ABSTRACT
Focusing on Germany and Austria in the early twentieth century, this paper proposes to analyse the avant-gardes' presentation, dissemination and exhibition of the original print portfolio. Its specific constitution makes the portfolio a most adequate representative form of the artists' collective. Dedicated to the print series, it is multiple and yet unique and unifying, at once the symbolical and material bearer of a community and a collection of individualities. Avant-garde groups such as Sema and der Fels devoted their entire communal efforts to creating original print portfolios. The defining portability of the form fostered circulation, facilitating the transport of works for itinerant exhibitions, ensuring the transmission of ideas. Form, function and value are perfectly aligned, since these groups were founded on the intention of gathering artists from varied international locations who shared creative ideals to establish strategic networks of promotion and of their art. This artistic format was also taken up by avant-garde artists on an individual level. Each avant-garde approached the exhibition of their portfolios in a distinct way: the prints of George Grosz's portfolio Gott mit uns scattered on a table at the first Berlin Dada Fair or El Lissitzky Proun portfolios playing with space dynamics.
