Erwin Blumenfeld: Dada Montages 1916-1933

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.