History of Dadaism
Dadaism
The dawn of the twentieth century was heralded by the Dada art movement.
Dadaism is most widely known as the anti-art movement, which featured a love affair with chaos, which challenged the parameters of artistic expression as people understood it. The origin of the moment is unclear and the name itself is even murkier, however, proponents of the movement claim that is started in Zurich, Switzerland.
Dadaism rose as a reaction to the First World War and the nationalism that many people thought had caused the war. Dadaism was influenced by other art movements including futurism, constructivism, cubism, and expressionism. The art put out there in the name of the Dadaism movement was extremely diverse ranging from performance art to photography, sculpture work, painting, and collage, as well as performance.
The Dada aesthetic was characterized by the mockery of money-oriented and xenophobic attitudes, which is why he became so influential on artists in various cities such as Hanover, Paris, Cologne and Berlin, all which started groups inspired by the Dada movement. Absurdist and anarchic, Dadaism was quite the peculiar movement and was a form of expression like no other. Dadaism was hard to define, so much so that a writer once stated that “Not even the Dadaists know what Dada is’’.
Dadaism was:
Not to overtly political; it mocked all political spectrums including conservatives and socialists.
It abhorred pretension and anything the resembled good taste or the food life.
It completely revolutionized contemporary art such that every conventional art form seemed too old fashioned after the movement.
Man Ray: Indestructible object, 1923 source
The concepts and styles of Dadaism
Dada works sought to demystify artwork in the sense that people had come to understand it but it nevertheless remained cryptic enough to allow audiences to interpret the works in different ways to illicit different meanings. Dada art featured a number of concepts and styles; Dada actually was responsible for inventing several experimental art forms and techniques such as irreverence, which is the lack of respect for social and government structures and readymade and assemblage, which stated that art can be made out of anything, regardless how ordinary the thing is.
Most popular Dadaist artpiece
The most popular Dada artwork was created by Marcel Duchamp, who was responsible for introducing the Dada art movement in New York. Duchamp’s most controversial Dadaist work was the Fountain in 1917, which was a readymade of a urinal, which offended many artists of the time. Duchamp manipulated the urinal very little and in fact only turned it upside down before signing it with a false name. In its boldness, the Fountain became the representation of irreverence in the Dada movement.
source: Tate.org
Popular artists in the movement
Hannah Höch
Raoul Hausmann
Max Ernst
Man Ray
Francis Picabia
Tristan Tzara
These artists did not restrict themselves to one form often dabbling in dancing, writing, painting and sculpting at the same time. The artwork featured unconventional designs, ignored aesthetics and employed the use of scattered humor, everyday objects, visible puns and soft obscenities all which affronted the public.
Proclamation Without Pretension
by Tristan Tzara
Art is going to sleep for a new world to be born
"ART"-parrot word-replaced by DADA,
PLESIOSAURUS, or handkerchief
The talent THAT CAN BE LEARNED makes the
poet a druggist TODAY the criticism
of balances no longer challenges with resemblances
Hypertrophic painters hyperaes-
theticized and hypnotized by the hyacinths
of the hypocritical-looking muezzins
CONSOLIDATE THE HARVEST OF EX-
ACT CALCULATIONS
Hypodrome of immortal guarantees: there is
no such thing as importance there is no transparence
or appearance
MUSICIANS SMASH YOUR INSTRUMENTS
BLIND MEN take the stage
THE SYRINGE is only for my understanding.
I write because it is
natural exactly the way I piss the way I'm sick
ART NEEDS AN OPERATION
Art is a PRETENSION warmed by the
TIMIDITY of the urinary basin, the hysteria born
in THE STUDIO
We are in search of
the force that is direct pure sober
UNIQUE we are in search of NOTHING
we affirm the VITALITY of every IN-
STANT
the anti-philosophy of spontaneous acrobatics
At this moment I hate the man who whispers
before the intermission-eau de cologne-
sour theatre.
THE JOYOUS WIND
If each man says the opposite it is because he is
right
Get ready for the action of the geyser of our blood
-submarine formation of transchromatic aero-
planes, cellular metals numbered in
the flight of images
above the rules of the
and its control
BEAUTIFUL
It is not for the sawed-off imps
who still worship their navel