DADASam Mills and Marcus Kreitzer

BIRTH OF DADA Art movement of

European avant-garde in early 20th century.

Began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916.

Dada came about in a tavern called the Cabaret Voltaire.

CABARET VOLTAIRE The Cabaret provided an

environment with ideal conditions for artistic freedom and experimentation

Jean Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Marcel Janco, Sophie Taeuber, and Tristan Tzara are all famous artists that gathered in the tavern. Together they formed the dada movement or "revolution"

REASONS FOR DADA MOVEMENT

Born out of negative reaction to World War I.

Artists rebelling against what they saw as “cultural snobbery, bourgeois convention, and political support for the war.”

Artists were against following the direction that society was heading in.

Tristan Tzara launched an art and literature review called “Dada” which was like a magazine that he used to propagate Dadaist art and ideals throughout Europe.

BIRTH CONTINUED… Not sure about where the word “Dada”

originated from.Means “hobby horse” in FrenchOthers feel it is baby talk“Dada” was the catchphrase that made the

least amount of sense.

Dadaism has since spread to many cities including Berlin, Cologne, New York, Paris, Netherlands, Georgia, Yugoslavia, Italy, Tokyo, and Ireland.

QUOTES "It seemed that the very incompatibility of character,

origins and attitudes which existed among the Dadaists created the tension which gave, to this fortuitous conjunction of people from all points of the compass, its unified dynamic force.“ –Hans Richter

"The beginnings of Dada were not the beginnings of art, but of disgust.“ -Tristan Tzara

"We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the tabula rasa. At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking the bourgeois, demolishing his idea of art, attacking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order.“ –Marcel Janco

"It is necessary to clarify the intentions of this cabaret. It is its aim to remind the world that there are people of independent minds—beyond war and nationalism—who live for different ideals.“ –Hugo Ball

CHARACTERISTICS OF DADA Dada did not follow any rules when it came to the artwork.

Intended to provoke an emotional reaction.

Saw themselves as an “anti-art” movement.

Main influences were abstraction and expressionism.

CHARACTERISTICS… No predominant medium used Dadaists wanted to “present an intriguing paradox in that they seek to demystify artwork in the populist sense but nevertheless remain cryptic enough to allow the viewer to interpret works in a variety of ways.”

PHOTOMONTAGE Developed by the Berlin Dada

Group Variation of collage where all of

the pieces of the collage are actual photographs or photo-realistic images pasted together.

PHOTOMONTAGE EXAMPLES

Raoul Hausmann Hannah Höch

COLLAGE The Dadaists took after the Cubists in

making collages. Their collages consisted of papers fabric

and other two dimentional objects that were pasted together in order to make their art more like everyday life.

Their collages were more abstract than the cubists and their material selection was much more diverse.

COLLAGE EXAMPLES

Kurt Schwitters Hans Arp

ASSEMBLAGE Essentially 3D collage. Instead of 2D items pasted

together it was 3D items nailed and screwed together.

The assortment of objects was could be endless.

ASSEMBLAGE EXAMPLES

Raoul Hausmann Kurt Schwitters

READYMADES Work created by other artists

that is taken and modified Invented by Marcel Duchamp Pushed the boundaries of what

was considered art

READYMADES EXAMPLES

Man Ray Marcel Duchamp

TYPOGRAPHY Dadaists played with unconventional

typographic design They mixed fonts, used improper

punctuation and had randomly placed printer's symbols all over the page

Tristan Tzara stated "Each page must explode, either by deep and weight seriousness—the whirlwind, the vertigo, the new, the eternal—by the crushing jokes, by the enthusiasm for the principles, or by the manner of being printed."

TYPOGRAPHY EXAMPLES

Hans Richter

Richard Huelsenbeck

SOUND POEMS Invented by Hugo Ball They were poems that consisted of

abstract words created by syllables of other words that were then turned into meaningless sounds

Examples:http://

www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/techniques/sound/schwitters.mp3 Kurt Schwitters

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/techniques/sound/hausmann.mp3 Raoul Hausmann

CHANCE Works of art created by accidents

and the laws of chance Seen as a way expelling conscious

control Got rid of the occasional

meaningless decisions made by artists

CHANCE EXAMPLES

Hans Arp

Raoul Hausmann

PHOTOGRAPHY Dadaists experimented with

double exposures, odd subjects, and bizarre perspectives

They also did photograms which is photography without a camera. Objects were placed on photosensitive paper that is then exposed to light.

EXAMPLES OF PHOTOGRAPHYMan Ray

OVERPAINTING Invented by Max

Ernst He painted over

pages of print materials in order to make them his own

He painted over wallpapers, instruction booklets, catalogues, etc.

HANS ARP According to Arp himself, in his early

works he "embroidered, wove, painted, and pasted static geometric pictures."

For Arp, using new materials meant rejecting tradition, and working in techniques considered "applied" opened up plenty of new possibilities.

Wanted to take all traces of human personality out of his work. For example: In his collages he used a paper cutter

instead of scissors to eliminate the trace of the artist's hand.

HANS ARP CONTINUED… As he developed his collage works, he

stopped using the geometrical aspect and explored the use of abstract forms through nature.

Arp wanted to create an art that could act as a cultural restorative for an era brutalized by the horrific events of World War I.

HANS ARP WORK

Plastron et fourchette 1922painted wood relief

Untitled (Forest), 1916/1917painted wood reliefUntitled (Collage

with Squares Arranged According to the Laws of Chance)collage of torn papers on paper

HUGO BALL Invented the sound poem. Advocated the destruction of the rationalized language that for him represented what had led to the "agony and death throes of this age.“

Wanted to discover a new language that was untainted.

HUGO BALL

Ball's 1917 text "Karawane" and a reproduction of a 1916 photograph of Ball in his "cubist costume" at Cabaret Voltaire

TRISTAN TZARA Editor of “Dada”, an art and literature

review which he used to propagate Dadaist art and ideals throughout Europe.

Wrote poetry. Incorporated scraps of sound, bits of

newspaper, and phrases resembling African dialects into his poetry.

TRISTAN TZARA

MARCEL DUCHAMP Early in his career Duchamp had a

scientific attitude when it came to art, compiling notes and experimenting with methods of measurement and mechanical drawing.

Invented the readymade method. Experimented with the visual tricks

produced by forms in motion. Works filled with jokes, wit and

subversive humor with sexual innuendoes.

MARCEL DUCHAMP

Rotative Demisphère  1924, Motorized optical device: painted wood demisphere fitted on velvet disk, copper collar with Plexiglas dome, motor, pulley, and metal stand

Fountain, 1964 (fifth version)Assisted readymade: porcelain urinal turned on its back

Apolinère Enameled, 1916–1917rectified readymade: gouache and pencil on painted tin (advertising sign for Sapolin Enamel) mounted on board

MAX ERNST Early works were influenced by cubism,

futurism, and expressionism. World War I had a lasting impact on his

art, he used his personal experiences to depict absurd and apocalyptic scenes.

Began creating collages in 1919, reworking dull materials to make new, stunning images. 

He developed the technique of frottage Frottage: laying paper on the floor and rubbing

over it with pencil to create the textural effect of wood. 

MAX ERNST

Europe After The Rain.

Célèbes (Celebes) or Der Elefant von Celebes

L'ange du Foyer ou Le Triomphe du Surréalisme 

WEBSITES http://

www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/cities/index.shtm

http://www.theartstory.org/index.html http://www.surrealists.co.uk/ernst.php http://

arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada http://

www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/hofmann.php

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/149499/Dada