dada Africa

18.3. –17.7.2016

eExhibition texts

Dada Afrika will be the first ever exhibition devoted specifically to the Dadaist reception of art and culture from Africa, America, Asia and Oceania. Like the Expressionists and Cubists, the Dadaists were interested in deploying formal elements from non-Europe-an art to develop a new visual language. However, they went one step further and sought to use foreign cultures as a vehicle for their own social and political protest against Western civilisation.

Their riotous cabaret evenings staged in Zurich fea-tured poetry, drumming and mask dances as expressions of protest against the murderous machinery of the First World War, while their grotesque assemblages and abstractions were designed to subvert the bourgeois norms and values they despised. The first exhibition placing African sculptures on a par with Dadaist art was held in the gallery owned by Han Coray.

The picture the Dadaists drew of the culturally other was derived from travel reports, colonial newspapers and ethnologi-cal museums. Yet Western stereotypes of this world had very lit-tle to do with life as it was really lived in far-off countries. Dadaist artists discovered in the exotic quality of the foreign a liberating alternative world with which they sought to renew their own so-cieties and create a new kind of art.

dadaAfrica

Dialogue with the Other

The first of the four sections of the exhibition, Dada Performance, brings to life the Dadaists’ exploration of foreign cultures through performance. Dada Gallery focuses on how the avant-garde and the African art market influenced one another. Dada Magic uses the collages by Hannah Höch to illustrate how the Dadaists combined foreign art with their own to create a new visual language. Dada Controversy — on the passage to the muse-um’s permanent Africa exhibition — contrasts the Western view of African art with the post-colonial position of the artist Senam Okudzeto.

Texts for the exhibition Dada Africa – Dialogue with the Other in the Museum Rietberg Zurich, 18.3. –17.7.2016

Unknown artistHemba figureEarly 20th century, Democratic Republic of CongoMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RAC 105, Han Coray Collection

This Hemba figure was part of the African collection owned by Han Coray (1880 –1974) and stood in his villa as a “monument to African art”. The Dada exhibition held in his gallery presented the first-ever dialogue between modern art and African art. Han Coray is therefore regarded as having assisted the “birth of Dada”. Museum Rietberg has one of the most significant holdings of the collector’s African pieces.

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John Heartfield and Rudolf SchlichterPrussian Archangel 1920, reconstruction by Isabel Kork and Michael Sellmann, papier-mâché on wire frame Berlinische Galerie, BG-O 7084/93, purchased with project funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Berlin 1988

The assemblage Prussian Archangel is a vicious caricature of the militarism of the First World War and the Weimar Republic. The display window mannequin is wearing a field-grey soldier’s uniform and its right hand has been replaced by a bayonet-like prosthesis. The grotesque pig’s snout reveals the true nature of the times.

George Grosz and John HeartfieldThe Bourgeois Philistine Heartfield Gone Wild (Electro-Mechanical Tatlin Plastic) 1920, reconstruction by Michael Sellmann 1988, tailor’s dummy, revolver, bell, knife and fork, “C”, “27”, false teeth, schwarzer Adlerorden (Order of the Black Eagle), EK II, Osram lightbulb Berlinische Galerie, BG-O 7083/93, purchased with pro-ject funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Berlin 1988

The purpose of this one-legged tailor’s dummy was to condemn the carnage of the First World War. The war cripple is composed of an array of found objects, absurd prostheses and a light as head which can be switched on or off as required. The Dadaists used montages like this to oppose the bourgeois understanding of what art is – and what it is not.

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Raoul HausmannHannah Höch with Hat (I)1915, Berlin, drawingPrivate collection Berlin, Courtesy Grisebach GmbH

Raoul HausmannDraft letter to Oskar Moll with the pen-and-ink drawing “Mask”1915, Berlin, paper, handwritten, pen-and-ink drawing Berlinische Galerie, BG-HHC K 4525/79, purchased with funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Berlin 1979

Unknown artistMaskLate 19th century, Tanzania, Makonde, woodErich-Heckel-Nachlass

Both drawings epitomise the pre-Dada period of the Berlin art-ist Raoul Hausmann, who turned to Dadaism a short time later. Just as the Expressionists and Cubists had adopted a formal and aesthetic primitivism, Hausmann’s drawings were inspired by a Makonde mask which belonged to his fellow painter Erich Heck-el. The mask had been given to Heckel by his brother, who had brought it back from East Africa.

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Foreign cultures formed the basis for the multi-media performances at the Dadaists’ so-called “Soirées nègres”, which used pseudo-African sound-poems, drumming and mask dances as a form of provocation and innovation. The tumultuous performances were intended to shock and alienate audiences and, by referencing alien worlds, also sought to test the performers’ own physical and mental limits and to release emotional and irrational forces. The Dadaists used the culturally other to conjure up what they took for a primeval state of consciousness, in which humankind and cosmos became one and art and reality could no longer be distinguished from each other.

Like Picasso, Kirchner and Nolde, Dada artists such as Marcel Janco, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Hugo Ball and Hans Arp took a keen interest in the cultural others. Borrowing from artefacts from Africa and Oceania, the Dadaists cre-ated works out of new materials, not previously used for art, while in the field of literature, writers like Hugo Ball, Rich-ard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara were inspired by texts from Africa and Australia to experiment with language. However, the Dadaists did not merely copy or adapt exotic elements. Their intention was rather to break the bounda-ries of their own art and language and inspired by foreign cultures to develop a new visual and formal vocabulary.

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Unknown artist Male figure, lefemEarly 20th century, Bangwa region, Cameroon grassfields, woodVölkerkundemuseum Zürich, 10084, Han Coray Collection

This wooden statue is an idealised portrait of a chief of the Bang-wa region in the Cameroon grassfields. The sculpture was pro-duced while the dignitary was still alive and served as a memo-rial to him after his death. The vivid and emotional expression of Cameroonian carvings also appealed greatly to artists such as Marcel Janco.

Marcel JancoDesign for a Dada poster advertising “Le Chant Nègre” event on 31 March 1916Charcoal, smeared on thin sketching paper, mounted on thin vellum and cardKunsthaus Zürich, Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde, Z.Inv.1980/42

Romanian-born Dada artist Marcel Janco (1895 –1984) clearly based this design for a poster on African masks or sculptures. The dynamic movement and aggressive mimicry of the figures create an expressive atmosphere indicating unbridled vitality – an ef-fect that the Dadaist soirées also strove to achieve.

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Unknown photographerHugo Ball: “Verse without Words in Cubist costume”1916, Zurich, photographic reproduction Kunsthaus Zürich, Dada Collection, VI:5

The appearance of Hugo Ball (1886 –1927) as the “magic bishop” is acknowledged as the moment sound poetry was born. His “Cubist costume” complete with scissor hands and “shaman’s hat” was as astonishing as his delivery: chanting the African rhythms of his poem “Karawane” – “Jolifanto bambla ô falli bambla” – he seemingly fell into a trance and had to be carried from the stage.

