Product Description

In this volume, Jonathan Hammer offers a translation of Hugo Ball's visionary novella "Tenderenda the Fantast", along with his own "Tenderenda"-inspired images. The resulting "dialogue" between Ball, the founder of Zurich Dada, and Hammer, a contemporary artist, should cast light on Dadaism and its postmodern legacies. In "Tenderenda", composed between 1914 and 1920, Ball recounts a hallucinatory tale of his own Dada enchantment and disenchantments. Jeffrey Schnapp introduces the book, elaborating the cultural and historical context of Ball's work and situating Hammer's work in relation to Dada. In a concluding essay, Hammer probes various aspects of Ball's asceticism, spirituality and sexuality to arrive at a revisionist interpretation of Zurich Dada and the origins of modernism as well as postmodern art-making.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1977531 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-11
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.88 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

From the Back Cover
"Jonathan Hammer brings passion and obsession, a sharply tuned intellect, and fresh and vivid focus to his translation of Ball's text and to a parallel world of images. The hopes and despairs of thought and art are liberated." -Gary Garrels, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

About the Author
Jonathan Hammer is a translator and artist whose visual interpretations of Tenderenda have been widely exhibited in the United States and Europe. He is represented by Mathew Marks Gallery in New York. Jeffrey T. Schnapp is director of the Stanford Humanities Laboratory, holds the Rosina Pierotti Chair in Italian Literature and is professor of French, Italian and comparative literature at Stanford University.