Raoul Hausmann - Courrier DADA - 1958

Raoul Hausmann. Dada Mail

Éditions Le Terrain Vague, Paris, 1958, (14 x 19.2 cm), 160 pages, dust jacket.

Followed by a bio-bibliography of the author by Poupard-Lieussou.

13 plates on coated paper.

Original edition on fine publisher's paper.

Excellent copy, uncut, except for the spine and the back cover with minor foxing, somewhat faded.

Raoul Hausmann (1886–1971), a central figure of Berlin Dada, published in 1958 Courrier Dada, an essential collection bearing witness to his experience and his vision of the Dada movement in Germany. Written in French in Limoges, where he had taken refuge since 1939, this work was initially conceived under the title Courrier Dada à une jeune femme d'aujourd'hui, dix et une lettres, adopting an epistolary form in the service of a retrospective reflection.

The work compiles historical texts, mainly Dada manifestos written by Hausmann in the 1920s, accompanied by critical commentary, an epilogue, a personal biography, and a bibliography. It constitutes a corrective to the dominant narratives, notably those of Tristan Tzara or American historiography (such as Alfred Barr Jr. at MoMA), which he regards as biased. Hausmann defends the political and subversive role of Berlin Dada, deeply linked to the Spartacist Revolution, in opposition to the nihilism he attributes to the Paris scene.

There he also states that 'Dada is more than Dada,' insisting on a spiritual and sensory dimension — which he calls 'eccentric sensoriality' — influenced by Futurism and Expressionism. The work, enriched by Marc Dachy in later editions, remains a fundamental source for understanding the particularity of German Dada.