Dada

Dada(/ˈdɑːdɑː/) orDadaismwas an anti-establishmentart movementthat developed in 1915 in the context of theGreat Warand the earlieranti-artmovement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had spread to New York City and a variety of artistic centers in Europe and Asia.
Within the umbrella of the movement, people used a wide variety of artistic forms to protest thelogic,reason, andaestheticismof moderncapitalismand modern war. To develop their protest, artists tended to make use ofnonsense,irrationality, and ananti-bourgeoissensibility.The art of the movement began primarily as performanceart, but eventually spanned visual, literary, and sound media, includingcollage,sound poetry,cut-up writing, and sculpture. Dadaist artists expressed their discontent toward violence, war, and nationalism and maintained political affinities withradical politicson theleft-wingandfar-left politics.The movement had no sharedartistic style, although most artists had shown interest in themachine aesthetic.
There is no consensus on the origin of the movement's name; a common story is that the artistRichard Huelsenbeckslid apaper kniferandomly into a dictionary, where it landed on "dada", a French term for ahobby horse.Others note it suggests the first words of a child, evoking a childishness and absurdity that appealed to the group. Still others speculate it might have been chosen to evoke a similar meaning (or no meaning at all) in any language, reflecting the movement'sinternationalism.
The roots of Dada lie in pre-war avant-garde. The termanti-art, a precursor to Dada, was coined byMarcel Duchamparound 1913 to characterize works that challenge accepted definitions of art.Cubismand the development ofcollageandabstract artwould inform the movement's detachment from the constraints of reality and convention. The work of French poets, ItalianFuturists, andGerman Expressionistswould influence Dada's rejection of the correlation between words and meaning.Works such asUbu Roi(1896) byAlfred Jarryand the balletParade(1916–17) byErik Satiewould be characterized as proto-Dadaist works.The Dada movement's principles were first collected inHugo Ball'sDada Manifestoin 1916. Ball is seen as the founder of the Dada movement.
The Dadaist movement included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art andliterary journals. Passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture were topics often discussed in a variety of media. Key figures in the movement includedJean Arp,Johannes Baader,Hugo Ball,Marcel Duchamp,Max Ernst,Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven,George Grosz,Raoul Hausmann,John Heartfield,Emmy Hennings,Hannah Höch,Richard Huelsenbeck,Francis Picabia,Man Ray,Hans Richter,Kurt Schwitters,Sophie Taeuber-Arp,Tristan Tzara, andBeatrice Wood, among others. The movement influenced later styles like the avant-garde anddowntown musicmovements, and groups includingSurrealism,nouveau réalisme,pop art, andFluxus.
Dada was an informal international movement, with participants in Europe and North America. The beginnings of Dada correspond with the outbreak of World War I. For many participants, the movement was a protest against thebourgeoisnationalistandcolonialistinterests, which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war, and against the cultural and intellectual conformity—in art and more broadly in society—that corresponded to the war.
Avant-garde circles outside France knew of pre-war Parisian developments. They had seen (or participated in) Cubist exhibitions held atGaleries Dalmau, Barcelona (1912), GalerieDer Sturmin Berlin (1912), theArmory Showin New York (1913),SVU Mánesin Prague (1914), severalJack of Diamondsexhibitions in Moscow and atModerne Kunstkring, Amsterdam (between 1911 and 1915).Futurismdeveloped in response to the work of various artists. Dada subsequently combined these approaches.
Many Dadaists believed that the 'reason' and 'logic' of bourgeoiscapitalistsociety had led people into war. They expressed their rejection of that ideology in artistic expression that appeared to reject logic and embracechaosandirrationality.For example,George Groszlater recalled that his Dadaist art was intended as a protest "against this world of mutual destruction".
According toHans RichterDada was not art: it was "anti-art".Dada represented the opposite of everything which art stood for. Where art was concerned with traditionalaesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend.
Additionally, Dada attempted to reflect onto human perception and the chaotic nature of society.Tristan Tzaraproclaimed, "Everything is Dada, too. Beware of Dada. Anti-dadaism is a disease: selfkleptomania, man's normal condition, is Dada. But the real Dadas are against Dada".
AsHugo Ballexpressed it, "For us, art is not an end in itself ... but it is an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in."