Unknown photographer Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Dance in “Cubist” costume 1916/17?, Zurich, photographic reproduction Fondation Arp, Clamart

This photograph is the only authentic image of a Dadaist mask along with a costume. The figure, probably Sophie Taeuber-Arp, is wearing an oversized geometric Cubist mask with grotesque facial features. The arching pose of the body and the raised arms testify to performance and dance as essential aspects of Dada soirées.

Marcel JancoJazz 3331918, oil on card Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris, AM 4264 P

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Unknown artist Beaked mask19th/early 20th century, Ivory Coast, Dan region, wood Museum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 423, Paul Guillaume, Han Coray Collection

The mask-like face and bony limbs of the musician in Marcel Janco’s Jazz 333 were intended to convey the supposed primitiv-ism of the new musical style’s rhythms and sounds. The lines are likewise jagged and the paint has been generously applied. The African-inspired noise orgies of the Dada soirées served primarily to channel instinctive, irrational forces.

Unknown artistGrotesque face with a malicious grinFirst half of 20th century, Switzerland, Lötschental, wood, painted, fur, animal teethMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RSz 2, before 1937/38 probably Max Wydler, Zurich; subsequently Eduard von der Heydt, gift of Eduard von der Heydt

Even if no direct relationship can be established between the mask from the Lötschental Valley and that created by Janco, they are certainly linked by what they stand for: taking flight from an “over-civilisation” perceived to be restrictive. While Dadaists were turning bourgeois norms upside down, ethnologists viewed the Fasnacht carnival masks as wild and alien. Both scholars and artists discovered a liberating alternative universe in the exotic

“other”.

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Marcel JancoMask1919, assemblage with paper, card, corrugated board, cord, gouache and pastelMusée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, AM 1221 OA, gift of Marcel Janco 1967

Although the Dada masks were often described as “African”, in terms of materials and style they were more closely associated with masks from Oceania, which were made of perishable natural materials. In Marcel Janco’s case, however, the folk art of his own culture played a key role in his work. Parallels can be found with masked processions from Janco’s native Romania or Swiss Fasnacht carnival masks.

YasutakaHannya maskEdo period, late 18th century, Japan, Ôno-shi, Fukui prefecture, wood with painted frame Museum Rietberg Zürich, RJP 4046, gift of the Swiss-Japanese Society

This Japanese Noh theatre mask represents the spirit of a woman consumed with anger or obsessions, who returns to life to exact revenge. The horns symbolise jealousy, while the gold paint of the eyes and teeth refers to supernatural power. In 1927, Hugo Ball said that the Dada masks evoked “Japanese or ancient Greek the-atre, yet they were completely modern”.

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Marcel JancoMask1919, assemblage with paper, card, wood wool, gouache, pastel and glue Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, AM 1220 OA, gift of Marcel Janco 1967

Masks, along with sound poetry, music and dance, were an im-portant element of the Dadaist soirées in Zurich. Hugo Ball re-called that the first appearance of a mask “dictated a very partic-ular impassioned gesture which bordered on madness” (Hugo Ball, 1927). The seemingly magical effect of the masks in Dada performances emulated the way masks were used in African or Oceanic cultures.

Card advertising Panopticum1900, Zurich, paperRea Brändle Collection

Postcard advertising Dahomey troupe1902, large group on Swiss tour in 1898, paperRea Brändle Collection

Postcard advertising Malabaren troupe promoted by the Hagenbeck brothers1901, performance in Sihlhölzi, paperRea Brändle Collection

The general public came face to face with foreign cultures in public exhibitions of humans called Völkerschauen, which in Swit-zerland as elsewhere continued well into the twentieth century. In Zurich’s Sihlhölzli or Panopticum venues the audience could satisfy their voyeuristic curiosity about the exotic by watching Malabaren acrobats or the bodyguards of the King of Dahomey. Putting these supposedly “wild beings” on show based on racism

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and evolutionism. The audience learned nothing about the com-plex societies they came from.

The foreign in (popular) science books Leo Frobenius, Und Afrika sprach, 1912; Gustav Adolf Ritter, Die Völker der Erde. Afrika, 1904

Books provided one way of satisfying people’s thirst for the foreign, at least to a certain degree. In addition to Karl May’s adventure stories or encyclopaedias, scholarly travel writing and mono-graphs – such as those by Leo Frobenius, an ethnologist specialis-ing in Africa, or Carl Strehlow, a missionary and linguist in Aus-tralia – were also popular. Dadaists like Tristan Tzara explored these sources extensively.

Alphonso Lisk-Carew and Niels W. HolmPostcards from West AfricaEarly 20th century, Sierra Leone and NigeriaPostcard published by Lisk-Carew Brothers and Photoholm, printed in England and Germany

The large numbers of postcards from Africa which circulated around Europe in the early twentieth century did much to shape popular notions of the continent. The way these cards were produced illustrates the entangled historical between Europe and Africa: Alphonso Lisk-Carew did a lively trade in postcards from Sierra Leone. He sent the photos to a printer in England, where the image was printed onto a postcard and a caption added.

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Unknown photographerDisplay of artefacts from Oceania c. 1920, Sammlung für Völkerkunde Zürich, photographic reproduction Archive of the Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich

Unknown photographerThe old and new look of the Berlin Benin Collection Before and after 1926, Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, photographic reproductions Archive of the Ethnologisches Museum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

The ethnological museums commissioned colonial officials, mis-sionaries and explorers to collect huge quantities of ethnographic objects. Yet during the 1920s, prompted by the avant-garde move-ment, museums started to consider these objects in terms of their artistic value rather than purely as ethnographic specimens. Ac-cordingly, ethnological museums reduced the number of exhibits and presented them more attractively.

Unknown artist Boxing match between Arthur Cravan and Jack Johnson in Barcelona bullfighting arena 23 April 1916, poster reproduction

In 1916, the Dada forerunner and dandy Arthur Cravan challenged the African-American boxing champion Jack Johnson to a fight in a bullfighting arena in Barcelona. The two were already friends, and both outsiders in their own societies. This served as a highly physical demonstration of fraternisation between “negro” and

“bianco”, between “wild” and “civilised”. The boxing match is rec-ognised as the first subversive “happening” in the history of art.

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Cabaret Voltaire: a collection of artistic and literary contributions 1916, published by Hugo Ball, Zurich: Meierei, Spiegelgasse 1, City archive Zurich

The publication Cabaret Voltaire from summer 1916 is a collection of key texts by international writers which were read and recited during Dada soirées. Some of the works of art displayed here were exhibited in Cabaret Voltaire. The publication contains the first documented use of the word DADA, by Hugo Ball.

