Beauty Without Beauty: 21 Sublime Raoul Hausmann Photographs (1930s)

Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971), leading light of the Dada movement in Berlin, initiator of sound poetry, pioneer of collage and photomontage, writer, journal editor, experimenter of all kinds and, according to Franz Jung, “the biggest agitator in Berlin”,  was, at the turn of the 1930s, a passionate photographer. His lyrical images are brought together in an exhibition of his handmade prints at the Jeu de Paume,Paris. “Beauty without beauty,” was the mantra in his mission to expand our “a-perceptional” faculties.

 

“What is important is that our optical awareness rids itself of classical notions of beauty and opens itself more and more to the beauty of the instant and of these surprising points of view that appear for a brief moment and never return; those are what make photography an art.”

 

“To be a photographer is to become aware of visible appearances and at the same time acquire from them an education in individual and common optical aperception. Why? Because every individual sees in his own way but see little more than images shaped by the cultural standards of a given period.”

 

Raoul Hausmann A look in motion from 06 February til May 20, 2018, at the Jeu de Paume, Concorde, Paris.