Sam Mills and Marcus Kreitzer

 Art movement of European avant- garde in early 20 th century.  Began in Zurich, Switzerland in  Dada came about in a tavern called the 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"

 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.

 Not sure about where the word “Dada” originated from.  Means “hobby horse” in French  Others 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.

 "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

 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.

 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.”

 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.

Raoul HausmannHannah Höch

 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.

Kurt Schwitters Hans Arp

 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.

Raoul HausmannKurt Schwitters

 Work created by other artists that is taken and modified  Invented by Marcel Duchamp  Pushed the boundaries of what was considered art

Man RayMarcel Duchamp

 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."

Hans Richter Richard Huelsenbeck

 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:  ues/sound/schwitters.mp3 Kurt Schwitters ues/sound/schwitters.mp3  ues/sound/hausmann.mp3 Raoul Hausmann ues/sound/hausmann.mp3

 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

Hans Arp Raoul Hausmann

 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.

Man Ray

 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.

 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.

 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.

Plastron et fourchette 1922 painted wood relief Untitled (Forest), 1916/1917 painted wood relief Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged According to the Laws of Chance) collage of torn papers on paper

 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.

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

 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.

 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.

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

 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.

Europe After The Rain. Célèbes (Celebes ) or Der Elefant von Celebes L'ange du Foyer ou Le Triomphe du Surréalisme

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