The Influence Of Dada Before Dada

Impactful across the globe, both Dada and Surrealism were artistic movements created in the early 20th century that were significant in redefining modern art today. The Dada movement came about in 1916 through the performance of Hugo Ball’s sound poem “Karawane” at the Cabaret Voltaire that he opened with his partner, nightclub singer Emmy Hennings, in Zurich, Switzerland. The poem made absolutely no sense, purposely, and it didn’t have to. Ball would also dress in wild costumes for his performances as seen below:

During the twenty years after World War One, three major art movements appeared: dadaism, functionalism, and surrealism. Dadaism, a movement which conveyed erratic and random movements that were supposed to contradict human behavior, was a response to the anxiety of those who didn’t know how to react because of all of the strange and despairing behavior in the world. Because of these conveyed ideas, dadaism promoted outrageous and random behavior. Functionalism, a movement which tried to explore the functions and purpose of things and nature, was an attempt to find the purpose of humans in the dark times following the war. Surrealism, a movement which painted wild dreams and complex symbols, tried to spread the idea of hope from the current scary world. Through surrealism, imagination and hope was brought out through paintings that featured crazy illusions and impossible dreams. Overall, these artistic movements tried to answer and embody the general sense of anxiety felt by

Dada was an artistic and literary movement that grew out of dissatisfaction with traditional social values and conventional artistic practices during World War I. Dada artists were disillusioned by the social values that led to the war and sought to expose accepted and often repressive conventions of order and logic by shocking people into self-awareness. Marcel Duchamp was one of the first to participate in this movement. He is known for his satirical or humorous content and the use of accompanying text. Duchamp began to grow disappointed with “retinal” art though, and soon stopped painting on canvases altogether. He then moved out of the already existing boundaries of art into was is now called conceptual art. His monumental work is known today as The Bride Bare by Her Bachleors, Even, or The Large Glass. Duchamp worked on this piece for eight years, until he abandoned it in what he referred to as a “definitively unfinished” state. This piece of work includes humor, random chance, pessimism, and anti-art; these four elements are often found in Dada art.

Similarly in rejection to the current reality, the Dada movement protested logic and reason. Established by Tristan Tzara who wrote a Manifesto for the movement stating the Dada is, “a protest with it’s whole being engaged in destructive action.” Ironically, the reality the Dadaists was protesting against was World War 1, but their response to the war increased violence. It was the disgust of the false, good manners and incomprehensible logic of the politicians and those in power that the Dadaists criticized. The rage of the war merely justified their destructive spontaneity. Relating to the surrealists, they believed the simplest act consists of going out into the streets, revolver in hand and firing at random into the crowd as often as possible. Surrealist Louis Aragon encouraged such responses saying, “I have always placed the spirit of revolt above any politics.” Although the surrealists emerged with a stronger focus

With the advent of Modernism in the early twentieth century, many artists and critics began making theoretical pronouncements about their works and ideas. Using three different artists and their writings from the Theories of Modern Art book by Herschel B. Chipp. I will study the artist’s works and ideas in relation to the role of art in their society, the role of traditional practices in art, their view on nature versus reality, and their view on the relationship between art and truth. The three artists and works will be the Fauvist Henri Matisse’s “Notes of a Painter,” the German Expressionist Franz Marc’s “How Does a Horse See the World?” as well as “Aphorism,” and lastly the Dadaist Jean Arp’s, “Abstract Art, Concrete Art.”

Dada radical and poet, Tristan Tzara, confessed, “the beginnings of Dada were not the beginnings of art, but of disgust” (MoMa Dada). Largely, this was disgust to the atrocities and suffering of war. However, it was also disgust towards the bourgeoisie, political corruption,

Ernst was not only the primary pioneer of Surrealism but also the pioneer of the Dada movement. He was a German painter, poet, sculptor, and graphic artist whose work still remains influential. Max Ernst’s vision of the modern world as irrational became the basis of his artwork. He mocked social conventions and highly criticized the western culture. Among the most famous of Ernst’s works are Celebes (1921), Here Everything is Still Floating (1920), Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale (1924), and The Fireside Angel (1937) among

Launched from New York, it was the forerunner for American Pop Art. The art world at this time, was controlled by strict expectations and policies, of Abstract Expressionism. This class of art focused on deep emotion, Psychiatrics, folklore, with some muse coming from the desolation of the war. This art provoked very serious, sensitive and esteemed emotions in its viewers: there was no joking around. As always, ridged boundaries and rules are meant to be broken. An uprising broke out in the art scene; artists challenged emotionally contemplative pieces with routine life. (Wolf 2015) They teased at the seriousness of Abstract Expressionism by taking objects of low regard, and blowing their importance out of proportion, by size and color. “Neo-Dada artists often encouraged viewers to use[…]critical thinking generated by contradictions, absurd juxtapositions, coded narratives, and other mixed signals[...]”(Wolf 2015). Leading into the Dada Movement, which supported the same principles of ridiculing capitalism and cultural commodities. This new faction took a more playful approach, by teasing, using humor, high contrast, and emphasis on a larger

Dadaism came into the world to confuse all the peers that look upon the work of art each person made to express themselves, this can be for emotion, reaction, love or maybe just because they want to confuse everyone. It all began in 1915, the movement instantly caught fire and spread practically everywhere, no matter where you looked there was some sort of DADA to be seen. Sometimes you didn’t even know it! The artist found inside of this essay will be: Max Ernst, Hannah Hoch and finally Johannes Baader.

