About the Seduction of an Angel

  ringl+pit, Bertolt Brecht, 1931

About the Seduction of an Angel 
Bertolt Brecht, 1948

Angels can not be seduced at all or quickly.
Pull him into the entryway,
stick your tongue in his mouth and reach

under his robe, til he gets wet; put
his face to the wall, lift his robe
and fuck him.  If he stares in anguish
then hold him tightly and let him come two times;
otherwise, by the end, he'll be in shock.

Admonish him so he sways his butt;
let him know he's free to grab your balls.
Tell him he can fall without fear
while he is hanging between earth and heaven -

but don't look him in the face while you are fucking him
and, for heaven's sake, don't crush his wings.

 

Kees van Dongen, Tango of the Archangel, 1922

 

Über die Verführung von Engeln
Bertolt Brecht, 1948

Engel verführt man gar nicht oder schnell.
Verzieh ihn einfach in den Hauseingang
Steck ihm die Zunge in den Hals und lang

Ihm untern Rock, bis er sich nass macht, stell
Ihn, das Gesicht zur Wand, heb ihm den Rock
Und fick ihn.
Stöhnt er irgendwie beklommen
Dann halt ihn fest und lass ihn zweimal kommen
Sonst hat er dir am Ende einen Schock.

Ermahn ihn, dass er gut den Hintern schwenkt
Heiß ihn dir ruhig an die Hoden zu fassen
Sag ihm, er darf sich furchtlos fallen lassen
Dieweil er zwischen Erd und Himmel hängt -

Doch schau ihm nicht beim Ficken ins Gesicht
Und seine Flügel, Mensch, zerdrück sie nicht.

Antonio Donghi

 Antonio Donghi, Self-Portrait, 1942

Antonio Donghi (1897-1963) was born in Rome. He studied painting at the Istituto di Belle Arti in Rome (1908–16) before military service in France. Donghi soon established himself as one of Italy's leading figures in the neoclassical movement that arose in the 1920s. In the post-World War I "return to tradition" of the Scuola Romana he shared an interest in 17th- and 18th-century painting with Francesco Trombadori and Carlo Socrate, with whom he exhibited at the Rome Biennale of 1923.  

 Antonio Donghi, Giocoliere (Juggler), 1926

The following year Donghi was exhibited in Milano's Galleria Pesaro together with Felice Casorati, de Chirico, Ubaldo Oppi and Mario Tozzi. He also participated in the important 1925 New Objectivity exhibition in Mannheim (Germany), and had solo shows in Paris, New York and Buenos Aires. Donghi also cooperated with the Novecento Italiano group, participating in their second exhibit in 1929.

 Antonio Donghi, Circo equestre, 1927

Possessed of an extremely refined technique, Donghi favored strong composition and spatial clarity. The critic Ugo Ojetti saw his clear realism and choice of subject-matter (people, still-lifes and cityscapes) as egalitarian and related to Caravaggio's influences. The disconcerting immobility of his figures (e.g. Woman at the Window) also drew comparisons with the work of Seurat and of Henri Rousseau, and it was identified as Magic Realism by Franz Roh (Expressionismus, magischer Realismus, Leipzig, 1925).

 Antonio Donghi, Canzone, 1934

By the 1940s, Donghi's work was far outside the mainstream of modernism, and his reputation declined, although he continued to exhibit regularly. In his last years he concentrated mainly on landscapes, painted in a style that emphasizes linear patterns. He died in Rome in 1963. Most of Donghi's works are in Italian collections, notably the Museo di Roma. You can see more of his paintings here in my Flickr set.

Gisèle Freund

 Gisèle Freund, Self portrait, early 1930s

Gisèle Freund (1908-2000) was born in Berlin into a wealthy Jewish family. Clara, her mother, came from a family of industrialists. Julius Freund, Gisèle's father, ran the family business; he was also an art collector. From an early age, Julius took her to art museums, and at home she met talented painters. 

 Max Slevogt, Portrait of Julius Freund, 1925

She studied sociology and art history at the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute for Social Research) in Frankfurt am Main under Karl Mannheim, Max Horkheimer, and Norbert Elias. During this period Freund joined the communist student organization at the university. In 1933, when when the National Socialists came to power, the family emigrated to France. Freund smuggled out photographs she had taken of Hitler's political victims. 

