History of Art picks: Dadaism (Dada)

 Hello to all the lovely creatures out there!

In today's post (coincidentally together with the 1st of September beginning the year of autumn once again!) we explore the art movement called Dadaism or Dada! Although we talk about an art movement, Dada is much more than just an artistic interpretation of the era it was created. 

Dada or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zurich and Berlin, but later it spread through to New York City and the rest of Europe and Asia.

Marcel Duchamp - Fountain - 1917

Within this concept, people used a wide variety of artistic forms to protest the logic, reason and aesthticism of modern capitalism and modern war. Artists tended to use concepts as nonsense, irrationality and an anti-bourgeois sensibility. The art of the movement began as performance art but eventually spanned visual, literary and sound media, including collage, sound poetry, cut-up, writing and sculpture. Dadaist artists expressed their discontent toward violence, war, and nationalism and maintained political affinities with radical politics on the left-wing and far-left politics. The movement had no shared artistic style, althought most artists had shown interest in the machine aesthetic.

Raul Hausmann - The Art Critic - 1919-20

There is no consensus on the origin of the movement's name; a common story is that the artist Richard Huelsenbeck slid a papaer knife randomly into a dictionary where it landed on "dada", a French term for a hobby horse. Other explanations suggests that the first words of a child can be similar in hearing with the word "dada".

Hannah Hoch - Cut the Kitchen Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer - 1919-20

The roots of Dada lie in pre-war avant-garde. The anti-art a precursor to Dada was used to characterize works that challenged accepted definitions of art. The Dada movement's principles were first collected in Hugo Ball's Dada Manifesto in 1916. Ball is considered as the founder of the Dada movement. The Dadaist movement included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art and literary journals. Passionate coverage of art, politics and culture were topics often discussed in a variety of media.

Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend. Additionally, Dada attempted to reflect onto juman perception and the chaotic nature of society. Key figures in the movement included Jean Arp, Johannes Baader, Hugo Ball, Max Ernst, Emmy Hennings, Hannah Hoch etc. The movement influenced later styles like the avant-garde and downtown music movements and groups including Surrealism, nouveau realisme, pop art and Fluxus.

Marcel Duchamp - L.H.O.O.Q.- 1919

I hope you learned a little bit more about an art movement that has actually transformed art as we know it today. Whether some would like to admit it, Dada really paved the way for art to leave the old traditions, experiment, and create new things while at the same time playing a more vital role associating with political views and social themes. Besides, some artworks of this time are pretty funny to look at!

As always thank you for reading and I will see you in a next post!

xoxoxo