A reviewer from theAmerican Art Newsstated at the time that "Dada philosophy is the sickest, most paralyzing and most destructive thing that has ever originated from the brain of man." Art historians have described Dada as being, in large part, a "reaction to what many of these artists saw as nothing more than an insane spectacle of collective homicide".
Years later, Dada artists described the movement as "a phenomenon bursting forth in the midst of the postwar economic and moral crisis, a savior, a monster, which would lay waste to everything in its path... [It was] a systematic work of destruction and demoralization... In the end it became nothing but an act of sacrilege."
To quote Dona Budd'sThe Language of Art Knowledge,
The movement primarily involvedvisual arts,literature,poetry,art manifestos,art theory,theatre, andgraphic design, and concentrated itsanti-warpolitics through a rejection of the prevailing standards inartthrough anti-art cultural works.
The creations of Duchamp, Picabia, Man Ray, and others between 1915 and 1917 eluded the term Dada at the time, and "New York Dada" came to be seen as a post facto invention of Duchamp. At the outset of the 1920s the term Dada flourished in Europe with the help of Duchamp and Picabia, who had both returned from New York. Notwithstanding, Dadaists such as Tzara and Richter claimed European precedence. Art historian David Hopkins notes:
Dada emerged from a period of artistic and literary movements likeFuturism,CubismandExpressionism; centered mainly in Italy, France and Germany respectively, in those years. However, unlike the earlier movements Dada was able to establish a broad base of support, giving rise to a movement that was international in scope. Its adherents were based in cities all over the world including New York, Zürich, Berlin, Paris and others. There were regional differences like an emphasis on literature in Zürich and political protest in Berlin.
Prominent Dadaists published manifestos, but the movement was loosely organized and there was no central hierarchy. On 14 July 1916, Ball originated the seminalDada Manifesto.Tzarawrote a second Dada manifesto,considered important Dada reading, which was published in 1918.Tzara's manifesto articulated the concept of "Dadaist disgust"—the contradiction implicit in avant-garde works between the criticism and affirmation of modernist reality. In the Dadaist perspective modern art and culture are considered a type offetishizationwhere the objects of consumption (including organized systems of thought like philosophy and morality) are chosen, much like a preference for cake or cherries, to fill a void.
The shock and scandal the movement inflamed was deliberate; Dadaist magazines were banned and their exhibits closed. Some of the artists even faced imprisonment. These provocations were part of the entertainment but, over time, audiences' expectations eventually outpaced the movement's capacity to deliver. As the artists' well-known "sarcastic laugh" started to come from the audience, the provocations of Dadaists began to lose their impact. Dada was an active movement during years of political turmoil from 1916 when European countries were actively engaged in World War I, the conclusion of which, in 1918, set the stage for a new political order.
There is some disagreement about where Dada originated. The movement is commonly accepted by most art historians and those who lived during this period to have identified with theCabaret Voltaire(housed inside theHolländische Meiereibar in Zürich) co-founded by poet andcabaretsingerEmmy HenningsandHugo Ball.Some sources propose a Romanian origin, arguing that Dada was an offshoot of a vibrant artistic tradition that transposed to Switzerland when a group of Jewishmodernistartists, including Tristan Tzara,Marcel Janco, andArthur Segalsettled in Zürich. Before World War I, similar art had already existed in Bucharest and other Eastern European cities; it is likely that Dada's catalyst was the arrival in Zürich of artists like Tzara and Janco.
The nameCabaret Voltairewas a reference to the French philosopherVoltaire, whose novelCandidemocked the religious and philosophicaldogmasof the day. Opening night was attended by Ball, Tzara,Jean Arp, and Janco. These artists along with others likeSophie Taeuber,Richard HuelsenbeckandHans Richterstarted putting on performances at the Cabaret Voltaire and using art to express their disgust with the war and the interests that inspired it.
