#christian schad

Christian Schad, Schadograph, 1919

Although cameraless photography had been used since the birth of the medium, it was largely abandoned until the early 20th century, when it was re-invigorated by such figures as Christian Schad, László Moholy-Nagy, and Man Ray. This renewed interest is most often attributed to Man Ray in 1922, but the artist Christian Schad had been using the photogram process for his Dada-inspired work since 1919.

Schad was known primarily as a painter and proponent of Neue Sachlichkeit prior to his brief involvement in Zurich Dada in the late 1910s. In true Dada fashion, he took the photogram out of the realm of traditional art subjects by placing such detritus as scraps of paper and fabric onto light-sensitive paper, resulting in his so-called Schadographs. The name Schadograph was coined by Dada leader Tristan Tzara, as a play on both the artist’s name and ‘the shadowlike character of the pictures’ (Experimental Vision, p. 9).

photo and note from Sotheby’s
Catalogue : 175 Masterworks To Celebrate 175 Years Of Photography: Property from Joy of Giving Something Foundation (Sotheby’s, 11-12 Dec. 2014)