Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Richard Huelsenbeck

Huelsenbeck was born in Frankenau, Germany in 1892.

He joined the Caberet Voltaire as a result of his friend Huge Ball. He annoyed the public in a way rivalled only by Tzara, Huelsenbeck annoyed the world with his 'school boy insolence' - he was a loud, noisy upstart and delighted in irritating people.

Huelsenbeck was more prolific a writer than an artist, he was obsessed with Negro rhythms - his public readins of poetry were usually accompanied by a large tomtom drum. Ball said that Huelsenbeck would like to "drum literiture into the ground."
Huelsenbeck came to Berlin in 1917 and found a war weary city riddled with corruption. He promptly denounced his Dada colleagues and said that to have any relevance in Germany Dada must be stronger and even mre provocative than in Zurich - it must be ready to 'make literature with a gun'. He joined with other artists Franz Jung, George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann and Johannes Baader who declared himself 'super-dada'. Together they founded the 'Christ & Co. Ltd.' and stormed the Weimar Diet and threw down leaflets declaring themselves rulers of the Glob

Huelsenbeck, Cover of En avant Dada


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