Having left Germany and Romania duringWorld War I, the artists arrived in politically neutral Switzerland. They used abstraction to fight against the social, political, and cultural ideas of that time. They usedshock art, provocation, and "vaudevillianexcess" to subvert the conventions they believed had caused the Great War.The Dadaists believed those ideas to be a byproduct of bourgeois society that was so apathetic it would wage war against itself rather than challenge thestatus quo:
Ball said that Janco's mask and costume designs, inspired by Romanian folk art, made "the horror of our time, the paralyzing background of events" visible.According to Ball, performances were accompanied by a "balalaika orchestra playing delightful folk-songs." Often influenced byAfrican music, arrhythmic drumming and jazz were common at Dada gatherings.
After the cabaret closed down, Dada activities moved on to a new gallery, andHugo Ballleft for Bern. Tzara began a relentless campaign to spread Dada ideas. He bombarded French and Italian artists and writers with letters, and soon emerged as the Dada leader and master strategist. The Cabaret Voltaire re-opened, and is still in the same place at the Spiegelgasse 1 in the Niederdorf.
Zürich Dada, with Tzara at the helm, published the art and literature reviewDadabeginning in July 1917, with five editions from Zürich and the final two from Paris.
Other artists, such asAndré BretonandPhilippe Soupault, created "literature groups to help extend the influence of Dada".
After the fighting of the First World War had ended in the armistice of November 1918, most of the Zürich Dadaists returned to their home countries, and some began Dada activities in other cities. Others, such as the Swiss nativeSophie Taeuber, would remain in Zürich into the 1920s.
"Berlin was a city of tightened stomachers, of mounting, thundering hunger, where hidden rage was transformed into a boundless money lust, and men's minds were concentrating more and more on questions of naked existence... Fear was in everybody's bones" – Richard Hülsenbeck
Raoul Hausmann, who helped establish Dada in Berlin, published hismanifestoSynthethic Cino of Paintingin 1918 where he attacked Expressionism and the art critics who promoted it. Dada is envisioned in contrast to art forms, such as Expressionism, that appeal to viewers' emotional states: "the exploitation of so-called echoes of the soul". In Hausmann's conception of Dada, new techniques of creating art would open doors to explore new artistic impulses. Fragmented use of real world stimuli allowed an expression of reality that was radically different from other forms of art:
The groups in Germany were not as stronglyanti-artas other groups. Their activity and art were more political and social, with corrosivemanifestosand propaganda, satire, public demonstrations and overt political activities. The intensely political and war-torn environment of Berlin had a dramatic impact on the ideas of Berlin Dadaists. Conversely, New York's geographic distance from the war spawned its more theoretically driven, less political nature.According toHans Richter, a Dadaist who was in Berlin yet "aloof from active participation in Berlin Dada", several distinguishing characteristics of the Dada movement there included: "its political element and its technical discoveries in painting and literature"; "inexhaustible energy"; "mental freedom which included the abolition of everything"; and "members intoxicated with their own power in a way that had no relation to the real world", who would "turn their rebelliousness even against each other".
In February 1918, while the Great War was approaching its climax, Huelsenbeck gave his first Dada speech in Berlin, and he produced a Dada manifesto later in the year. Following theOctober RevolutioninRussia, by then out of the war,Hannah HöchandGeorge Groszused Dada to express communist sympathies. Grosz, together withJohn Heartfield, Höch and Hausmann developed thetechniqueofphotomontageduring this period.Johannes Baader, the uninhibited Oberdada, was the "crowbar" of the Berlin movement'sdirect actionaccording toHans Richterand is credited with creating the first giant collages, according toRaoul Hausmann.
After the war, the artists published a series of short-lived political magazines and held theFirst International Dada Fair, 'the greatest project yet conceived by the Berlin Dadaists', in the summer of 1920.As well as work by the main members of Berlin Dada (Grosz,Raoul Hausmann,Hannah Höch,Johannes Baader, Huelsenbeck and Heartfield), the exhibition also included the work ofOtto Dix,Francis Picabia, Jean Arp,Max Ernst,Rudolf Schlichter,Johannes Baargeldand others.In all, over 200 works were exhibited, surrounded by incendiary slogans, some of which also ended up written on the walls of the Nazi'sEntartete Kunstexhibition in 1937. Despite high ticket prices, the exhibition lost money, with only one recorded sale.
The Berlin group published periodicals such asClub Dada,Der Dada,Everyman His Own Football, andDada Almanach. They also established a political party, theCentral Council of Dada for the World Revolution.
