DER MALIK-VERLAG 1916 - 1947
Wieland Herzfelde
Wieland Herzfelde: DER MALIK-VERLAG 1916 - 1947 [Ausstellungskatalog]. Berlin: Deutsche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin, n. d. [1966]. Original edition. Text in German. Octavo. Embossed gray cloth decorated in red. Printed dust jacket. Red ribbon bookmark sewn in [as issued]. 160 pp. 109 black and white and 2-color images. Folded poster for the first DaDa fair [DADA-MESSE] laid in as issued. Spine lightly tanned. A fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket.
6.5 x 9.25 softcover exhibition catalog with 160 pages and 109 illustrations, 65 painting reproductions and 54 drawings. Exhibition catalog written and assembled by Wieland Herzfelde for the show that ran from December 1966 to January 1967 at the Deutsche Akademie der Künste, Berlin. Bibliography by Heinz Gittig. The Malik-Verlag was one of the major German publishing houses of the Weimar era, known for left-wing political and avant-garde art.
Included is a 28 x 11 [folded into eighths] reproduction of the ERSTE INTERNATIONALE DADA-MESSE : KATALOG [Malik-Verlag, Berlin July 1920] with texts by Wieland Herzfelde and Raoul Hausmann. Wieland Herzfelde, in the catalog’s introduction, recalled the principles: "The only agenda for the Dadaists is to give, temporally and locally, current events as the content of their works. This is why they don’t consider A Thousand and One Nights or Images of India to be the source of their production, but, on the contrary, the illustrations and editorials from newspapers." The event displayed a total reversal of artistic valor. The hierarchy between fine art and applied art were reduced to nothing; performances and even a cooking prize were organized; finally, the catalogue, quite fitting for the exhibition’s iconoclasm, was a single piece of newspaper folded in two. Perhaps most importantly, the Fair revealed the significant contribution of the Berlin Dadaists to collage, photomontage and assemblage – all of which answered the call of Raoul Hausmann and Richard Huelsenbeck for the "introduction of new materials to art."
Features work by George Grosz and John Heartfield, including Kleine revolutionäre Bibliothek (1920-1923) by Heartfield with illustrations by Grosz and others; the satirical publications Die Pleite and Der Knüppel; AIZ (Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung), the Communist Party mouthpiece journal, where Heartfield introduced photomontage as a political weapon.
The Malik-Verlag was the left wing publishing house in Berlin founded by John Heartfield and his brother Wieland Herzfeld. During its heyday—1925-1930— the Malik-Verlag was a powerful influence on the development of satire in writing and graphic design in layout. Malik-Verlag played a major developmental role in the expression of Weimar period literature and the cultivation of the avante garde graphic style until after World War II.
Helmut Herzfeld [Heartfield, 1891-1968] is known primarily as one of the inventors of photomontage, and as a member of the Berlin Dada group. Heartfield's Dada pieces, virulent photomontages, posters, theatre sets, and book designs show his technique of combining ironic political slogans with stirring imagery. Very strong stuff, much more acerbic than similar work produced by his contemporaries Lissitzky, Rodchenko, Klutsis or Moholy-Nagy.
He broke with the Dadaists, since they did not fulfill his radical conception of the artist's role in society. He had a distaste for the materialism, greed and immorality rampant in Germany in the 1920s. His aim was to mobilize social energy, to expose with his forceful political art the evils, corruption, dangers, and abuses of power in the Nazi regime.
Heartfield trained as a graphic artist in Munich and collaborated extensively with George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann and Hanna Hoch and played a key role in founding the Berlin wing of Dada. Heartfield and Grosz began experimenting with photomontage in 1915-16, later to develop photomontage into a powerful satirical tool. His best known images were published between 1930 and 1938 in the magazine Arbetier-Illustrierte Zeitung, renamed Volks Illustrierte.