Dada

Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919, collage of pasted papers, 90x144 cm, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin             

Dada was officially not a movement but a statement it was art for art’s sake.                                                                                                                   Dada was a artistic and literary movement that started in Europe during the time of World War 1, during which artists writers and notable French and German nationality found themselves congregating in the refuge Zurich, together these rejects formed a group using public spaces to talk about nationalism, rationalism, materialism and other -ism which they had felt contributed to this war, the Dadaists had enough, they said we, who are non-artists, will create non-art since art and everything else has no meaning . The non-artists agreed on the name ‘Dada’ some say means “hobby horse” in French and others felt that it’s just baby talk,mainly chosen this catch phrase since to them it meant the least of sense.

The non-artists used an early form of shock art they used scatological humor, visual puns and everyday objects some even manipulating famous art works, as the public saw their work and commented on them the Dadaists were further encouraged, as this movement spread form Zurich to other parts of Europe and New York City

Interestingly the art of protesting which is a serious matter was perceived delightful, whimsical, colorful and sarcastic.

If one didn’t know about the pain and message these men where portraying, it would be fun to see what these gentlemen were ‘on’ when creating these pieces.

Raoul Hausmann ABCD (Self-portrait) A photomontage from 1923-24


Info : Dada - Art History Basics on the Dada Movement - 1916-1923. 2013. Dada - Art History Basics on the Dada Movement - 1916-1923. [ONLINE] Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm. [Accessed 07 May 2013].

Images : Dada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. Dada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada. [Accessed 07 May 2013].