Dada was an artistic and literary movement, this arose as a reaction to World War one. Many citizens believed that Dada was actually the cause of World War one, this movement likes to take the form of ‘anti-art’. Therefore, how you can claim everything is art but in reality, nothing is art. For example, take the painting ‘Fountain’ by a Dadaist painter Marcel Duchamp it is a readymade painting of an unused urinal. Which is basically implying that he rejected art and thought that we should focus on the artist 's idea more rather than it being crafted. Therefore, using a urinal and labelling it as ‘art’, get’s Duchamp’s point across that a work of art should be the artists idea instead of it being crafted. When looking at Dadaism by Tristan Tzara, there were some interesting quotes. For example, “Like everything in life, Dada is useless. Dada is without pretension, as life should be.” (Tzara, 1918). This quote intrigues me, as Tzara is stating that all art is useless and that Dada is pretension and that is how life should be. This can be used as an example of how Dadaism was inspired by

Dada art was a radical and cynical artistic movement, which arose in reaction to the failings of society that led to the First World War. Dada revolted against the recognized tropes of the art world it sought to escape. It dismantled the image of art as the heightened, unique object by contradicting the established traditions and forms of western art to that time. This essay will discuss four of the ways Dada artists pursued this goal, namely through the use of everyday objects, eliminating meaning and function, the use of chance and a dismissal of art history. This essay will then argue that through these means, Dada artists successfully undermined the solemnity with which the art world regarded itself. Dada’s combination of wit and venomous sarcasm presented to the early 20th century a pointed re-articulation of its own reflection, making apparent the absurdity and meaninglessness Dada artists saw in the modern world. In the face of WWI’s atrocities, and the complex, ego-driven politics that had delivered it to the world, Dada rose as a rebuttal. This essay will conclude with observations of the influence of this short-lived but pervasive polemic on contemporary art practice.

Each artist of the Dada era had a new way of expressing Freud?s ideas. They also felt that art was a powerful means of self-revelation, and that the images came from ones subconscious mind had a truth of its own. As Marcel Duchamp mocked the Mona Lisa by drawing a Padilla 3 mustache on her, stated that the painting was a lewd message set by the conventional way of thinking. Since the Dada artist did not believe in western culture this made sense, because people only want believe what is told to them, instead of what is true. The Dada movement marked a meeting of people to have ?noise concerts? where they recited poems in a free association verse. In these poetry readings the artist perceived how they felt about the world. As World War I began the Dadaist perceived it as a world gone mad. Not only did they express their work in unconventional ways; they used the subconscious as a way of making their views true. Although the Dada era was short lived it influenced and questioned the traditional concepts of the western world. These techniques set an agenda for a new trial by error art form of this same era. The spirit of Freud in the Dadaist era never really died, it is shown today as ?Pop art? or sometimes known as neo-Dada art forms. Also this revolution of thinking and art paved the way for the Surrealist movement. The Surrealist movement of the 1920?s through 1930?s captivated the world with its bizarre way of thinking. Just as the Dadaist used

At the turn of the century Paris was one of the capitals of culture and art to the outside world. However, the truth of the matter was that this taboo-ridden society was being run by an aristocracy that was repressing the arts. Naturally, when World War 1 broke out, the suppressed French society finally had a release and a rebellion against order arose. WWI specifically affected the theatre of French and it’s aftermath. From the ashes of war the avant-garde theatre grew and styles such as Dadaism and Surrealism were born. It was both the climate of culture before the war and the devastation of the war that lead to the outbreak of avant-garde theatre in France.

(See Visual 2) The title explains how this work was created – Arp tore up pieces of paper and let them fall on to a background before sticking them down. The anarchistic and unpredictable way in which this piece was created illustrates the typical mindset of a Dada artist and the movement itself. Soon after arriving in Zurich, the Dada movement spread to New York, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne, before it finally erupted in Paris. The leader of the Dada movement in Paris was a poet named Andre Breton. Breton is an important figure as he would go on to become the leader of the Paris Surrealist movement as well.

Gathering in Hugo Balls’ Cabaret Voltaire for spontaneous readings, performances and exhibitions, a group of early avant-gardes mainly of German and French origin, formed the organization known as Dada. (Justin Wolf’s Dada)