Programme for the “Große Soirée” on 31 Mai 19161916, Meierei, Zurich, reproduction of an advert pub-lished in the previous day’s Zürcher Post

The Dadaist soirées were a blend of song, dance and recitation from a potpourri of genres. The “Große Soirée” in May 1916 con-tained Russian songs, a bruitistic nativity play and a masked dance based on themes from Sudan. At that time the term Sudan denoted sub-Saharan West Africa, and the Dadaists used it to sig-nify “foreign” and “wild” cultures.

Programme of the “authors’ evening” on 14 July 19161916, Zunfthaus zur Waag, ZurichKunsthaus Zürich, DADA Collection, V:8

The programme advertising “Music. Dance. Theory. Manifestos. Images. Costumes. Masks. Verse” hints at the diverse and interdis-ciplinary nature of the evening. The event also included “Chants nègres” and masked dances. The Dadaists’ performances not only showed contempt for Art with a capital A, but also questioned their own ethical standards. They saw a liberating alternative set-ting in the culturally “other”.

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Sophie Taeuber-ArpReplica of a katsina costume 1925 (?) (replica by Ina von Woyski, 2015), assorted fabrics and felt Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau, D S 1903

Sophie Taeuber-ArpDesign for a katsina costume (no. 60)c. 1922, gouache and coloured pencil on paper Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, LS 320

Unknown photographer Erika Schlegel and Sophie Taeuber-Arp in katsina costumes 1925, photographic reproduction Archiv Fondation Arp, Clamart

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889 –1943) made this costume inspired by katsina figures of the Hopi. Based on a draft design which was accurate in every detail, the artist created a colourful costume using her abstract geometrical formal vocabulary. She was moti-vated by a desire to produce artistic designs for everyday objects free from the limitations of genre or geography.

Unknown artistMountain sheep katsina (pangwu)c. 1900, katsina, Hopi, poplar wood, horns, sprouted seeds, feathers, fur, woollen threadNorth American Native Museum (NONAM) Zurich, DA 365, Gottfried Hotz Collection; previously Northern Arizona Museum, Flagstaff, Percival Collection

Katsina figures are depictions of masked dancers from the Hopi Native American tribe. The dancers embody ancestral spirits who function as rainmakers and as intermediaries between humans

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and divine beings. Katsina figures were not regarded as sacred and were consequently produced for the art market at an early stage. Since the late nineteenth century, artists have also been avid collectors of katsina.

Unknown artistBead bag1880 –1910, Lesotho, Drakensberg, South Africa, glass beads, animal sinewFrançois and Claire Mottas Collection, collected by Leng

Unknown artistBead necklace umgingqo1880 –1910, South Africa, Eastern Cape, glass beads, animal sinew, brass button, textilesFrançois and Claire Mottas Collection, collected by Leng

Unknown artistBead belt, umumba/umutsha/umbhijo1880 –1910, South Africa, Drakensberg, Zulu or Sotho re-gion, plant fibres, animal sinew, skin, glass beads, brass buttonFrançois and Claire Mottas Collection

In southern Africa bead art gave women an opportunity to ex-press themselves through design. Chains, belts and bags adorned with beads were used decoratively by women and men. The pat-terns and colours revealed the wearer’s social status, ethnic iden-tity and age group. Glass beads imported from Europe were long reserved for members of the elite, until bead art became more democratic in the late nineteenth century.

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Sophie Taeuber-ArpBourse, formes géométriques1918, silk yarn, silk, woven glass beads Zürcher Hochschule der Künste; Museum für Gestal-tung, Arts and Crafts Collection, KGS 07659

Sophie Taeuber-ArpNecklacec.1918 –1920, beads, threaded, loop technique Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau, D S1915, long-term loan from a private collection

Unknown artistBead pouch, Pompadourc. 1900, Switzerland, artificial silk, beads, yarnPrivate collection

Beading formed an important part of Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s oeuvre until the early 1920s. Her style typically contained geometric and abstract figurative forms, but the works were equally reminis-cent of South African and folkloristic bead art. Taeuber-Arp was a versatile artist who espoused Dadaist calls for an anti-elitist art and hence treated applied and fine art from various cultures as equivalent.

Unknown artistRelic box19th/early 20th century, Democratic Republic of Congo, Azande, wood, bark, raffia Museum Rietberg Zürich, Han Coray Collection

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Sophie Taeuber-ArpPowder compactc. 1918, wood, turned and paintedAargauer Kunsthaus Aarau, long-term loan from a private collection

This wooden powder compact belongs to the oeuvre of the highly versatile Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Although designed by the artist her-self, the shape, material and function recall African containers, like this Azande relic box. The family of the artist’s husband Hans Arp have recounted how Sophie Taeuber-Arp used African vessels as inspiration for similar sculptures.

Raoul HausmannOFFEAH 1918, poster poem, print on orange paper Berlinische Galerie, BG-G 7224/93, purchased with budgetary funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs Berlin 1992

The sound poetry Raoul Hausmann (1886 –1971) composed be-tween 1918 and 1920 seems to adhere neither to the paradigm of the Zurich Dadaists’ “Poème nègre” nor to the urban poetry of Berlin Dada. In contrast to the other Dada sound poets, Hausmann was interested in non-verbal poetry, investigating its experimen-tal potential in both visual – as in this poster – and phonetic form.

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Audio station for sound poetry

Hugo Ball, “Caravane”, 1916 (from Almanach Dada, sur mandat du Bureau central du mouvement Dada allemand, ed. Richard Huelsenbeck, Berlin 1920, p. 53.)

Richard Huelsenbeck, “Die Ebene”, Zurich 1916 ; in : Dada Zürich. Texte, Manifeste, Dokumente, ed. Karl Riha, Stuttgart 2010, p. 75–77

Raoul Hausmann, “bbbb” (from Mecáno No. 2, published by I. K. Bonset (Theo van Doesburg), Leiden 1922)

Dadaist sound poetry was concerned with deconstructing lan-guage constrained by rules and grammar and gaining “authentic” linguistic material. Hugo Ball evoked primitivist “Thèmes Nègres” with his sounds, while Richard Huelsenbeck idolised drum rhythms and Raoul Hausmann broke language down into conso-nants. In a bid to create radical new sound paintings, the Dadaists were no longer concerned with sense or comprehensibility.

Unknown artistDrum19th/early 20th century, Democratic Republic of Congo, probably Songye region, wood, leather Museum Rietberg Zürich, RAC 325, Han Coray Collection

The Dadaist “Soirées Nègres” were a sensually powerful combina-tion of poetry, dance, masks and music. After Richard Huelsen-beck (1892–1974) had joined the Zurich Dadaists from Berlin, the “negro rhythm” was further intensified. Inspired by African drum music and pseudo-African “umba, umba” chants, the Dada activists sought to drum European music and literature “into the ground”.

