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Art Movements In The Movement Of The Dada Movement

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In the 20th century, there were many art movements that influenced the way we produce art and design to this very day. Along with the movements, there were several artists that contributed to making these movements great. During the first World War, as a reaction to the chaos and turmoil, arose a movement called Dada. The movement started in 1916 in Zürich, Switzerland and ended in 1924 (“Dada Movement, Artists and Major Works.”). In 1922, Tristan Tarza wrote a piece called “Lecture on Dada”. It stated that “Nothing is more delightful than to confuse and upset people”. He believed that, “like everything in life, Dada is useless” (Tarza). This phrase really encapsulates what Dada was and what it stood for. There is no record of where the …show more content…

L.H.O.O.Q (fig 3) is a play on the Mona Lisa, crafted in 1919. It is an excellent example of the mockery to traditional art. The Mona Lisa in his work L.H.O.O.Q. is printed on a postcard, where then Duchamp drew a mustache and goatee on the painted woman photographed. He then labeled it L.H.O.O.Q., and it became an iconic piece of Dada work. If someone who is fluent in the French language and native to the tongue were to pronounce these letters, it would read “Elle a chaud au cul”, which can translate to “She has a hot arse.” (“Dada Movement, Artists and Major Works.”) Dada was said to be very anti-art, so by taking a well-known traditional piece from 1517 painted by Leonardo Da Vinci made a huge statement on how Duchamp was throwing away all traditional practices of what art was before Dada (Flask).
There are also arguments on what the deeper meaning of the title of the work could be, and how perhaps Duchamp was attempting to make the Mona Lisa even further androgynous (Jack). Interestingly, Duchamp revised this piece (fig 4) in 1965, and titled it L.H.O.O.Q. Shaved. The revision of the work is a white sheet of paper with another photograph that seems to be a playing card of the Mona Lisa, clean-shaven placed in the middle of the paper, with the title written underneath. The MoMA currently has it in their collection, a gift given to the museum from Philip Johnson (Duchamp).
Dadaists break away from traditional art and rationality, which is

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