InCologne, Ernst, Baargeld, and Arp launched a controversial Dada exhibition in 1920 which focused on nonsense and anti-bourgeois sentiments. Cologne's Early Spring Exhibition was set up in a pub, and required that participants walk past urinals while being read lewd poetry by a woman in acommuniondress. The police closed the exhibition on grounds of obscenity, but it was re-opened when the charges were dropped.
Like Zürich, New York City was a refuge for writers and artists from the First World War. Soon after arriving from France in 1915,Marcel DuchampandFrancis Picabiamet American artistMan Ray. By 1916 the three of them became the center of radicalanti-artactivities in the United States. AmericanBeatrice Wood, who had been studying in France, soon joined them, along withElsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.Arthur Cravan, fleeing conscription in France, was also in New York for a time. Much of their activity centered inAlfred Stieglitz's gallery,291, and the home ofWalter and Louise Arensberg.
The New Yorkers, though not particularly organized, called their activitiesDada,but they did not issue manifestos. They issued challenges to art and culture through publications such asThe Blind Man,Rongwrong, andNew York Dadain which they criticized the traditionalist basis formuseumart. New York Dada lacked the disillusionment of European Dada and was instead driven by a sense of irony and humor. In his bookAdventures in the arts: informal chapters on painters, vaudeville and poetsMarsden Hartleyincluded an essay on "The Importance of Being 'Dada'".
During this time Duchamp began exhibiting "readymades" (everyday objects found or purchased and declared art) such as a bottle rack, and was active in theSociety of Independent Artists. In 1917 he submitted the now famousFountain, a urinal signed R. Mutt, to the Society of Independent Artists exhibition but they rejected the piece. First an object of scorn within the arts community, theFountainhas since become almost canonized by someas one of the most recognizable modernist works of sculpture. Art world experts polled by the sponsors of the 2004Turner Prize, Gordon's gin, voted it "the most influential work of modern art".
As recent scholarship documents, the work is still controversial. Duchamp indicated in a 1917 letter to his sister that a female friend was centrally involved in the conception of this work: "One of my female friends who had adopted the pseudonym Richard Mutt sent me a porcelain urinal as a sculpture."The piece is in line with the scatological aesthetics of Duchamp's neighbour, theBaroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.In an attempt to "pay homage to the spirit of Dada" a performance artist namedPierre Pinoncellimade a crack in a replica ofThe Fountainwith a hammer in January 2006; he also urinated on it in 1993.
Picabia's travels tied New York, Zürich and Paris groups together during the Dadaist period. For seven years he also published the Dada periodical391in Barcelona, New York City, Zürich, and Paris from 1917 through 1924.
By 1921, most of the original players moved to Paris where Dada had experienced its last major incarnation.
The Frenchavant-gardekept abreast of Dada activities in Zürich with regular communications fromTristan Tzara(whose pseudonym means "sad in country," a name chosen to protest the treatment of Jews in his native Romania), who exchanged letters, poems, and magazines withGuillaume Apollinaire,André Breton,Max Jacob,Clément Pansaers, and other French writers, critics and artists.
Paris had arguably been the classical music capital of the world since the advent of musical Impressionism in the late 19th century. One of its practitioners,Erik Satie, collaborated withPicassoandCocteauin a mad, scandalous ballet calledParade. First performed by theBallets Russesin 1917, it succeeded in creating a scandal but in a different way than Stravinsky'sLe Sacre du printempshad done almost five years earlier. This was a ballet that was clearly parodying itself, something traditional ballet patrons would obviously have serious issues with.
Dada in Paris surged in 1920 when many of the originators converged there. Inspired by Tzara, Paris Dada soon issued manifestos, organized demonstrations, staged performances and produced a number of journals (the final two editions ofDada,Le Cannibale, andLittératurefeatured Dada in several editions.)
The first introduction of Dada artwork to the Parisian public was at theSalon des Indépendantsin 1921.Jean Crottiexhibited works associated with Dada including a work entitled,Explicatifbearing the wordTabu. In the same year Tzara staged his Dadaist playThe Gas Heartto howls of derision from the audience. When it was re-staged in 1923 in a more professional production, the play provoked a theatre riot (initiated byAndré Breton) that heralded the split within the movement that was to produceSurrealism. Tzara's last attempt at a Dadaist drama was his "ironictragedy"Handkerchief of Cloudsin 1924.
