The Dada Art Movement:A Brief History

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain 1917

Dane Jones

The Great War

Total Casualties : Approximately 37.5 million

Dane Jones

Max ErnstUntitled, 1920

Dada: anti-war, anti-art

Man RayAmerican, 1890–1976

Cadeau (Gift), c. 1958 (replica of lost 1921 original)

painted flat iron with row of tacks, heads glued to bottom

George GroszA Victim of Society, 1919

World War IWorld War I 1914-1918.The war involved the major European powers of the time, and spread to European colonies around the world.More than 15 million deaths.An estimated 8 million were civilian casualties.Some 62 million soldiers took part in the war. Nearly 20 million soldiers were wounded. Humanity had never before seen death and destruction on such a massive scale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS1dO0JC2EE

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I www.teacheroz.com/wwi/htm

Source: www.gwpda.org/photos

Video on Shell Shock:

Video on the aftermath:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl5OqQVaD9Y

(faculty.virginia.edu)

(www.shorpy.com/files/images/Ruins.D_C.preview.jpg)

One response came from Dada…

• Dada: An artistic and literary movement which began with international artists in war-neutral Zürich, Switzerland, active from 1916-1922.

• Dada is said to have begun at the Cabaret Voltaire, a tavern owned by the poet Hugo Ball, in Zürich.

• The Cabaret Voltaire attracted artists who had come from all over Europe to neutral Zürich to escape the war.

• Dadaists were “United in their frustration and disillusionment with the war and their disgust with the culture that allowed it, the Dadaists felt that only insurrection and protest could fully express their rage.

• ‘The beginnings of Dada,’ Tristan Tzara remarked, "were not the beginnings of art, but of disgust.’

• As Marcel Janco recalled: ‘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.’” (Hoffman 2001, np.)

• Dadaism spreads its ideas to other cities in Europe and New York largely through Dadaist journals and publications.

• At the end of WWI in 1918, many Zürich Dadaists returned to their home cities furthering the spread of Dadaism.

• The movement reached a peak in 1920 when many of the original founders came to Paris.

• In the following years Dada would merge with Surrealism, and other artistic movements.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada. Hoffman, I. Documents of Dada and Surrealism.

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

Der Dada 3, ed. Raoul Hausmann (Berlin, April 1920), cover.

Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919, collage of pasted paper.

Dada Quotes:Dada Quotes:

• ““In Zürich in 1915 losing interest in the slaughterhouses of the In Zürich in 1915 losing interest in the slaughterhouses of the world war, we turned to the Fine Arts. While the thunder of the world war, we turned to the Fine Arts. While the thunder of the batteries rumbled in the distance, we pasted, we recited, we batteries rumbled in the distance, we pasted, we recited, we versified, we sang with all our soul. We searched for an versified, we sang with all our soul. We searched for an elementary art that would, we thought, save mankind from the elementary art that would, we thought, save mankind from the furious folly of these times”. furious folly of these times”. Hans Arp Hans Arp

(source: www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture8.html).

• ““We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the “tabula rasa”. At demolished. We would begin again after the “tabula rasa”. At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short the whole prevailing order.” in short the whole prevailing order.” Tristan TzaraTristan Tzara

(source: (source: noah-cicero.blogspot.com/2007/05/quotes-from-tzaras-dada-manifesto.html).

Tristan Tzara

• Tzara (b.1896, Moinesti, Romania-d. 1963, Paris France).

• Poet, essayist and playwright, Tzara is best know for his role as one of the principal and founding figures of Dada.

• Tzara was one of the international artists who came together at the Cabaret Voltaire.

• By the end of WWI Tzara had taken up the role as one of Dada’s main voices.

• He wrote numerous essays, poems, plays and took part in many controversial performances.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_Tzara#Symbolist_poetry. members.peak.org/~dadaist/English/Graphics/tzara.html.

Tzara’s directions for making a Dadaist Tzara’s directions for making a Dadaist poem:poem:

To make a Dadaist poem:Take a newspaper.Take a pair of scissors.Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem.Cut out the article.Then cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them in a bag.Shake it gently.Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the

bag.Copy conscientiously.The poem will be like you.And here you are a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that

is charming though beyond the understanding of the vulgar. -Tristan Tzara (source: www.madsci.org/~lynn/juju/surr/games/dada-poem.html)

DADA COLLAGE OR POSTERDADA COLLAGE OR POSTER

GOAL:GOAL: Using images from popular Using images from popular culture, make a statement about our culture, make a statement about our

society.society.NATHANIEL BOOMHOWERNATHANIEL BOOMHOWER

Dada used satire to ridicule society

What is satire?

comedians often use satire… an example: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d8e838fb1a/george-bush-george-w-bush-hunting-from-nino?rel=by_user

Wikipedia says: In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement.[Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon.

Images are everywhere! Use Images are everywhere! Use creativity! creativity!

Dada artists wanted to attack Dada artists wanted to attack and ridicule society.and ridicule society.

This man This man was an was an

art art critic…critic…

Notice Notice his eyes his eyes

and and mouth…mouth…