 Gisèle Freund, Walter Benjamin à la Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, 1937

Freund entered at the Sorbonne, receiving her PhD in 1936. In the mid-1930s, Freund played chess with Walter Benjamin at a café on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Also the Bibliothèque Nationale connected them. Benjamin did research there for his now famous Passagenwerk (Arcades Project), Freund wrote her dissertation on early French photography, La Photographie en France au dix-neuvième siècle, a metrialistic account of the origins of photography (published in the 1970s in French and German under the title Photographie et société).

Gisèle Freund, Rue de la Pluie, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1935

In 1936 Freund photographed the effects of the Depression in England for the Life magazine. Freund's dissertation was first published in book form by Adrienne Monnier (1892-1955). Freund visited her bookstore, La Maison des Amis des Livres, first time in 1935. With Monnier's help, Freund was able to enter the literary circles. She also started to spent an increasing amount of time in the apartment of Adrienne and Sylvia Beach, owner of the famous Shakespeare and Company Bookstore. 

 Gisèle Freund, Norbert Elias, Paris, 1935

Before the outbreak of the war, Freund made hundreds of portraits of artists and writers. Her subjects included among others her former teacher Norbert Elias (above), Louis Aragon, Walter Benjamin, André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Colette, Marcel Duchamp, T.S. Eliot, André Gide, James Joyce, André Malraux, Romain Rolland, Jean-Paul Sartre, Paul Valéry and G.B. Shaw ("Above all, don't cut off my beard!", Shaw told her). 

 Gisèle Freund, George Bernard Shaw, Londres, 1939

In 1939 Freund had a private exhibition, entitled Ecrivains célèbres, at the Galerie Adrienne in Paris and the Guggenheim Jeune Gallery in London. After the German Invasion of France, Freund went into hinding in a village in the province of Lot, Southern France. In 1942 she fled to Argentina with the help Victoria Ocampo, who had founded in 1931 the magazine Sur, the most important literary magazine of its time in Latin America.

 Gisèle Freund, The last islands before Cape Horn, Patagonia, 1943

Later Freund moved on to Mexico. For years she traveled up and down through the countries of Latin America. During this period she photographed Eva Perón and also became acquainted with the Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. To Mexico Freund was invited by the poet and writer Alfonso Reys, originally to give a lecture on French literature. Eventually her stay took two years. In 1950 Life published her critical photoreportage on Eva Peron, which drew the attention of the FBI and four years later she was blacklisted. 

 Gisèle Freund, Le lever d'Evita Peron, Buenos Aires, 1950

In 1944-45 Freund was a photojournalist for the France Libre propaganda services. From 1947 to 1954 she worked for Magnum Photos. Magnum was founded by the legendary Robert Capa. "If you want to make money, give up your job as a reporter," Capa said to Gisèle Freund. "It will earn you a good living, but you'll never get rich."  

Gisèle Freund, Simone de Beauvoir, 1948

In the 1970s, Freund traveled in Japan, the Near East, and the United States. Following the election of François Mitterand to the presidency in 1981, Freund became Mitterrand's official photographer. A major retrospective exhibition of her work was held at the Musée National d'Art Moderne (Centre Georges-Pompidou) in 1991. Gisèle Freund died in Paris on March 31, 2000. You can see more photos of her here in my Flickr set.

Théophile Robert

 

Théophile Robert, Lady in Black Dress, 1926

Théophile Robert (1879-1954) was born in Ried-sur-Bienne, Switzerland.  Between 1900 and 1907 he studied painting in Paris in various private art schools. After his studies Robert moved to Berlin where he stayed until 1909. He then returned to Switzerland, created his own studio in Saint Blaise near Neuchâtel and befriended Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, the future Le Corbusier. Between 1909 and 1918 Robert participated in many expositions.

Théophile Robert, After the Bath, 1921

In 1918, after the end of the war, Robert moved to Paris where he shared a studio with Le Corbusier and Ozenfant. On the basis of an advantageous contract with the gallery Druet, Robert could regularly exhibit his work in Paris and abroad. His success culminated in 1925 with ten exhibits worldwide. 

Théophile Robert, Danaïdes, 1928

 

In 1929 Robert returned to Saint Blaise. His work now became more and more religious, and he received numerous commissions to decorate churches. Théophile Robert died in Neuchâtel in 1954. The same year, the "Salle Théophile Robert" in the Fine Arts Museum of Neuchâtel was inaugurated where many of his works are on permanent display.