In the Netherlands, the Dada movement centered mainly aroundTheo van Doesburg, best known for establishing theDe Stijlmovement and magazine of the same name. Van Doesburg mainly focused on poetry, and included poems from many well-known Dada writers inDe Stijlsuch asHugo Ball,Hans ArpandKurt Schwitters. Van Doesburg andThijs Rinsema[nl](acordwainerand artist inDrachten) became friends of Schwitters, and together they organized the so-calledDutch Dada campaignin 1923, where van Doesburg promoted a leaflet about Dada (entitledWhat is Dada?), Schwitters read his poems,Vilmos Huszárdemonstrated a mechanical dancing doll and Nelly van Doesburg (Theo's wife), playedavant-gardecompositions on piano.
Van Doesburg wrote Dada poetry himself inDe Stijl, although under a pseudonym, I.K. Bonset, which was only revealed after his death in 1931. 'Together' with I.K. Bonset, he also published a short-livedDutchDada magazine calledMécano(1922–23). Another Dutchman identified byK. Schippersin his study of the movement in the Netherlandswas theGroningentypographerH. N. Werkman, who was in touch with van Doesburg and Schwitters while editing his own magazine,The Next Call(1923–6). Two more artists mentioned by Schippers were German-born and eventually settled in the Netherlands. These were Otto van Rees, who had taken part in the liminal exhibitions at the Café Voltaire in Zürich, andPaul Citroen.
Though Dada itself was unknown inGeorgiauntil at least 1920, from 1917 until 1921 a group of poets called themselves Le Degré 41", or "Le Degré Quarante et Un" (English, "The 41st Degree") (referring both to the latitude ofTbilisi, Georgia and to the Celsius temperature of a high fever [equal to 105.8 Fahrenheit]) organized along Dadaist lines. The most important figure in this group wasIliazd(Ilia Zdanevich), whose radical typographical designs visually echo the publications of the Dadaists.
After his flight to Paris in 1921, he collaborated with Dadaists on publications and events. For example, whenTristan Tzarawas banned from holding seminars in Théâtre Michel in 1923,Iliazdbooked the venue on his behalf for the performance, "The Bearded Heart Soirée", and designed the flyer.
InYugoslavia, alongside the new art movementZenitism, there was significant Dada activity between 1920 and 1922, run mainly byDragan Aleksićand including work by Mihailo S. Petrov, Ljubomir Micić and Branko Ve Poljanski.Aleksić used the term "Yougo-Dada" and is known to have been in contact withRaoul Hausmann,Kurt Schwitters, andTristan Tzara.
The Dada movement in Italy, based inMantua, was met with distaste and failed to make a significant impact in the world of art. It published a magazine for a short time and held an exhibition in Rome, featuring paintings, quotations from Tristan Tzara, and original epigrams such as "True Dada is against Dada". One member of this group wasJulius Evola, who went on to become an eminent scholar ofoccultism, as well as a right-wing philosopher.
A prominent Dada group in Japan wasMavo. The group was founded in July 1923 byTomoyoshi MurayamaandYanase Masamu; they were later joined byTatsuo Okada. Other prominent artists wereJun Tsuji,Eisuke Yoshiyuki,Shinkichi TakahashiandKatué Kitasono.
InTsuburaya Productions'sUltra Series, an alien named Dada was inspired by the Dadaism movement, with said character first appearing in episode 28 of the 1966tokusatsuseries,Ultraman, its design by character artistToru Narita. Dada's design is primarily monochromatic, and features numerous sharp lines and alternating black and white stripes, in reference to the movement and, in particular, tochessboardandGopatterns. On May 19, 2016, in celebration to the 100 year anniversary of Dadaism in Tokyo, the Ultra Monster was invited to meet the Swiss Ambassador Urs Bucher.
Butoh, the Japanese dance-form originating in 1959, can be considered to have direct connections to the spirit of the Dada movement, asTatsumi Hijikata, one of Butoh's founders, "was influenced early in his career by Dadaism".
