ERWIN BLUMENFELD. DADA MONTAGES 1916-1933. I was nothing but a Berliner

ERWIN BLUMENFELD (1897-1969)

“Here is a fresh and untroubled spirit . . .” (Cecil Beaton)

Erwin Blumenfeld (1897–1969) was born into a Jewish family in Berlin. In 1941, he left Europe for the United States, where five years later he became a citizen. During the forties and fifties, he was one of the most sought-after fashion photographers in the world. However, most people are not familiar with the artist’s early work: the often bitingly humorous Dada montages he produced between 1916 and 1933.

This book by Helen Adkins, a renowned expert on the Berlin Dada movement, is the first to provide an extensive study of these early works. Blumenfeld did not intend for them to be shown publicly—they were personal gifts to his friends and acquaintances or enclosed in love letters to his fiancée. The approximately one hundred works—including many that have not previously been published and which the author discovered in the artist’s family archives and in other public and private collections—will be examined within the context of Blumenfeld’s life, photographs, drawings, and literary works. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2126-4)

Exhibition schedule: Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Photographie und Architektur, Berlin, February 27–June 1, 2009 ·