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Dada was active from 1916 to roughly 1924 in Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, Paris, and New York.
Dada emerged amid the brutality of World War I (1914–18)—a conflict that claimed the lives of eight million military personnel and an estimated equal number of civilians. This unprecedented loss of human life was a result of trench warfare and technological advances in weaponry, communications, and transportation systems.
For the disillusioned artists of the Dada movement, the war merely confirmed the degradation of social structures that led to such violence: corrupt and nationalist politics, repressive social values, and unquestioning conformity of culture and thought. From 1916 until the mid-1920s, artists in Zurich, New York, Cologne, Hanover, and Paris declared an all-out assault against not only on conventional definitions of art, but on rational thought itself. “The beginnings of Dada,” poet Tristan Tzara recalled, “were not the beginnings of art, but of disgust.”
Dada’s subversive and revolutionary ideals emerged from the activities of a small group of artists and poets in Zurich, eventually cohering into a set of strategies and philosophies adopted by a loose international network of artists aiming to create new forms of visual art, performance, and poetry as well as alternative visions of the world. The artists affiliated with Dada did not share a common style or approach so much as the wish, as expressed by French artist Jean (Hans) Arp, “to destroy the hoaxes of reason and to discover an unreasoned order.”
The Role of Visual Art in Dada
The Role of Visual Art in Dada
For Dada artists, the aesthetic of their work was considered secondary to the ideas it conveyed. “For us, art is not an end in itself,” wrote Dada poet Hugo Ball, “but it is an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in.” Dadaists both embraced and critiqued modernity, imbuing their works with references to the technologies, newspapers, films, and advertisements that increasingly defined contemporary life.
They were also experimental, provocatively re-imagining what art and art making could be. Using unorthodox materials and chance-based procedures, they infused their work with spontaneity and irreverence. Wielding scissors and glue, Dada artists innovated with collage and photomontage. Still others explored games, experimental theater, and performance. A central figure, Marcel Duchamp, declared common, manufactured goods to be “readymade” artworks, radically challenging the notion of a work of art as something beautiful made by a technically skilled artist.
"MoMA | Dada." https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/dada. Accessed 16 Sep. 2018.
Marcel Duchamp'Fountain'1917
Marcel Duchamp'L.H.O.O.Q'1919
Readymades
Readymades
Marcel Duchamp was a pioneer of Dada, a movement that questioned long-held assumptions about what art should be, and how it should be made. In the years immediately preceding World War I, Duchamp found success as a painter in Paris. But he soon gave up painting almost entirely, explaining, “I was interested in ideas—not merely in visual products.”
Seeking an alternative to representing objects in paint, Duchamp began presenting objects themselves as art. He selected mass-produced, commercially available, often utilitarian objects, designating them as art and giving them titles. “Readymades,” as he called them, disrupted centuries of thinking about the artist’s role as a skilled creator of original handmade objects. Instead, Duchamp argued, “An ordinary object [could be] elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.”
The readymade also defied the notion that art must be beautiful. Duchamp claimed to have chosen everyday objects “based on a reaction of visual indifference, with at the same time a total absence of good or bad taste….” In doing so, Duchamp paved the way for Conceptual art—work that was “in the service of the mind,” as opposed to a purely “retinal” art, intended only to please the eye.
"MoMA | Marcel Duchamp and the Readymade." https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/dada/marcel-duchamp-and-the-readymade. Accessed 16 Sep. 2018.
Raoul Hausmann'The Spirit of Our Time'1920
Man Ray'Cadeau (Gift)' (Flat Iron with Brass Tacks) 1921
Assemblage
Assemblage
A three-dimensional work of art made from combinations of materials including found objects or non-traditional art materials.
Photomontage
Photomontage
A collage work that includes cut or torn and pasted photographs or photographic reproductions.
Raoul HausmannThe Art Critic1919
Hannah HöchFrom Above1927
Kurt SchwittersMerz Picture 32 A. The Cherry Picture (Merzbild 32 A. Das Kirschbild)1921
Jean (Hans) ArpUntitled (Collage with Squares Arranged according to the Laws of Chance)1917
Collage
Collage
Derived from the French verb coller, meaning “to glue,” collage refers to both the technique and the resulting work of art in which fragments of paper and other materials are arranged and glued or otherwise affixed to a supporting surface.
Word Play
Word Play
To free text and speech from conventional rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation, Dadaists unleashed an arsenal of puns, wordplay, and experimental poetry and literature—some turning words and letters into abstract forms, stripping them of their legibility. These experiments were meant to expose the arbitrary relationship between words and their meanings.
Jean (Hans) ArpMustache Hat (Schnurrhut)1923
Theo van Doesburg (Christian Emil Marie Küpper) with Kurt SchwittersSmall Dada EveningKleine Dada Soirée1922
Dadaism Notes
Dadaism Notes
- Dada was a form of artistic anarchy that challenged the social, political and cultural values of the time.
- Dada embraced elements of art, music, poetry, theatre, dance and politics.
- Dada aimed to create a climate in which art was unrestricted by established values.
- Dada was anti-establishment and anti-art.
- The name 'Dada' means 'hobbyhorse' or the exclamation "Yes-Yes".
- The Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich was the birthplace of Dada.
- After the war the Dadaists relocated to Berlin, Cologne, Hanover and New York.
- The Dadaists published 'manifestos' and magazines to help communicate their ideas.
- The Dadaists used techniques such as automatism, chance, photomontage and assemblage.
- The Dadaists introduced the concept that an artwork could be a temporary installation.
- The Dadaists expanded the boundaries and context of what was considered acceptable as art.
- Several Dada exhibitions caused public outrage and were closed by the authorities.
- Dada influenced the development of Surrealism, Action Painting, Pop Art, Happenings, Installations and Conceptual Art.
- The main artists associated with Dada were Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Jean (Hans) Arp, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, John Heartfield, Kurt Schwitters, Johannes Baargeld, Johannes Baader, Max Ernst, George Grosz, Hans Richter, Francis Picabia, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp.
"Dadaism - Art and Anti Art - Artyfactory." http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm. Accessed 16 Sep. 2018.
Dada was a conceptual art movement that generated questions about society, challenged artistic norms and opposed the norms of bourgeois culture. Dada works of art were often humorous, satirical, irreverent and extemporaneous. Dada embraced chance and accident to release creativity from rational control.
Hu·mor·ous causing lighthearted laughter and amusement; comic.
Sa·tir·i·cal containing or using satire. Sarcastic. Critical.
Ir·rev·er·ent showing a lack of respect for people or things that are generally taken seriously.
Ex·tem·po·ra·ne·ous spoken or done without preparation.
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