Dada in itself was relatively unknown in Russia; however, avant-garde art was widespread due to theBolsheviks' revolutionary agenda. TheNichevoki[ru], a literary group sharing Dadaist idealsachieved infamy after one of its members suggested thatVladimir Mayakovskyshould go to the "Pampushka" (Pameatnik Pushkina –Pushkin monument) on the "Tverbul" (Tverskoy Boulevard) to clean the shoes of anyone who desired it, after Mayakovsky declared that he was going to cleanse Russian literature.For more information on Dadaism's influence uponRussian avant-gardeart, see the bookRussian Dada 1914–1924.
The vital contributions of female artists to the Dada movement were often reduced to their personal relationships with male Dadaists, and thus they were not written about as extensively in their own right.Notable mentions other than the artists below include:Suzanne Duchamp,Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven,Emmy Hennings,Beatrice Wood,Clara Tice, andElla Bergmann-Michel.
Hannah Höchof Berlin is considered to be the only female Dadaist in Berlin at the time of the movement.During this time, she was in a relationship withRaoul Hausmannwho also was a Dada artist. She channeled the same anti-war and anti-government (Weimar Republic) in her works but brought out a feminist lens on the themes. With her works primarily of collage and photomontage, she often used precise placement or detailed titles to callout the misogynistic ways she and other women were treated.
Sophie Taeuber-Arpwas a Swiss artist, teacher, and dancer who produced various types of fine art and handicraft pieces. While married to DadaistJean Arp, Taeuber-Arp was known in the Dada community for her performative dancing. As such, she worked with choreographerRudolf von Labanand was written byTristan Tzarafor her dancing skills.
London-born Mina Loy was known for being active in the literary sector of the New York Dada scene. She spent time writing poetry, creating Dada magazines, and acting and writing in plays. She contributed writing to Dada journalThe Blind ManandMarcel Duchamp'sRongwrong.
Dadaists used shock,nihilism, negativity,paradox,randomness,subconsciousforces,anti-poetryandantinomianismto subvert established traditions in the aftermath of the Great War. Tzara's 1920 manifesto proposed cutting words from a newspaper and randomly selecting fragments to write poetry, a process in which the synchronous universe itself becomes an active agent in creating the art. A poem written using this technique would be a "fruit" of the words that were clipped from the article.
In literary arts, Dadaists focused on poetry, particularly the so-called sound poetry invented byHugo Ball. Dadaist poems attacked traditional conceptions of poetry, including structure, order, as well as the interplay of sound and the meaning of language. For Dadaists, the existing system by which information is articulated robs language of its dignity. The dismantling of language and poetic conventions are Dadaist attempts to restore language to its purest and most innocent form: "With these sound poem, we wanted to dispense with a language which journalism had made desolate and impossible."
Simultaneous poems (orpoèmes simultanés) were recited by a group of speakers who, collectively, produced a chaotic and confusing set of voices. These poems are considered manifestations ofmodernityincluding advertising, technology, and conflict. Unlike movements such as Expressionism, Dadaism did not take a negative view of modernity and the urban life. The chaotic urban and futuristic world is considered natural terrain that opens up new ideas for life and art.
Dada was not confined to the visual and literary arts; its influence reached into sound and music. These movements exerted a pervasive influence on 20th-century music, especially on mid-century avant-garde composers based in New York—among them Edgard Varèse, Stefan Wolpe, John Cage, and Morton Feldman.Kurt Schwittersdeveloped what he calledsound poems, whileFrancis PicabiaandGeorges Ribemont-Dessaignescomposed Dada music performed at the Festival Dada in Paris on 26 May 1920.Other composers such asErwin Schulhoff, Hans Heusser andAlberto Savinioall wroteDada music,while members ofLes Sixcollaborated with members of the Dada movement and had their works performed at Dada gatherings.Erik Satiealso dabbled with Dadaist ideas during his career.
While broadly based, the movement was unstable. By 1924 in Paris, Dada was melding into Surrealism, and artists had gone on to other ideas and movements, includingSurrealism,social realismand other forms ofmodernism. Some theorists argue that Dada was actually the beginning ofpostmodern art.
By the dawn of theSecond World War, many of the European Dadaists had emigrated to the United States. Some (Otto Freundlich,Walter Serner) died in death camps underAdolf Hitler, who actively persecuted the kind of "degenerate art" that he considered Dada to represent. The movement became less active as post-war optimism led to the development of new movements in art and literature.
