Dadaism
The absurdity of life and art Dada is the nonsense word that describes an equally nonsensical movement of art that swept through Europe and extended into New York City in the early twentieth century. The movement united artists in Zurich, Berlin, Cologne, Hannover (Germany), Paris, and New York City to support each other to protest World War I and the state of affairs in the realm of art — namely, the celebration of traditional paintings and sculptures. Their chosen method of protest: photography, collage, found objects, and other mediums that allowed for the impulsive creation of surprising and perplexing art. The movement ran concurrent with World War I and revealed the overall disenchantment that accompanied it.
ROOTS OF DADA
Dada was born in Zurich in 1916 when a group of young, like-minded artists and activists met at a local cafe called the Cabaret Voltaire to express their opposition to World War I. Jean Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, and Emmy Hennings were among those who joined together with a shared belief in challenging traditional viewpoints. The Cabaret Voltaire became the site of many baffling Dada “performances” that riled up their audiences and enraged locals. Nonsense poems were recited as music blared, and performance art purposefully added to the confusion.
Dadaism did not promote a particular style or technique for creating art. It simply encouraged collaboration between artists who wanted to rise up and challenge the faulty rationale of warring countries and rail against staunch traditionalists who were closed off to any alternative visions of the world. As traditionalists who were closed off to any alternative visions of the world. As French artist Jean (Hans) Arp put it, their goal was “to destroy the hoaxes of reason and to discover an unreasoned order.”
The Name Game
There is some conjecture as to how artists came to choose the name Dada. Some say they stabbed a penknife into a French-to-German dictionary and took the word it pointed to. Others claim that the name was consciously chosen for its bizarre translation into various languages. It means “hobbyhorse” in French and “yes, yes” in Russian.
The philosophies of the Zurich group influenced similar activity in Berlin, Cologne, Paris, and New York City. In New York City, Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery became what the Cabaret Voltaire was to Zurich’s Dada movement. While the Dada events at the 291 Gallery were similar in nature to the artistic “protests” in Zurich, the artists were less focused on the war and more focused on ridiculing the prevailing art establishment. Artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Morton Schamberg, and Francis Picabia joined together in New York to spread their subversive ideas through novel art forms.
DADA OBJECTS AND PUBLICATIONS
The time-worn traditions of painting and sculpture were not spontaneous and edgy enough to convey the Dadaist’s revolutionary message. Instead, they found the freedom they craved in the mediums of collage, photomontage, and foundobject construction (the artistic presentation — and sometimes transformation — of common everyday objects). A prime example is Duchamp’s found-object urinal construction Fountain, which exemplified the sort of spur-of-the-moment counterculture message of Dadaism. Though it was rejected from the American Society of Independent Artists’ first exhibition, Duchamp continued to submit variations of the piece to stir up a debate about the true nature of art. He hoped to show his audience that the creative process of the artist is more valuable than its physical manifestation in the gallery.
In an effort to document their expressions of art, publish their work, and spread their manifestos, the separate factions of the Dada movement published their own periodicals and journals.
DADA IN BERLIN
German cities also became hubs for the Dadaists, allowing them a means to vent their grievances against the establishment. Max Ernst and Johannes Baargeld led the movement in Cologne. The pinnacle of Dadaism, however, occurred in 1920 Berlin at the first International Dada Fair. The Berlin movement was more aggressive and politically oriented than all other factions. Its international fair, held in a small backyard gallery, featured a German officer with the head of a pig. All the more disturbing: the officer/pig was suspended from the ceiling.
MOST NOTABLE DADAISTS
Following are some of the key names within the Dada movement:
Alfred Stieglitz (American photographer and gallery owner) Clément Pansaers (Belgian poet) Man Ray (American photographer and painter) Marcel Duchamp (French artist) Max Ernst (German artist) Paul van Ostaijen (Flemish writer) Philippe Soupault (French writer) Francis Picabia (French artist) George Grosz (German artist) Jean Arp (French artist) Kurt Schwitters (German artist) Theo van Doesburg (Dutch artist) Tristan Tzara (French author)