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Audio station with four musical excerpts James Reese Europe “On Patrol in No Man’s Land” 1919

Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes “Pas de la chicorée frisée” 1920, © LTM Publishing Ltd

“Song from Kalewu” and “Drum music”, Wax cylinder recording in Togo, Ewe, recorded by Julius Smend 1905, Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, Ethnologisches Museum

– Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Smend Togo I, Walze A; Smend Togo II, Walze 8)

The music of the Dada years was influenced by African and African-American musical traditions. Ethnologists brought recordings of non-European languages and music to Europe, which were then made available to the public as records.

Although early jazz was carefully composed, the gen-eral public heard it as uncultivated noise. In the piece by James Reese Europe the bomb blasts evoke rhythmic drumming. The dissonant piano composition by Ribemont-Dessaignes consisted of randomly arranged notes and caused a scandal at its premiere.

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The first exhibitions of Dada art were held in the gallery run by the Zurich art dealer and educational reformer Han Coray. This gallery, located on Paradeplatz, became the centre of their activity following the closure of Cabaret Voltaire in Niederdorf. The focus shifted from the performative elements of the soirées to art exhi-bitions and talks.

In 1917, the Galerie Corray hosted the first exhibition in Switzerland to present Dadaist works in dialogue with African art. Alongside the multi-talented Tristan Tzara, who became the mouthpiece for this international movement following Hugo Ball’s retreat from the strident and noisy Dada, the Paris-based art dealer Paul Guillaume also played an important role in this exhibition by providing the African pieces.

Dada marked the birth of private collections of art from Africa, and in the 1920s, Han Coray became one of the most impor-tant Swiss collectors of African art. Museum Rietberg still hous-es 250 unique objects from his enormous collection. Like Coray, Tristan Tzara developed an obsessive passion for collecting art from Africa and Oceania and used this alongside non-European literature for his “Poèmes nègres”.

The reciprocal influence of the avant-garde and the African art market is also reflected in the medium of photography. Man Ray, who came to Paris from New York in 1921, used the arte-facts procured by Paul Guillaume as a basis for his own art. Both Man Ray’s own works and the photographed African sculptures became icons of art history.

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Marcel Janco1re Exposition Dada: Cubistes, Art nègre, Galerie Corray1917, exhibition poster, paper, printed Kunsthaus Zürich, DADA Collection, V:48 / B 51 B 1

The poster for the first Dada exhibition in Han Coray’s gallery, named Galerie Corray, was designed by Marcel Janco. The adver-tisement for Cubist and African art and Tristan Tzara’s lectures was framed in an endless row of letters reading DADADADA. Han Coray was the Dadaists’ gallerist only for a short period, but his input was essential in developing the Dadaist notion of the gallery.

Unknown artistMale figureLate 19th/early 20th century, Ivory Coast, Baule region, woodPrivate collection, Paul Guillaume, Leon Bachelier Collection

Parisian art dealer Paul Guillaume, who was in contact with Tristan Tzara, sent this wooden sculpture to Han Coray’s gallery in 1917 for the first Dada exhibition. It was the first time in Switzerland that European and non-European artefacts had been juxtaposed as equals. In the following years, both Han Coray and Tristan Tzara began collecting African art.

Hans Arp Crucifixionc. 1914 Oil on canvas Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth, 001.611

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Hans Arp’s (1886 –1966) quest for a renewal of art led him to experi-ment with textiles. Weaving and embroidery using wool replaced the easel painting he despised as bourgeois. Diagonally arranged geometric shapes dominate the centre of the picture here. This oil painting served as a model for what Arp considered to be the much more important tapestry, which hung in Cabaret Voltaire in 1916 and featured in the first Dada exhibition in 1917. Alongside black and beige, the use of red lends the composition an emotion-ally charged element.

Hans ArpBird mask1918, woodStiftung Arp e. V., Berlin /Rolandswerth, 002.491

This relief is a radical new three-dimensional design illustrat-ing Hans Arp’s pursuit of new artistic forms of expression, which are also found in his collages and textile works. The bird mask is neither representational nor abstract. Eyes and a beak can be discerned in the amorphous, geometrical form, comparable with a flexible mask that can be slipped onto a face.

Circle of the Master of Yasua MaskLate 19th/early 20th century, Ivory Coast, Guro region, woodMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 506, Paul Guillaume, Carel Van Lier, Han Coray, Kunstgewerbemuseum der Stadt Zürich

The symmetry of this mask is emphasised by the erect ears and geometrical hairstyle. The facial scars frame the narrow nose, finely contoured eyes and pointed teeth. Paul Guillaume sold it

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to Carel van Lier, an avant-garde art dealer in Amsterdam who exhibited his collection in the city’s Stedelijk Museum in 1927. It was one of the earliest exhibitions of non-European art in an art museum.

Master of GohitaflaFemale figurec. 1900, Ivory Coast, Guro region, wood Museum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 309, Han Coray Collection

According to Emmy Hennings, an African sculpture of a “love-ly negro woman” stood in an exhibition at Galerie Dada in 1917. While “the foreign” made only a fleeting appearance at the tumultuous cabaret evenings, in Galerie Dada there was a tangible interaction between artefacts from Africa and the most recent works of various artistic movements – Sturm, Cubism, Futurism and Dada.

Unknown artistKnife with ivory handle 19th/early 20th century, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mangbetu region, iron, ivory Museum Rietberg Zürich, RAC 19, Han Coray Collection

Hans ArpAs a Consequence of a Collage1914 Wool Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth, 003.708

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Sophie Taeuber-ArpAbstract motif (masks)1917, gouache on paper Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth, 003.551

Unknown artistAncestor statue 19th century, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bembe region, woodVölkerkundemuseum Universität Zürich, 10153, Han Coray Collection

Unknown artistMale figure for the ekoho society19th/early 20th century, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ndengese region, wood, polychromeVölkerkundemuseum Universität Zürich, 10151, Han Coray Collection

Unknown photographer View into Villa Haldengut, owned by Han Coray 1920s, Erlenbach, photographic reproduction Pieter Coray Collection

These two figures from Congo once stood on the mantelpiece in Han Coray’s villa. In his “museum of all peoples and eras”, old fur-niture and tapestries, paintings and sculptures from the Western world mingled with pieces from his extensive African collection. The seated figures in these memorial statues exude tremendous dignity and calm. The ornamentation recalls proverbs and songs of praise.

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Hans RichterPortrait of Han Coray1916, brushwork on black on tracing paper Kunsthaus Zürich, Graphic Collection, Z.Inv.1992/0034

Han Coray always maintained close contact to artists, support-ing them by providing accommodation and studios, purchas-ing their pictures and exhibiting their works in his gallery. It is thus no coincidence that one of Hans Richter’s many portraits depicts Coray.

