MEMOIRS OF A DADA DRUMMER

by Richard Huelsenbeck ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1974

Huelsenbeck's chosen role for the literary-revolutionary Dada evenings at Cabaret Voltaire (see also Ball, above) was the reading of ""sound-poems"" with the inevitable refrain umba, umba and the beating of a drum (like Oskar from the Grass novel?). His absurdist collection of poetry Phantastische Gebete brought great distress to his mother, who no doubt could not understand what had come over her son the doctor. He liked to think of himself as ""the first existentialist"" and of Sartre, who has proclaimed ""Moi, je suis le nouveau dada,"" as an accredited follower. What distinguishes this ""moralist-cum-mischief-maker"" from the deeply philosophical Hugo Ball is the very evident pagan pleasure he takes in having ""annoyed the world,"" his enthusiasm for deeming and re-defining the spirit of Dada, and for promoting its values (epater le bourgeois) on both sides of the Atlantic. Huelsenbeck, who fled Germany after Hitler, obtained an American medical license thanks to the intervention of Albert Einstein and practiced psychoanalysis with Karen Horney. Many of the short essays here -- including homage to Arp, Duchamp, Tinguely, Grosz and disrespect for co-founder Tzara -- date from the '50's and '60's. ""Psychoanalytical Notes on Modern Art"" and ""Modern Art and Totalitarian Regimes"" are noteworthy pieces on the origins of aesthetic subjectivity and abstractionism. Insofar as it can be explained in the conventions of language (""You cannot and probably should not understand Dada. It will always remain a living part of the essentially inexplicable""), Huelsenbeck is the movement's foremost interpreter.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1974

ISBN: 0520073703

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION