ZURICH.- The Kunsthaus Zürich holds around 740 historic Dada documents and artworks: paintings, sculptures, photographs, works on paper, letters, books, magazines, flyers, posters and manuscripts. To mark 100 years of Dada all of them – with the exception of the paintings and sculptures – have been digitized, to conserve them and make them accessible to a global audience. One of the world’s largest Dada collections is now online.
MORE THAN 50 ARTISTS
More than 50 artists, making up the core of the Dada movement, are represented at the Kunsthaus. They include Hans (Jean) Arp, Johannes Baader, Johannes Theodor Baargeld, Hugo Ball, Erwin Blumenfeld, I.K. Bonset (Theo Van Doesburg), André Breton, Serge Charchoune, Paul Citroen, Jean Crotti, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Eluard, Max Ernst, Julius Evola, George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, Hannah Höch, Richard Huelsenbeck, Marcel Janco, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Hans Richter, Christian Schad, Kurt Schwitters, Walter Serner, Marcel Słodki, Philippe Soupault, Sophie Taeuber, Tristan Tzara and many others.
CONSERVE, PUBLICIZE, PROMOTE RESEARCH
Intense interest in Dada around the world has resulted in the artworks and documents frequently being lent out to museums in Switzerland and abroad. However, because paper was often of very poor quality in the early 20th century, and especially during the First World War, many of the originals are in fragile condition. In some critical cases, these irreplaceable objects cannot withstand any further wear. For this reason, restrictions have to be placed on their use. To promote future research internationally without the need to move the fragile originals and expose them to the bleaching effect of light, documents of more than one page have been digitized in their entirety – and not just the title page, as is common practice in many places. This complex process was preceded by a detailed appraisal of the content and state of preservation of each individual artwork and document. Various areas of the library, the Collection of Prints and Drawings and the restoration department worked closely with the art historians. Responsibility for content lay with Cathérine Hug (curator), Thomas Rosemann (director of the library) and Dada expert Raimund Meyer, while Jean Rosston took charge of the restoration.
SCOPE OF THE DIGITIZATION AND FORM OF PRESENTATION
The digitization project covers all the original documents and works on paper created between 1916 and 1925. It did not include reprints or secondary literature. All the objects were scanned in their entirety, including covers, spines and backs. A single volume may contain anything from a few dozen to several hundred pages. The scans, which were made on calibrated devices, have been archived as uncompressed TIFF files at 400 dpi and 24-bit colour depth. A colour control chart and scale in the images give an accurate indication of size and colours.
PRESENTATION ONLINE
All the digitized works are available for use on the conveniently designed
website. The wide range of search functions extends not just to the descriptions of the objects but also to the full texts in the original documents, which have been made readable using optical character recognition (OCR). Additional information on issues, chapters, sections, illustrations, poems included and other elements as well as the artists involved provides a rapid overview of the contents, with the option to retrieve individual sections directly. The illustrations can be displayed in reduced size as a page preview and each image can be steplessly enlarged. Complete documents as well as each individual section can be downloaded as PDF files. Now 100 years on, Dada returns to the world. And achieves immortality.