Han Coray: Neulandfahrten. Ein Buch für Eltern, Lehrer, Kinder1912, Leipzig/Aarau/Vienna

Before Han Coray became a Dada gallerist and collector of Afri-can artefacts, he had been a teacher. His progressive approach to education was presented in his main work Neulandfahrten (Jour-neys to a New Land: A Book for Parents, Teachers and Children), which contained children’s drawings and poems as well as clas-sical and modern writings and works. The cover was designed by his brother-in-law, the Schaffhausen painter Philipp Hössli. Many Dada artists were impressed by this revolutionary textbook.

Letter from Han Coray to Marcel Janco8 February 1967, Agnuzzo Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich, archive

Han Coray’s slim volume Neulandfahrten received enthusiastic reviews from Dada artists such as Marcel Janco. In 1966, Janco commented: “I steadfastly carried this book around with me, and viewed it as the very embodiment of Dada”. Han Coray expressed his gratefulness in this letter to Marcel Janco. Both naïve children’s

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art and so called “primitive” art were thought to have a natural and creative quality believed to have been lost in European art.

Exhibition catalogues from the Han Coray Collection1931/1932, Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich, archive

In the early 1930s, Han Coray was at the peak of his passion for collecting. In 1931 and 1932 there were four exhibitions of his Af-rican collection: at the Museum of Arts and Crafts Zurich, at the museums of applied arts and design in Winterthur and Basel, and at Munich’s Ethnological Museum. Coray’s collection comprised over 2,500 highly varied items, from unique objects to entire series.

Han Coray Collection: Schweizerische Volksbank book of photographs1940s, Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich, archive

In the late 1920s Han Coray was heavily in debt. The Schweizeri-sche Volksbank took a large portion of his African collection as se-curity, had it inventoried and photographed by the Ethnological Museum in Zurich, and then finally sold it off in the 1940s. Eduard von der Heydt purchased around 150 objects, and the Zurich Mu-seum of Arts and Crafts approximately 200. This formed the basis for Museum Rietberg’s Coray Collection.

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Index card of a Guro mask (RAF 466) in Museum RietbergMuseum Rietberg Zürich, archive

Han Coray’s collection is among the most important holdings of Museum Rietberg’s Africa section. According to the inventories, a total of 250 items can be traced back to Coray. Research into the provenance of this Guro mask has revealed that Han Coray bought it from the Parisian art dealer Paul Guillaume, who also supplied the African artefacts for the first Dada exhibitions in Zurich.

First Dada exhibition: Contemporary Painting, African Sculpture, Old Art1917, exhibition catalogue Galerie Corray ZurichKunsthaus Zürich, DADA Collection, DADA IV: 5

The first Dada exhibition was held in Han Coray’s gallery. After Cabaret Voltaire had closed, the Dadaists discovered Coray as a patron who not only provided them with a venue but also gave them some financial assistance. The Zurich show was the first time modern art and African art had been treated as equals in a Suisse exhibition.

Advert for the Sturm exhibition in Galerie Dada29 March 1917, reproduction of an advert published in the previous day’s Zürcher Post

Programme for the Old and New Art event on 28 April 1917 1917, Zürich, ReproKunsthaus Zürich, DADA Collection, V:45

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Tristan Tzara Typescript for a lecture in Galerie Corray1917, Zurich, paper, printed Kunsthaus Zürich, DADA Collection, V:54

Invitation to an evening lecture by Tristan Tzara1917, Zürich, ReproKunsthaus Zürich, DADA Collection, V:80

Tristan Tzara (1896–1963), co-founder of Cabaret Voltaire and driv-ing force of the Dada movement, first appeared on the scene with his art history lectures in Galerie Corray and Galerie Dada in 1917. His topics were Cubism, old and new art and contemporary art. Tzara emphasised the intrinsic relationships between all these creations, despite their wide geographical and temporal diver-gence. This was a revolutionary viewpoint at that time.

Tristan Tzara: “Negro Songs” Dada Almanac, commissioned by the Central Office of the German Dada Movement, published by Richard Huelsenbeck, Berlin 1920

The Dada Almanac contained four “Negro Songs” by Tristan Tzara. Tzara had read ethnological texts describing rituals, songs and cult activities in Oceanic and African societies in Zurich’s main library. While some poems remained virtually unchanged, others blended the original language with a translation or added sen-tence fragments to create a wild and confusing Dada construction.

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Les Ecrits de Paul Guillaume: Une Esthetique Nouvelle / L’Art Negre / Ma Visite à La Fondation Barnes, Paris 1993

The Parisian art dealer Paul Guillaume dealt in avant-garde works of art as well as those from Africa. Starting in 1916 he published key writings on art theory, describing a new aesthetic which accorded African art equal status to that of Europe, as well as its own creative power and historical originality. Guillaume made African sculptures available to the Zurich Dadaists and became Coray’s most important dealer.

Carl Einstein: NegerplastikLeipzig 1915 Museum Rietberg and Völkerkundemuseum der Univer-sität Zürich, archive, libraries

In his book Negerplastik (Negro Sculpture), Carl Einstein was one of the first people to place African art on a par with that of Eu-rope. The glossy pictures of African sculptures and theoretical essays about the influence of Cubism on modernism were well received by artists and intellectuals. The collector of African objects Han Coray wrote a personal dedication to a friend in this copy of the book to mark her engagement.

Unknown artist Beaded mask19th/20th century, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kuba region, wood, beads, kauri shells, textileMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RAC 404, Gift of Eduard von der Heydt

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Unknown artistHeddle pulley19th/early 20th century, Ivory Coast, Guro and Baule region, wood Museum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 551, RAF 553, RAF 475, Han Coray Collection, gift of Eduard von der Heydt (RAF 551 und 553)

Han Coray had a deep affinity to the African continent, a connec-tion which motivated him to collect and present the art, cultures and religions of Africa. The 1931 African art exhibition at the Mu-seum of Arts and Crafts in Zurich presented every aspect of his collection, from heddle pulleys to masks, receptacles and tools, each item testifying to a sophisticated level of artistry.

View of the “Negro Art” exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zurich1931, photographic reproduction Kunstgewerbemuseum Zürich

In 1931, the Museum of Arts and Crafts of the City of Zurich presented an African art exhibition entitled “Negro Art” largely comprising works from Han Coray’s collection. Shown in combi-nation with copies of prehistoric rock paintings which Leo Frobe-nius had commissioned on an expedition to South Africa, the exhibition illustrated the artistry and historicity to be found on the African continent.

Han Coray as an Aardgeist or “earth spirit” (a label bestowed upon him by his wife Dorrie Coray-Stoop)c. 1920, photographic reproduction Pieter Coray Collection

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Han Coray (1880 –1974) was a moderniser throughout his life. Hav-ing grown up as an orphan, he followed the progressive Reform-pädagogik educational approach, both as a teacher and then later as a gallerist and patron of the arts. His receptiveness to contem-porary artistic activity took him into the Dada circle for a short period. Even if he has never been in Africa, in the 1920s Han Coray amassed a prodigious African art collection.

