Lens (city)

Lens , city (1990 pop. 35,278), Pas-de-Calais dept., N France. During the 19th and 20th cent. it was one of the most important coal centers in N France, but its mines are now closed. Much of the city's manufacturing has been replaced by service-oriented industries. The victory there (1648) of the French under Louis II de Condé was the last important battle of the Thirty Years War. Lens was occupied and devastated by the Germans in both world wars.

Schad, Christian (1894–1982). German painter, born at Miesbach, son of an affluent lawyer who encouraged his interest in art. He studied briefly at the Academy in Munich but learned more by frequenting Schwabing, the artists' quarter of the city. After avoiding military service by inventing a heart complaint, Schad lived in Switzerland (first Zurich, then Geneva) from 1915 to 1920 and was involved in the Dada movement there. His work of this period included photograms—photographic images made without a camera or lens by placing two- or three-dimensional objects on sensitized paper and exposing the arrangement to light. The technique was not new (indeed it predates photography proper), but Schad was evidently the first to make abstract images in this way. The poet Tristan Tzara, his fellow Dadaist, coined the punning term ‘Schadograph’ for these images, which Schad first made in 1918. In the 1920s the technique was taken up by Man Ray (who called his versions ‘Rayographs') and by Moholy-Nagy. In 1920 Schad returned briefly to Germany, then lived in Rome and Naples until 1927. He then spent two years in Vienna before settling in Berlin in 1927. In the next few years he gained a reputation as one of the leading exponents of Neue Sachlichkeit, specializing in chillingly decadent portraits and nudes from the sophisticated world in which he moved. In 1935, however, Schad more or less abandoned painting for business, and although he took up art seriously again after the Second World War, he never made the impact that he had done with his earlier work.

swell / swel/ • v. (past part. swol·len / ˈswōlən/ or swelled ) [intr.] (esp. of a part of the body) become larger or rounder in size, typically as a result of an accumulation of fluid: her bruised knee was already swelling up| fig. the sky was black and swollen with rain | [as adj.] (swollen) swollen glands. ∎  become or make greater in intensity, number, amount, or volume: [intr.] the murmur swelled to a roar | [as adj.] (swelling) the swelling ranks of Irish singer-songwriters | [tr.] the population was swollen by refugees. ∎  be intensely affected or filled with a particular emotion: she felt herself swell with pride. • n. 1. [in sing.] a full or gently rounded shape or form: the soft swell of her breast. ∎  a gradual increase in sound, amount, or intensity: there was a swell of support in favor of him. ∎  a welling up of a feeling: a swell of pride swept over George. 2. [usu. in sing.] a slow, regular movement of the sea in rolling waves that do not break: there was a heavy swell. 3. a mechanism for producing a crescendo or diminuendo in an organ or harmonium. 4. inf., dated a person of wealth or high social position, typically one perceived as fashionable or stylish: a crowd of city swells. • adj. inf., dated excellent; very good: you're looking swell. ∎ archaic smart; fashionable: a swell boulevard. • adv. inf., dated excellently; very well: everything was just going swell. PHRASES: someone's head swells someone becomes conceited: I am not saying this to make your head swell if I say this, you'll get swollen-headed.