Schad's way: preeminent chronicler of Weimar's icy decadence, diligent pasticheur of art-historical idioms and restless spiritual seeker, Christian Schad was the subject of a retrospective shown in Paris and New York - Critical Essay - Biography

Art in America, April, 2004 by Brooks Adams

As to the audience for Schad's innovative icon, Magnus Hirschfeld estimated there were 400,000 lesbians in Berlin in 1930, as opposed to 5,000 in Paris. I gleaned this fact while perusing Mel Gordon's copiously documented book Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin (Venice, Calif., Feral House, 2000), in which Schad's Two Girls is given a full-page illustration under the title On the Bed. Gordon numbers the lesbian population of Berlin more conservatively at 30,000 (minus prostitutes), based solely on the membership lists of lesbian clubs at the time. This new constituency makes Schad's Two Girls something of a trailblazer, a visual embodiment of "The L Word" avant la lettre.

"Christian Schad: Peintures, Dessins, Schadographies" was on view at the Fondation Dina Vierny-Musee Maillol in Paris [Nov. 6, 2002-Feb. 15, 2003]. "Christian Schad and the Neue Sachlichkeit" was at the Neue Galerie, Museum for German and Austrian Art, New York [Mar. 14 June 9, 2003]. The New York show was accompanied by a more complete catalogue edited by Jill Lloyd and Michael Peppiatt with essays by Lloyd, Peppiatt, Olaf Peters, Nikolaus Schad, Matthias Eberle, Robert Storr and Ingrid Jenderko-Sichelschmidt.

Author: Brooks Adams is a writer living in Paris.