Man RayBy Itself II1918, woodKunsthaus Zürich, 1988/89

Unknown workshopSpoon19th century, Gabon, woodMusée du quai Branly, 71.1886.77.31

As an experimental artist, Man Ray’s (1890–1976) complex œuvre traces the reception of non-European art in Europe and the Unit-ed States. This sculpture, made of assorted pieces of wood, reflects the expansion of collage into three dimensions. Not only does the figure stand alone, “by Itself”, but in a metaphorical sense it has almost been created by itself.

Man RayIdole du pêcheur1926, corkGalerie 1900–2000, Paris, David and Marcel Fleiss Collection

As Man Ray was walking across the beach at Biarritz in the sum-mer of 1926, he was struck by the beauty of a few pieces of cork

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which had been washed up by the waves. What had originally been the floats of fishing nets and sections of life buoys were now shaped anew by the natural elements. He mounted the pieces of cork to create a witty yet tragic figure which recalls the idols of Easter Island.

Unknown artistAncestral figure 19th century, Chile, Easter Island, wood, shellMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RPO 309, collected in situ by Walter Knoche 1911, gift of Eduard von der Heydt

The most well-known figures on Easter Island are the imposing monolithic sculptures, some of them twenty metres tall, stand-ing in carefully arranged rows on hills and near the coast. Recall-ing gods and ancestors, they were erected at places of worship and burial sites. The much smaller wooden sculptures also repre-sent ancestors but were produced for sale early on.

Man RayPhotograph of a Fang mask owned by Paul Guillaume1921, photographic reproduction © Man Ray Trust / 2016, ProLitteris, Zürich

Man RayPhotograph of a Punu mask owned by Paul Guillaume1921, photographic reproduction © Man Ray Trust / 2016, ProLitteris, Zürich

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Man RayBlack and White391 magazine, July 1924© Man Ray Trust / 2016, ProLitteris, Zürich

After Man Ray came to Paris from New York in 1921, he started taking photographs of African and Oceanic items from private collections, museums and curiosity shops. In the process of transforming the objects into dynamic black-and-white photo-graphs he discovered their creative power. The 1924 photograph Black and White presented a neo-classicist European sculpture fac-ing a Baule sculpture from Ivory Coast. A few years later Man Ray created the iconic photograph Noire et blanche.

Unknown workshop Bow of a war canoe 18th century, New Zealand, Maori, wood Museum Rietberg Zürich, RPO 12, W.O. Oldman, Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, Arthur Speyer, purchased with funds from Eduard von der Heydt

This ornate eighteenth-century carving was the bow of a Maori war canoe. It is decorated with human images: the face, body and associated motifs. In Maori culture art was related to ancestor worship. The “Toto Waka” song used by Tristan Tzara has no reli-gious significance, however, and was sung while hauling a canoe over dry land.

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Audio station – “Toto Waka” Tristan Tzara, “Toto Vaca”, 1920, in Huelsenbeck, Richard: Dada Almanach, New York 1966 (first edition 1920), p. 51

“Toto Waka” in Maori and German, in Bücher, Karl: Arbeit und Rhythmus 1909 (first edition 1899), p. 173–175

Tristan Tzara’s “Poèmes nègres” are not Dada sound poems: Tzara did extensive research into ethnological sources such as Maori songs. “Toto Vaca” was published in its original language as “Toto Waka” and Tzara made a few minor alterations, and is thus con-sidered to be a readymade of sound poetry. The Maori language was very alien and incomprehensible to most European readers, so what remained was its rhythm and sound.

Unknown artist Crocodile sculpture, clan emblemEarly 20th century, Papua New Guinea, Middle Sepik, wood, with natural pigments Musée du quai Branly, Paris, 70.2010.32.1, Tristan Tzara Collection

Unknown artist MaskEarly 20th century, Ivory Coast, Bete/Guro region, wood, monkey skin, plant fibres, metallic pigmentsMusée du quai Branly, Paris, 73.1988.2.1, Tristan Tzara Collection

It is not known exactly when Tristan Tzara started amassing his exquisite collection of African and Oceanic works of art. His pas-sion for collecting was inspired by the interplay between the Af-rican art market, his own work with ethnological sources and his interest in modern primitivist art. His collection was dissolved and auctioned off in 1988.

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The collages and assemblages by Hannah Höch and Raoul Hausmann date mainly from the 1920s – the heyday of Dada-ism in Berlin. In contrast to Zurich, Berlin Dada breathed the air of revolt, infused with nationalism and militarism, that emanated from the street battles of the post-war pe-riod. The creative frenzy of Dada in Zurich articulated itself in Berlin as a political and socially critical polemic.

The Dadaist creations of Hannah Höch illustrate the magical effects obtained by juxtaposing familiar and foreign images. For her collage series Aus einem ethnographischen Mu-seum, the Berlin Dada artist cut up newspapers and fashion magazines as well as Alfred Flechtheim’s avant-garde journal Der Querschnitt, which presented modernist paintings alongside photographs of non-European artefacts — includ-ing pieces acquired by Museum Rietberg’s founding dona-tor, the collector Eduard von der Heydt. Hannah Höch put all these elements together to produce a new kind of aesthetic. This exhibition for the first time displays Höch’s disquieting collages alongside the originals from Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Hannah Höch’s photomontages have been inter-preted as a critique of ideas about modern femininity, about the familiar and the foreign and about identity and alterity. Höch’s carefully composed and associative collage world is anti-hierarchical and propagates the equal worth of differ-ent cultural phenomena.

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Hannah HöchNever Keep Both Feet on the Ground 1940, collage, photomontage Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V., Stuttgart, 1982/286

Hannah HöchUntitled (From an Ethnographic Museum) 1929, collage Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Hamburg

In both collages the head of the airy creature consists of a pic-ture of a Pende mask. While the celestial bird floats over a cloud of six pairs of legs belonging to ballet dancers, the black-legged

“cephalopod” jumps into the tangle. Hannah Höch’s themes here are dance and playfulness, reminiscing on the Dada soirées, yet

“otherness” is also a standard component in her compositions.

Der Querschnitt, founded by Alfred Flechtheim, published by H. v. WedderkopJanuary 1925, no. 1, Berlin: Propyläen-Verlag

Unknown workshopPendants, ikhokoEarly 20th century, Democratic Republic of Congo, eastern Pende region, ivory Museum Rietberg Zürich, Eduard von der Heydt Collection

These little pendants are not portraits of people, as that might be taken as evidence of witchcraft, but rather imitations of various Pende masked figures. The pendants from Ivory Coast were highly popular up until the independence of Congo, symbolising African solidarity as well as resistance to the Belgian colonial state.

