Christian Schad

Christian Schad’s (1894—1982) cool vibrant portraits, with their immaculate surface and the expressive eyes, functioning as „a mirror to the soul“, soon became icons of the twenties. Apart from its focus on these world-famous key works representing the artist’s decisive contribution to the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement, this publication also presents his early work, influenced by Cubism and Dadaism, and the abstracting tendencies of his work produced during the fifties. Works by companions and con temporaries place Schad`s art in the context of Classical Modernism. His graphic oeuvre shows that even at an advanced age he took joy in experimentation, doing brilliant work in a great variety of media and repeatedly exploring new frontiers, for example in his well-known and influential “Schadographs” and rare Formica pieces. A comparison with more recent exponents of realism is meant to stimulate a new evaluation of his often under-appreciated late work, in which, beginning in the 1960s, Christian Schad returned to this artistic position.