HAUSMANN Raoul (1886-1971) Lot n° 180

Melanographies, 1931 Set of four gelatin-silver prints, circa 1960, one is dry stamped under the image; numerous annotations on the back About 40 x 30 cm each Melanographies, 1931 Four gelatin-silver prints, circa 1960, one is dry stamped under the image; numerous annotations on the back About 4.77 x 3.62 inch. each Note: Raoul Hausmann is a painter, sculptor, typographer, poet, theorist and photographer. Although he wrote "I am not a photographer" as a manifesto in 1921, he produced more than two thousand photographs in his lifetime. After assimilating expressionism, he co-founded the Berlin Dada Club in 1918. He then invented photomontage, which became the favorite tool of the Dadaist revolt. He really started to photograph at the end of the 1920s. In 1931, Raoul Hausmann made a series of photos with chairs in Czechoslovakia, looking for abstract variations through the play of superimposed shadows. He called this series Shadows, then, in 1968, designated these "photographic transformations" by the term "Melanographies": "The light makes the shadow. Complementary contrast. The full light makes invisible. Writing with light? The light burns the photosensitive layer, it is BLACK. By printing on paper, we reverse the effect. Concordant contradiction. We only make the image BLACK. The METALOGRAPHY." (R. Hausmann, Mélanographie, Paris, SIC, 1969) His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions (Stockholm in 1967, Musée national d'art moderne de Paris in 1975, Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Etienne in 1994) and his studio collection is now preserved at the Musée départemental de Rochechouart. Raoul Hausmann was a painter, sculptor, typographer, poet, theoretician and photographer. Even though he wrote "I am not a photographer" as a manifesto in 1921, he produced more than two thousand photographs in his lifetime. After assimilating expressionism, he co-founded the Berlin Dada Club in 1918. He then invented photomontage, which became the favorite tool of the Dadaist movement. He really started to photograph at the end of the 1920s. In 1931, Raoul Hausmann made a series of photos with chairs in Czechoslovakia, looking for abstract variations through the play of superimposed shadows. He calls this series Ombres, then, in 1968, designates these "photographic transformations" using the term "Mélanographies": "Light is shadow. "The light makes the shade. Complementary contrast. Full light makes invisible. Writing with light? Light burns the light-sensitive layer, it is BLACK. By printing on paper, we reverse the effect. Concordant contradiction. We only make the image BLACK. The METALOGRAPHY." (R. Hausmann, Melanography, Paris, SIC, 1969) His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions (Stockholm in 1967, National Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 1975, Museum of Modern Art in Saint- Etienne in 1994) and his studio collection is now kept at the Musée départemental de Rochechouart. Provenance: Collection Edmonde et Lucien Treillard, Paris Bibliography: Alain Sayag, Collection de photographies du Musée national d'art moderne, 1905-1948, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1996, p. 217 (AM 1996-526)