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Hannah HöchConfectionary box with several magazine excerpts, scissors and brush [undated]Berlinische Galerie

Hannah HöchHistory of Sculpture of All Peoples through the Ages1915, preparatory work for Emil Orlik’s class at the School of Arts and Crafts in Charlottenburg, BerlinBerlinische Galerie

Hannah Höch studied at Berlin’s School of Arts and Crafts close to the city’s Ethnological Museum. It can thus be assumed that her preliminary draft of a book cover is directly related to the objects displayed there from North America and Oceania. Höch’s explora-tion of foreign artefacts, which she later continued in her collages in a very different manner, may well have started at this point.

Der Querschnitt, founded by Alfred Flechtheim, published by H. v. Wedderkop,Summer 1926, no. 6, Berlin: Propyläen-Verlag

Der Querschnitt, founded by Alfred Flechtheim, published by H. v. Wedderkop,September 1926, no. 9, Berlin: Propyläen-Verlag

The magazine Der Querschnitt presented an image of a Sepik flute or-nament next to a photograph of the African-American actor Johnny Hudgins – both with a feather headpiece. The tension between a fig-ure from Papua New Guinea and a mime artist labelled as the “black Charlie Chaplin” could not have been greater. The European success

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of the imported jazz and show scene corresponded with the reception of non-European art and music which had been catalysed by Dada.

Hannah HöchAlbum (scrapbook)1933, collage on magazine pages, 57 sheets (114 pages)Berlinische Galerie, purchased with funding from DKLB, Berlin 1979

Hannah Höch stuck 400 photographs into this very personal “album”, and for once she did not cut them up in the style of her favoured medium, collage. Her interests were broadly defined, reflecting the major themes of the Weimar republic: film and photography, nature, ethnology and exoticism, sport and dance, face and body, as well as the “new woman” in general.

Unknown photographerHannah Höch with Dada dolls in Berlin1920, silver gelatine paper, reprint of an original glass negativeBerlinische Galerie, purchased with funding from the Department of Science and Cultural Affairs, Berlin 1979

Hannah Höch (1889 –1978) was a Berlin artist specialising in graphic design and photomontage, but she also used dolls as a medium. As one of the few female Dada artists her collages have now become iconic Dada works. The series “From an Ethnographic Museum” created between 1922 and 1931 explores how otherness is determined and stereotyped.

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Richard HuelsenbeckDada Almanac, commissioned by the Central Office of the German Dada Movement1920, Berlin: Erich Reiß. Incomplete copy cut up by Hannah Höch Berlinische Galerie

The Dada Almanac, which was actually a yearbook or calendar, contains a collection of important writings on the Dada move-ment between 1916 and 1920. These include Tristan Tzara’s “Zu-rich Chronicle”, statements by Richard Huelsenbeck (such as “A Dadaist is someone who is alive”) and other recollections, thoughts and poems. The Dada Almanac is thus a key source for the Dada era, which otherwise lacked written and photographic documentation.

John HeartfieldBook cover for Afrika in Sicht – Ein Reisebericht über fremde Länder und abenteuerliche Menschen 1928, paper on card Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Museum für Gestal-tung, Graphic Collection

John Heartfield designed the cover for Afrika in Sicht (Africa in Sight – Travel Writing about Strange Lands and Adventurous Peo-ple), a volume of travel writing by Richard Huelsenbeck. On the front a European officer points his long telescope at exotic palms silhouetted in the distance. The back was supposed to show a young African couple in elegant Western clothing standing in front of a modern building. By turning the gaze of European ex-plorers to urban inhabitants in Africa (rather than “members of tribes”) Heartfield is undermining Western notions of an exotic and foreign Africa.

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Unknown workshopFlute ornamentEarly 20th century, Papua New Guinea, Sepik, Yuat area, wood, mother of pearl, seeds, hair, plant fibres, pigmentsMusée du quai Branly, 71.1960.112.6.1, J.F.G. Umlauff, Eduard von der Heydt, Charles Ratton, Claudius Cote

Flutes with this kind of carved ornament were played in the Sepik region at initiation ceremonies and exchanged ceremonially between closely affiliated clan members, which enhanced the power and reputation of the clan. Umlauff, a company which dealt in natural history specimens from 1869 onwards and sub-sequently expanded its trading to include ethnographic materi-als, brought items such as these to Europe via expedition ships and explorers.

Hannah HöchUntitled (From an Ethnographic Museum) 1929, collage/facsimileKupferstichkabinett SMB, Berlin

The collage consists of a fragment of an image of a North-West American totem pole, the top half of a naked woman and the upper part of a flute ornament from the Sepik region. A mu-seum-style plinth provides a visual counterweight. Hannah Höch’s art questions the separation of we and the other, female and male.

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Hannah HöchFrom an Ethnographic Museum No. VIII: Memorial I1924 –1928, collage on cardBerlinische Galerie, purchased with funding from Stif-tung DKLB and funding from the Department of Sci-ence and Art, Berlin 1973

The figure is formed out of a picture of a mask and a statue of the Theban goddess Toeris, both taken from the magazine Der Querschnitt (1924 and 1925). The left leg with a white shoe comes from a photograph of a film actress which appeared in the newspa-per Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung (1928). The hybrid creature on the plinth questions the presentation of African, Asian and American works of art in museums.

Master of BuafleMask with horns, gu19th century, southern Guro region, Ivory Coast, woodMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 466, purchased by Paul Guillaume, later Han Coray Collection

Contrary to the assumption that African art was carved by anony-mous woodcarvers in a style typical of a particular tribe, this mask features forms which are characteristic for the artist known as the Master of Buafle. Examples of this are the curved profile with its high forehead, slanting eyes and smiling mouth. Gu masks such as these represent a female creature and are used by masked Guro dancers.

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Hannah HöchDada dolls1916/1918, textiles, card and beads Berlinische Galerie, BG-O 1751/79, purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB, Berlin 1979 (reconstruction by Isabel Kork and Barbara Kugel), gift of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Spain 1988

Hannah Höch presented herself many times with her Dada dolls, indeed sometimes she was dressed as a doll herself. It is difficult here to work out who is real and who is a doll, with the dividing line erased between human and object, animate and inanimate, self and other. Höch’s Dada dolls can, moreover, be regarded as tongue-in-cheek replicas of the way primitivism was adapted by contemporary artists.

Robert SenneckeUntitled (Hannah Höch and Raoul Hausmann at the First International Dada Fair in Berlin, Dr. Otto Burchard’s Art Salon)1920, reproduction of a vintage print Berlinische Galerie, BG-FS 077/94,4, purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB, Berlin 1979

In contrast to Zurich, Dada in Berlin was less about performance and more about politically motivated revolt. Dada Berlin was directed not just against the bigoted morality which continued even after the end of the First World War, but also against the nationalism and militarism of the Weimar Republic. Both the Da-dasoph Raoul Hausmann and the collage artist Hannah Höch cre-ated art that was political rather than pleasing to the eye.

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Hannah HöchUntitled (From an Ethnographic Museum)1930, collageMuseum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Hamburg

The depiction of the torso of the goddess Uma, taken from the October 1929 edition of the magazine Der Querschnitt, connects Hannah Höch with the undressed upper half of a white woman with bobbed hair. The fragment is thus combined to form a whole. The oversized eye as a critical spirit – a frequent theme in Höch’s work – comes from another photographic reproduction.

Unknown artistTorso of the goddess UmaLate 9th/early 10th century, Cambodia, Khmer empire, sandstoneMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RHI 5, gift of Eduard von der Heydt, previously C.T. Loo, Paris

The sculpture comes from a temple complex in the famous town of Angkor, the former capital of the Khmer kings in Cambodia. Eu-ropean archaeologists started excavating the temple city back in the nineteenth century, and soon afterwards the first statues and bronzes from Angkor were being traded. This was how C.T. Loo, a leading Parisian art dealer, came to sell items to private collectors and public museums.

Unknown photographer Untitled (Mechanical Head, 1919, by Raoul Hausmann)New print of original glass negative by Floris NeusüssBerlinische Galerie, Edition Griffelkunst, Hamburg, 2002

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The assemblage Mechanical Head is regarded as a Dada icon, for it symbolises the negation of the traditional notion of art. Materials completely unrelated to art – a wooden ruler, a card bearing the number 22 and a telescopic beaker – have been attached to a wig stand. Like the Kongo power figure, the sculpture thus becomes magically charged as a Dada reliquary.

Unknown artistPower figure, nkisi n’kondiBefore 1892, Vili, Loango, Kongo, wood, metal, glass, textiles, plant fibres, colour pigments, resinMusée du quai Branly, 71.1892.70.6, collected by Joseph Cholet 1892 in Congo

In the kingdom of Kongo minkisi figures (singular nkisi) were en-dowed with special powers to repel danger, pursue witches and heal illness. This was achieved by means of efficacious plant or animal substances, but also through goods imported from Europe. In the power figure on display here, the medicine container in the belly has been emptied, but the whole body is still covered with iron nails and blades.

Unknown artistHelmet mask bo nun amuin with costume First half of the 20th century, Ivory Coast, mask: Baule region, wood; costume: Guro region, plant fibresMuseum Rietberg Zürich, 2015.190a, b, collected by Hans Himmelheber (mask) and Eberhard Fischer and Lorenz Homberger (costume), gift of Barbara and Eberhard Fischer

In Western collections there are very few mask and costume com-binations, for “masks” were aesthetically reduced to the wooden

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section for the head. In Africa, however, the costume, the music, the movement and the interaction with the audience were all part of a masked performance. These lively, performative aspects were revived by the Dadaists in performances that spanned sev-eral artistic genres, including masked dances and drum rhythms.

Hannah HöchFrom an Ethnographic Museum No. X, [1924/1925]Collage on card Berlinische Galerie, purchased with funding from Stif-tung DKLB, Berlin 1979

Hannah HöchWith cap: From an Ethnographic Museum No. XI1924, collage on card Berlinische Galerie, BG-G 00061/75, purchased with funding from Stiftung DKLB and from the Department of Science and Art, Berlin 1982

For both collages Hannah Höch cut up a picture of a Baule mask and used it twice. The upper part of the mask with horns is supplemented by an icy smile, while the lower part of the mask is crowned by the cap of a uniform. The collages symbolise not only masculinity and power, but also the militarism of both the First World War and the colonial era.

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Carl Einstein was one of the first to call African sculptures and masks “art” in his publication Negerplastik (1915). The illustrated sections of the book were enthusiastically re-ceived by avant-garde artists, including Dadaists like Han-nah Höch and Raoul Hausmann. Han Coray also owned a copy of Negerplastik. At the same time, calls for aesthetic re-newal — using the cubic forms of African art as a model — were also politically motivated: Carl Einstein saw in the art of Africa the basis for the emergence of a new type of person and artist, yet the aesthetic and political significance as-cribed to African artefacts continued to be largely informed by Western discourse.

By contrast, contemporary artists from Afri-ca and the African diaspora have called into question Western ideas about the African continent, regarding them as traditional and static. The post-colonial art-ist Senam Okudzeto (Ghana, UK, USA) explores what she calls “Afro-Dada” practices and methods in works like Portes Oranges. Like the Dadaists before her, Senam Okudze-to gives everyday objects a new meaning by using them as readymades. The metal orange holders originated from orange sellers in Ghana, who sell their wares in the street and at bus stops. The installation, made out of utensils with female connotations, is intended as an ironic comment on the phallic dimension of Marcel Duchamp’s iconic Bottle Rack (1914) and at the same time as a symbol of modern ur-ban Africa.

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Unknown artistAmulet19th century, Hungan region, Democratic Republic of Congo, ivory or hippopotamus tooth Museum Rietberg Zürich, RAC 262, previously Carl Einstein Collection

Avant-garde artists owed their knowledge of African art to the artist and author Carl Einstein, who published his ground-break-ing work Negerplastik in 1915. Einstein personally owned several African works, including this small ivory figure, which he valued so highly that it stood on his desk.

Unknown atelierSeated figure with shackles 19th century, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bena Kanioka region, woodMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RAC 305, Charles Vignier, Charles Ratton, gift of Eduard von der Heydt

Little is known about the background of this figure. The well-groomed hair and upright posture indicate a high-ranking person. It is therefore thought to be a captured dignitary. Although the sculpture’s dynamic posture is somewhat atypical, Carl Einstein included it in the African art canon in his publication Negerplastik.

Unknown artistSculpture of head, cap of a dance stick 19th century, Gabon, Kuyu region, wood, colour pigmentsMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 981, gift of Eduard von der Heydt

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Unknown artistHead mask nyangbai19th century, Guinea, Toma region, wood, painted black Museum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 21, gift of Eduard von der Heydt

Unknown workshopMask kodal19th/early 20th century, Ivory Coast, Senufo region, woodMuseum Rietberg Zürich, RAF 304, gift of Eduard von der Heydt

Senam OkudzetoPortes Oranges2007, installation in MoMA PS1 New York, iron, oranges, private collection

Orange-sellers in Ghana offer their wares on stands such as this. Senam Okudzeto gives them new meaning as a Dada-inspired readymade. The metal structures illustrate the harsh working conditions endured by women in urban Africa. Contemporary artists such as Senam Okudzeto locate themselves in a globalised art world while also presenting a specifically African post-coloni-al perspective.

The texts for Nr. 38 and 79 are spoken by Celia Caspar, Roman Haselbacher and Hans Schmidt.

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