Heinz Hajek-Halke

Heinz Hajek-Halke, Self-Portrait, 1928

Heinz Hajek-Halke (1898-1983) was born in Berlin, but grew up in Argentina. In 1910 he returned to Berlin where he began his studies at the Königliche Kunsthochschule (Royal Art School) in 1915. He had to leave the university one year later, because he was drafted as a soldier to fight in the First World War. After the war he continued his studies under Emil Orlik and Hans Baluscheck and graduated in 1923.

Heinz Hajek-Halke, Ripe Fruit, 1930s

Hajek-Halke began with his first photo experiments in 1924, and was hired one year later by the news agency Presse-Photo (where he worked together with Willy Ruge). He also briefly cooperated with Yva (Else Neuländer). In 1933 Hajek-Halke was required by Goebbel's Propaganda Ministry to fake documentaries. He escaped, however, the grip of the Nazi party and moved as Heinz Halke to Lake Constance. There, he created scientific image series in the field of small animal biology. These were macro shots, which he made with an extremely large format camera. He also explored techniques of chemical and light manipulation in distortions and enlargements of his small subjects.

  Heinz Hajek-Halke, Bat and lamp,1936

In 1937, Hajek-Halke travelled to Brazil where he produced, amongst others, a documentary about a snake farm. After his return to Germany, in 1939, he was conscripted by the German army and worked as an aerial and company photographer for the Dornier aircraft enterprises in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. After a short time as a French prisoner of war, Hajek-Halke started his own snake farm and made a living selling the snake venom to the pharmaceutical industry.

Heinz Hajek-Halke, In Love, 1936

In the 1950s, his work was included in many leading shows of experimental photography, such as Otto Steinert’s Subjektive Photographie exhibitions and the 1954 Photokina show in Cologne. In 1955 he was appointed Professor of Photography and Photo-Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts (now University of the Arts) in Berlin. At this time, Hajek-Halke renewed his early interests in the cameraless photogram and in creating photographic abstractions by means of a wide variety of darkroom techniques he had mastered before the War. His ultimate interests were to demonstrate the rich possibilities photography held for creating expressive abstract works of art on a par with those by earlier and contemporary masters in painting and sculpture. 

 Heinz Hajek-Halke, Cemetery of the Fishes, 1952

Since the retrospective exhibition of his work at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 2002, Hajek-Halke’s reputation as an influential creative image-maker and technician has grown as one of the only German photographers whose career spanned the genesis of experimental photography in the 1920s and its spiritual revival in the 1950s and 60s. A large-format monograph, Heinz Hajek-Halke: Artist, Anarchist by Priska Pasquer, has been published in 2006. You can see more of his works here in my Flickr set.

Hugó Scheiber

 Hugó Scheiber,  Self-portrait with Military Cap, 1917

Hugó Scheiber (1873-1950) was born in Budapest. At the age of eight, he moved with his family from Budapest to Vienna. There, he worked with his father, a sign painter, for the Prater Theatre, Vienna's largest entertainment fair. In 1898, to help support his family after they had returned to Budapest , he started working during the day, attending painting classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Commercial Art School) in the evening. 

 Hugó Scheiber, Carneval, n.d.

In 1900, Scheiber completed his studies, and began to show an  early interest in German Expressionism and Futurism. In 1915 he met Marinetti, who invited him to join the Futurist movement. Because Scheiber's paintings conflicted with academic style of the Hungarian art establishment, his work was virtually ignored in his own country. In 1919, he and his friend Béla Kadar held an exhibition organized by Hévesy in Vienna, which was a great success - so much so that the Budapest Art Museum finally purchased two of his drawings. In 1920, Scheiber returned from Budapest to Vienna. A turning point in Scheiber's career came in 1921 when Herwarth Walden, founder of Germany's leading avant-garde periodical, Der Sturm, and of the Sturm Gallery in Berlin, became interested in Scheiber's work. Scheiber moved to Berlin in 1922, and his paintings soon appeared regularly in Walden's magazine. Exhibitions of his work followed in London, Rome, La Paz, and New York. 

 Hugó Scheiber, Circus (In the Spotlight), c. 1925

Scheiber's move to Germany coincided with a significant exodus of Hungarian artists to Berlin, including Lászlo Moholy-Nagy and Sándor Bortnyik. There had been a major split in ideology among the Hungarian avant-garde. The Constructivist and  leader of the Hungarian avantgarde, Lajos Kassák (painted by Hugo Scheiber in 1930) believed that art should relate to all the needs of contemporary humankind. Thus he refused to compromise the purity of his style to reflect the demands of either the ruling class or socialists and communists. The other camp believed that an artist should be a figurehead for social and political change.