Dada is a named influence and reference of variousanti-artand political and cultural movements, including theSituationist Internationalandculture jamminggroups like theCacophony Society. Upon breaking up in July 2012,anarchistpop bandChumbawambaissued a statement which compared their own legacy with that of the Dada art movement.
At the same time that the Zürich Dadaists were making noise and spectacle at theCabaret Voltaire,Leninwas planning his revolutionary plans for Russia in a nearby apartment.Tom Stoppardused this coincidence as a premise for his playTravesties(1974), which includes Tzara, Lenin, andJames Joyceas characters. French writer Dominique Noguez imagined Lenin as a member of the Dada group in his tongue-in-cheekLénine Dada(1989).
The former building of the Cabaret Voltaire fell into disrepair until it was occupied from January to March 2002, by a group proclaiming themselvesNeo-Dadaists, led byMark Divo.The group includedJan Thieler,Ingo Giezendanner, Aiana Calugar,Lennie Lee, and Dan Jones. After their eviction, the space was turned into a museum dedicated to the history of Dada. The work of Lee and Jones remained on the walls of the new museum.
Several notableretrospectiveshave examined the influence of Dada upon art and society. In 1967, a large Dada retrospective was held in Paris. In 2006, theMuseum of Modern Artin New York City mounted a Dada exhibition in partnership with theNational Gallery of Artin Washington, D.C., and theCentre Pompidouin Paris. TheLTMlabel has released a large number of Dada-related sound recordings, including interviews with artists such as Tzara, Picabia, Schwitters, Arp, and Huelsenbeck, and musical repertoire including Satie, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Picabia, and Nelly van Doesburg.
MusicianFrank Zappawas a self-proclaimed Dadaist after learning of the movement:
David Bowie adapted William S. Burroughs' cut-up technique for writing lyrics and Kurt Cobain also admittedly used this method for many of his Nirvana lyrics, includingIn Bloom.
Dadaism also blurred the line between literary and visual arts:
The Dadaists imitated the techniques developed during the cubist movement through the pasting of cut pieces of paper items, but extended their art to encompass items such as transportation tickets, maps, plastic wrappers, etc. to portray aspects of life, rather than representing objects viewed as still life. They also invented the "chancecollage" technique, involving dropping torn scraps of paper onto a larger sheet and then pasting the pieces wherever they landed.
Cut-up techniqueis an extension of collage to words themselves,Tristan Tzaradescribes this in the Dada Manifesto:
The Dadaists – the "monteurs" (mechanics) – used scissors and glue rather than paintbrushes and paints to express their views of modern life through images presented by the media. A variation on the collage technique, photomontage utilized actual or reproductions of real photographs printed in the press. In Cologne,Max Ernstused images from the First World War to illustrate messages of the destruction of war.Although the Berlin photomontages were assembled, like engines, the (non)relationships among the disparate elements were more rhetorical than real.
Theassemblageswere three-dimensional variations of the collage – the assembly of everyday objects to produce meaningful or meaningless (relative to the war) pieces of work including war objects and trash. Objects were nailed, screwed or fastened together in different fashions. Assemblages could be seen in the round or could be hung on a wall.
Marcel Duchampbegan to view the manufactured objects of his collection as objects of art, which he called "readymades". He would add signatures and titles to some, converting them into artwork that he called "readymade aided" or "rectified readymades". Duchamp wrote: "One important characteristic was the short sentence which I occasionally inscribed on the 'readymade.' That sentence, instead of describing the object like a title, was meant to carry the mind of the spectator towards other regions more verbal. Sometimes I would add a graphic detail of presentation which in order to satisfy my craving for alliterations, would be called 'readymade aided.'"One such example of Duchamp's readymade works is the urinal that was turned onto its back, signed "R. Mutt", titledFountain, and submitted to the Society of Independent Artists exhibition that year, though it was not displayed.
Many young artists in America embraced the theories and ideas espoused by Duchamp. Robert Rauschenberg in particular was very influenced by Dadaism and tended to use found objects in his collages as a means of dissolving the boundary between high and low culture.
Sources
Manifestos