CURIOUS VISIONS 2: DADA and later….REVIEW OF THE BODY – SESSION 3 This sculpture is an assemblage: its not created from modelled clay, nor carved, nor cast, but is a conglomeration of readymade, mass produced objects. All sorts of weird materials – tape measure; slide rule; type blocks; the internal mechanism of a clock, all stuck onto some sort of mannequin or store model. The actual media itself ends up making a comment, similarly to the Cubist collage elements. What kind of world is the artist representing here? The use of mannequins, models or dummies was a feature of Dada, and Surrealism, an art movement which grew out of Dada in Paris. The world being represented is one of industry, measurement, industrial fabrication. Is is moving away from the handmade and the individual. Are people losing their souls? They are dummies – no brain, no heart perhaps? Raoul Hausmann, (Austrian, 1886-1971) The spirit of our time, assemblage, 33cm high, 1921.

Dada erupted during World War I Dada erupted during World War I. It ran roughly 1915-1923 but its influence has continued to contemporary art. It travelled to different cities and countries, all with different ‘flavours’ and concerns. It was characterised by a sense of confusion; mayhem & contradiction, which was how they saw the contemporary world. It challenged the Western Modernist tradition of the importance of reason; the progress of technology; the optimism associated with science and knowledge. Sometimes Dada created mischievous art, and sometimes much more serious, politically based art. This image looks like it’s been created out of lettering. I’ve included it here because of the use of the typography and mischievous, mysterious nature of the image. Language was a sign of civilisation; of reason. The Dadaists subverted language, reading poems made of sounds not words. Use of mechanics and typography for transgressive things, naughty things. It is meant to have sexual references. Max Ernst, Little machine constructed by Minimax Dadamax in person, pencil & ink frottage, watercolour, gouache, 1919-20

Dada lacked a single recognisable style like, say, Cubism Dada lacked a single recognisable style like, say, Cubism. It used many different art forms Including collage; photomontage; performance; assemblage; painting and drawing; puppetry; graffiti; use of typography; poetry and writing. Dada was a reaction against the War. It associated war with a corrupt, ruined society and believed that art, as it stood, was a part of that corruption. Dada pronounced itself to be ‘anti-art’, which really meant anti- what had gone before. Notice how this idea of design has come into the image. Use of typography in new and puzzling ways: Kurt Schwitters & Theo von Doesburg, Small Dada Soiree, lithograph, 1923. This was an poster advertising a Dada art event.

Because of this skepticism about reason and logic, some Dadaists were interested in interacting with the laws of chance, e.g. Hans ( or Jean) Arp. The implication of this was that the artwork had some sort of ‘life of its own’. This questioned the traditional notion of the artist as skilled, talented genius or individual. This is a different approach from Picasso and Braque’s collages, which were carefully drafted and planned in a manner much more like traditional artworks (even if they looked different.) WHAT IMPORTANT THING can we see about Arp’s work? It’s not at all representational. It has no reference to the natural world at all. We see representation starting to break up…we did last session with the Cubist works, and here we see it again. Art was being set free from the need or the tradition of representing the world in a pictorial way. Hans Arp, Collage with squares arranged according to the laws of chance, collage, 48 x 35cm, 1916-17 Hans Arp, Automatic drawing, ink on paper, 42 x 54cm, c. 1917

In Berlin after WWI there was much hardship, food shortages and unrest In Berlin after WWI there was much hardship, food shortages and unrest. There was a lot of corruption; wounded and broken people were on the streets. Berlin Dada was very politically motivated. Many Dadaists were associated with the new Communist party in Germany, in the interests of social justice. Photomontage was a popular medium for political comment. Clip on Otto Dix: http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/29/702 Prosthetics – false limbs Otto Dix (German, 1891-1969) Card-playing war cripples, 1920, oil on canvas with Photomontage and collage, 110 x 87cm

Artists making political comments like this put John Heartfield )German, 1891–1968) & Rudolf Schlichter (German, 1890–1955) Prussian Archangel, 1920, papier-mâché; wire mesh; palm grass, hemp, horse hair; uniform cut from field gray material, World War I field cap, boots, and shoulder lapels; 180 cm high. Audio clip on Prussian Angel: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/audioguides/prussian.mp3 Artists making political comments like this put themselves in great danger. Heartfield had to flee for his life in the1930s. John Heartfield, The meaning of the Hitler salute: little man asks for big money, photomontage, magazine cover, 1932.

Some more review of The Body : Cubes and Collages…. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) Les Demoiselles D’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon) 1907, oil on canvas, 244 x 234 cm Georges Braque (French, 1882 – 1963) Big Nude, 1907-8, oil on canvas, 140 x 101cm

Duchamp’s work was influenced by Cubist ideas. Marcel Duchamp (France 1887 – 1968) Nude descending a staircase No. 2, 1912, oil on canvas, 147 x 89cm Duchamp’s work was influenced by Cubist ideas. He was also inspired by the work of Eadweard Muybridge, who did many studies of humans and animals in motion in the late 19th cent (before the invention of the movie camera.) Each image is from a still camera, a whole bunch of them firing in sequence. These images allowed people to see clearly for the first time how we move in space. It also proved for the first time that a horse at full gallop actually has all 4 feet off the ground at some stage.

The hierarchy of traditional materials was questioned in Postmodern art. Barbara Kruger (US, b.1945), Untitled (you invest in the divinity of the masterpiece, 1982, photocopy, 182 X 115cm Barbara Kruger Questions, 1991, Photographic silkscreen/vinyl 168 x 236 cm

Guerrilla Girls, Public Service Announcement poster, mid 1980s, New York. Jill Orr (Aust. n.d.) Bleeding trees 1, performance, 1979