 Hugó Scheiber, Untitled Figure, n.d.

The fall out and factions that resulted from this politicisation resulted in most of the Hungarian avantgardists leaving Vienna for Berlin. Hungarian émigrés made up one of the largest minority groups in the German capital and the influx of their painters had a significant effect on Hungarian and international art. Apart from the political Activists, there were independent Modernists such as Scheiber and Kárdár, who hoped to find fertile ground for their aesthetic and social idealism. Hugo Scheiber, among others, suddenly found himself in the upper echelons of the dynamic Berlin art world.

Hugó Scheiber, Carriage at Night, c. 1930

Another turning point of Scheiber's career came in 1926, with the New York exhibition of the Société Anonyme, organized by Katherine Dreier. Scheiber and other important avantgarde artists from more than twenty-three countries were represented. In 1933, Scheiber was invited by Marinetti to participate in the great meeting of the Futurists held in Rome where he was received with great enthusiasm. Gradually, the Hungarian artists began to return home, particularly with the rise of  Nazism in Germany. Kardar went back from Berlin in about 1932 and Scheiber followed in 1934.

 Hugó Scheiber, Athletic Championship, 1933

Hugó Scheiber died in Budapest in 1950. His work has been shown in many important exhibitions since 1945, and his paintings are regularly sold at Sotheby's and other auction houses. You can see more works of Hugó Scheiber here in my Flickr set.

Frieda Riess

 Frieda Riess, Self-Portrait, 1922

Frieda Riess, born in 1890, came from a German-Jewish merchant’s family that lived in the Western Prussian town of Czarnikau (now Carnkov in Poland) in the province of Poznán, moving to Berlin in the 1890s. In Berlin, she attended the “Photographische Lehranstalt” of the Lette Verein (she later inspired Marianne Breslauer to enroll there too). After her sudies she ran a prestigious studio on Kurfürstendamm, from 1918 to 1932. 

Frieda Riess, The Painter Xenia Boguslawskaja, 1922

Riess’ marriage to the poet and journalist Rudolf Leonhard at the beginning of the 1920s led to contact with his friends and acquaintances among theatre people, actresses and actors, including Walter Hasenclever, Tilla Durieux, Gerhart Hauptmann, Ivan and Claire Goll, which proved productive for her portrait work. This group extended to include dancers, music-hall stars and fine artists: Anna Pavlova, Mistinguett, Lil Dagover, Renée Sintenis, Max Liebermann and Xenia Boguslawskaja. Boxers and, above all, representatives of the old aristocracy, diplomats, politicians and bankers associated in the illustrious circle as well. Riess travelled to Paris, London and Rome, where she moved in similar literary and aristocratic circles. 

 

 

 Frieda Riess, Claire Goll,1926

Like her colleagues Hugo Erfurth, Madame D´Ora, Lotte Jacobi and Edward Steichen, Riess became a master of the advanced art of portraiture. The solo exhibition of 177 portraits in Alfred Flechtheim’s gallery in 1925 played a decisive part in this appreciation of the photographer. Flechtheim was one of the leading collectors and dealers in modern art during the 1920s. “I have asked Rieß for an exhibition of her photographs, because she creates art using lenses and rubber balls”, Flechtheim wrote in the catalogue. At that time it was somewhat surprising for one of Berlin’s leading art dealers to show photographs, and the fact that he refers to photography as art invited particular attention. 

 Frieda Riess, Gottfried Benn, 1924

Auf die Platten die Iche

tuschend mit Hilfe des Lichts, 

die Gestalten, die Striche

Ihres - Linsengerichts.

Gottfried Benn (with whom she had a short affair) wrote this ironic attack on her portrait art in 1924, the French painter Marie Laurencin gushed praise in Paris, and the writer Vita Sackville-West sent enthusiastic accounts back to London of the circle that gathered for tea in Riess’ studio ("Shifty figures between exquisite portraits" she wrote to Virginia Woolf). Riess' nude shots - the male nudes of boxers in particular - reflect the erotically charged atmosphere in the studio, which became an exclusive meeting place at exhibition openings. 

Frieda Riess, The Boxer Erich Brandl, 1925

Since 1930 Frieda Riess had a liaison with the French ambassador to Berlin, Pierre de Margerie, whom she followed to Paris in 1932. There, her creative photography obviously came to a halt. As yet, no works from that period have been found, and even biographical traces disappeared into near obscurity. From 1940 to 1945, she survived the German occupation of Paris in seclusion, and died there in the mid 1950s.