada, 1920
<< HEARTFIELD CHRONOLOGY - ALL YEARS1916 1917 1918 1919 1920
George Grosz, German Art Innovator
First International Dada Fair, Berlin Club Dada, 1920
The 1920 International Dada Fair (Erste Internationale Dada-Messe) takes place at the gallery of Dr. Otto Burchard. It’s the first and also the last Dada Fair. Giants of the Dada movement, including George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Otto Dix, Johannes Baader, Kurt Schwitters, and John Heartfield, participate.
Prussian Archangel
The “Prussian Archangel,” a sculpture by John Heartfield and Rudolf Schlichter, depicts a pig clad in a German military uniform. It shows a pig wrapped in a German army uniform. The German high command is not amused.
Museum Art As A Distraction
In 1920, John Heartfield and George Grosz wrote Der Kunstlump (Art Rogue), an article that started heated discussions regarding the significance of proletariat art. Grosz feels art in museums exists only to glorify and maintain the existence of the bourgeois class and deflect attention from the war.
Bertolt Brecht, Erwin Piscator, David Berg, et al.
John Heartfield begins a lifelong career as a theatre stage-set and costume designer. He creates stage sets for Piscator’s Proletarisches Theater (Proletarian Theatre).
Fatherhood
John Heartfield’s daughter, Eva, is born.
Heartfield's Prussian Archangel
John Heartfield and Rudolf Schlicter dressed a pig in a Germany military uniform and hung it from the ceiling during The First International Dada Fair in 1920. It was not a huge hit with established authority. The First International Dada Fair in 1920 was also the last. Few tickets were sold and only one piece was bought.
A Reproduction of the gallery including the sculpture Prussian Archangel
First International Dada Fair, Berlin, 1920
The Art Revolutionaries of Berlin Club Dada
Professor John J Heartfield is John Heartfield’s paternal grandson. He gives live interactive presentations around the world that focus on his grandfather’s life and work and modern political art. Please write to him to request his presence at your event or ask any question. He is always pleased to hear from exhibition visitors.
