2. History of Dadaism
• Dadaism was a cultural manifestation which grew in the
beginning of the 20th century, more precisely between
1916-1923.
• Nihilism engendered by war, and the revolutionary spirit
released by cubism (the first revolutionary art movement)
were the key factors behind the movement’s growth and
appeal
• It employed a barrage of demonstrations and manifestos,
and exhibitions of absurdist art which were designed to
shock both the authorities and the general public.
3. • Cabaret Valtaire was founded in Zurich by Richard
huelsendick, hugo ball, jean arp, and Tristan t’sara, as an
early center of multi-cultural dada events and protest
shows.
• The “fountain,” a major Dadaist work by marcel
Duchamp, was rejected at the exhibition of the society of
independent artists, causing an uproar among the
Dadaists.
• It influenced later modern art movements such as
surrealism and pop arts, and led to important
innovations in fine art like college and photo-motage.
4. What is Dadaism?
• Dadaism or dada was a form of artistic anarchy born of
hatred for the social, political, and cultural values of the
time. It embraced elements of art, music, poetry, theater,
dance, and politics.
• Dada was not an art style; it was more of a protest
movement with an anti-establishment platform.
• Based to the common story was that the Australian artist
Richard Huelsenbeck plunged a knife at random into a
dictionary, where it landed to dada, a colloquial French
term for a hobby horse.
5. • Between 1817-1920, the dada group attracted many
different types of artists, including Raoul Hausman,
Hannah Hoch, Johannes Baadar, Francis Picabia, Georg
Grosz, Jonh Heartflied, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp,
Beatrice Wood, Kurt Schwitters, and Hans Ritcher.
6. Who Founded Dadaism?
• Richard Huelsenbeck, a poet, and painter-musician
Hugo Ball selected the word at random from a
German-French Dictionary.
• “dada” was coined in Zurich in 1916’
• A nonsense word, it means “yes-yes” in Rusian,
“there-there” in german (baby talk), and “hobby
horse” in French.
8. Characteristic of Dadaism
In general, dada sought to undermine all art, viewing it as
part of cultural norms and sensibilities that established
oppressive aesthetic standards and emphasized the
“reason” and “order” that had led to the self-annihilating
destruction of world war I. therefore, anything that
contracted these chaos, irrationally, impermanence, repu
gnance- was fair game for dada’s proponents.
14. Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1917)
• Marcel Duchamp was one of the most prolific
artists of Dadaism, producing numerous
infamous paintings, collages and sculptures.
He is also associated with Cubism, Futurism
and early conceptual art. He has had a
monumental influence on 20th-century
modernist art and specifically sculpture. His
work reached maturity after World War I
when he began using art as a tool for cultural
protest.
15. • Fountain is one of the most iconic art
pieces of the 20th century, representing
a major shift in the function of art in
society. While the original 1917 piece
does not survive today, Tate created a
replica made of earthenware in 1964. It
is one of the earliest examples of
‘lowbrow’ or ‘readymade’ sculptures,
which are made from found objects.
Duchamp submitted the sculpture to
the Paris Salon, but it was rejected
because it was not considered art.
16. Kurt Schwitters, Construction For Noble Ladies
(1919)
• Kurt Schwitters was a German artist who
experimented with several different mediums,
including painting, sculpture, graphic design,
installation art and poetry. His work was
associated with Surrealism, Cubism and
Constructivism as well as Dadaism. He was
also known for applying the term Merz to his
work, a term he made up which was
synonymous with Dada as a form of cultural
protest.
17. • Construction for Noble Ladies is an example of
Schwitters’ use of abstraction in collage and
sculpture. This assemblage piece also exemplifies
the ‘found object’ style of sculpture, as it is
constructed of a variety of broken and disjointed
materials: a funnel, a metal toy train, broken wheels,
and other scrap objects. It also includes a horizontal
portrait of a noble lady, from which the piece gets
its title. The assembly of the work is rough, and the
painting has a rugged finish to it, further adding to
its diversion from preceding artistic expectations.
However, the entire piece has an elegant
asymmetry, showing that even scrap objects can
create a masterpiece.
18. Raoul Hausmann, The Art Critic (1919-20)
• Raoul Hausmann was a prominent Austrian artist and a
leader of the Dada movement in Berlin. Hausmann was
also an expressionist artist. After becoming acquainted
with the Dadaism movement, he met other artists
including John Heartfield and George Grosz. During
this time, he focused mostly on poetry and
photographic collage, which would have a profound
effect on the postwar European avant-garde. His poetry
was known for being especially provocative and his
artwork very satirical. He was also a lover of fellow
Dadaist Hannah Höch.
19. • The Art Critic is Hausmann’s ardent criticism of
the superficiality of the art world. The piece is
a photo collage made up of a series of
magazine and newspaper photographs and
includes some drawn elements. The work is
considered ‘lowbrow’ as it uses materials and
iconography seen in popular culture. It
connotes that, much like the construction of a
collage, art critics possess a cobbled-together
knowledge of vacuous facts and do not truly
understand the meaning of art.
20. Hannah Höch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the
Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany (1919-20)
• Hannah Höch was a German artist and
member of the Dadaism movement. She
pioneered the technique of photomontage or
photo collage using images from popular
media. She was interested in feminism,
gender and androgyny in art, and especially
in the dissolution of the ‘New Woman’
dichotomy. She also explored the political
climate during the Weimar Republic in her
work.
21. • Cut with the Kitchen Knife represents the
juxtaposition between Dadaism and
mainstream culture during the time. Clustered
in one part of the photo collage are members
of dominant political groups such as the
Weimar government and the army. In stark
contrast, the other side of the piece features
communists, artists and other radicals. Höch
also included a small map that displays the
countries in Europe that allowed women to
vote. The piece demonstrates the rebellion by
the Dadaists and other radical groups during a
time of strict political and cultural conformity.
22. Jean Arp, Shirt Front and Fork (1922)
• Jean Arp, also known as Hans Arp, was a
German-French painter, sculptor and poet.
He was a founding member of the Dadaist
movement. After moving to Zürich, he met
fellow artists Hugo Ball and Sophie Taeuber,
who would become Arp’s wife. The trio then
collaborated to create a Dadaist manifesto.
Arp’s work was known for the exploration of
the unconscious, its elements of satire and
the abstraction of organic forms.
23. • Shirt Front and Fork is part of a series of
painted wooden relief sculptures that Arp
crafted in the 1920s. The work has a
monochrome graphic element to it, with soft,
organic forms and a simplistic composition.
The fork on the right is easily identifiable,
while the form on the left represents the front
of a shirt, but also resembles a large tooth or
a human face. The piece represents Arp’s
stylistic shift between periods; the abstract
forms from his earlier work collide with his
later use of object association to delve into
the unconscious mind.
24. Francis Picabia, Optophone I (1922)
• Francis Picabia was a French painter and
poet who was associated with
Impressionism, Cubism and Pointillism and
Dadaism. He also experimented with
publishing and filmmaking, and his nearly
50-year career can be characterized by an
eclectic series of stylistic and media shifts.
His most famous works were paintings
featuring color blocks, geometric shapes
and abstractions, although he was also
known for unorthodox material collage.
25. • Optophone I is an example of Picabia’s
‘machinist’ works, which were inspired by
early 20th-century industrial equipment and
comment on the acceleration of technology
during the time. The piece simulates the
effects of an optophone, a device that uses
sonification to scan texts and images to help
the blind identify letters on a page. The
center of the painting holds a classical style
seated nude woman as if she has been seen
through the use of an optophone. The piece
thus questions how humanity encounters
and interprets art.
