Dadaism

We explain what Dadaism is, its historical context and characteristics. Also some representatives and works.

What is Dadaism?

Dadaism is the name that art history has given to Dada, a cultural position that emerged in Switzerland in 1916, at the time of the First World War. Dada had the express intention of rebelling against the conventions it considered bourgeois and demolishing the reason of the positivist philosophy that supported them.

Dada confronted traditional values ​​of art because it considered them part of the elitist thinking that led to the horrors of war. He questioned the idea of ​​art as something beautiful or harmonious and sought irrationality, chaos, experimentation and chance. For this reason, Dada came to be considered an “anti-art”.

Many of the Dada artists, such as the Romanian Tristan Tzara (1896-1963), the Franco-German Jean Arp (1886-1966) and the Frenchman Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) arrived in Switzerland fleeing the war. Dada expressed the disenchantment, but at the same time the rebellion and enthusiasm of a group of dissatisfied young people who opposed bourgeois morality and war.

The word “Dada” was, according to the story, found by chance by Tzara while pointing a letter opener at a French-German dictionary. “Dada” sounded like a baby's babbling and referred to toy horses which perfectly summed up the spirit that these artists intended: it was an absurd, nonsensical, playful and provocative word.

• See also: Surrealism

Historical context of Dadaism

Dada emerged in Europe, but He had followers in the United States and other parts of the world. Its origin is located in 1916 with the publication of the Inaugural manifesto of the first Dada evening by Hugo Ball (1886-1927). However, the word “Dada” appeared for the first time in the editorial of the only issue of the magazine Cabaret Voltaire. This magazine was named in honor of the legendary experimental room founded by Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings (1885-1948) that saw the birth of Dada in Zurich, Switzerland.

In addition to Emmy Hennings and Hugo Ball, the creators Richard Hülsenbeck (1892-1974), Marcel Janco (1895-1984), Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943), Jean Arp and Tristán Tzara met at the Cabaret Voltaire, who scandalized with his experimental artistic sessions.

Dada appeared to embody the disenchantment and desire for change that existed in Europe after the outbreak of the First World War when several of its founders met as refugees from the conflict. Added to this was the climate of desolation and apathy of interwar society, which Dada artists sought to reverse with a combative and renewing spirit.

Characteristics of Dadaism

It was proposed to dynamite the pillars of culture

Dada contradicted not only the previous norms of art, as happened with other artistic rebellions, but all the logic and cultural thought of the West. Furthermore, it sowed the seeds of questioning regarding the notions of art, poetry and beauty. If today we ask ourselves “is this art?”, it is thanks to the rebels of Cabaret Voltaire.

He rejected the logic and reason of positivism

The Dada artists found themselves in Zurich as refugees from the First World War. This is fundamental to understanding his discontent with the rationalist values ​​and positivism that had dominated European thought throughout the century, and that led Europe to a devastating situation.

It was provocative, scandalous and chaotic

The first Dada writings were chains of letters and words without apparent logic, loaded with irrationality, satire and absurdity, political and social criticism or reflections on death. In other manifestations, this arrangement took the form of collages and use of unexpected materials.

I valued the game

As part of its vital spirit, Dada placed great value on playful and spontaneous expression, improvisation and experimentation. All of this had an essential place in the creative processes of its artists, who sought increasingly extravagant ways of being free and inviting their viewers to be free.

In the words of Tristan Tzara:

Authors and representatives of Dadaism

Some of the greatest exponents of Dada were:

• Hugo Ball (1886-1927). He was a German writer and one of the main figures of the Cabaret Voltaire group. He is known for his poem “Karawane”, considered a key piece of Dada.
• Tristan Tzara (1896-1963). He was a Romanian-French poet and essayist, creator of the Dada Manifesto, a foundational text that criticizes rationalism and traditional uses of language and defends creative freedom.
• Jean Arp (1887-1966). He was a Franco-German poet, sculptor and painter, known for his collages and biomorphic sculptures (that is, with forms inspired by nature). His work explored spontaneity and chance.
• Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968). He was a French chess player, painter, sculptor and writer. Although his artistic relationship with the Cabaret Voltaire group was very changeable, his work had a crucial role in the development of Dada. His influence has been such that he is considered the precursor of the ruptures that gave way to contemporary art.
• Emmy Hennings (1885-1948). She was a poet, writer and performeras well as co-founder, along with Hugo Ball, of the Cabaret Voltaire. Their poetic and performative work was decisive in the group's provocative spirit.
• Richard Hülsenbeck (1892-1974). He was a German writer and poet, key in the development of Dada in Germany. edited Dada Almanacha publication with manifestos and works of the group that served as the main record of Berlin Dada philosophy and activities.
• Marcel Janco (1895-1984). He was a Romanian-Israeli painter, art critic and architect, recognized for his particular masks and graphic work. His work reflects the experimental and anarchist spirit of Dada.
• Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943). She was a Swiss artist and designer, a pioneer in integrating art into everyday life. He excelled in multiple disciplines, from textile design to sculpture and painting. His work blurred the border between arts and applied design.

Works of Dadaism

Some famous works of Dada were:

LHOOQ

Marcel Duchamp (1919)

It is a parody of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa, to which Duchamp painted mustaches and underneath, the acronym LHOOQ, which when spelled in French sounds like “she has hot butt.”

Object to be destroyed (Objet à détruire)

Man Ray (1924)

It is an assembled object (ready-made) with a metronome and a cutout of an eye, which indicates:

“Place the eye of the loved one whom you will never see again on the pendulum of a metronome / Start the metronome to the limit of your resistance / With a hammer, try to destroy it with a single blow.”

Untitled (“Collage with squares arranged according to the laws of chance”)

Jean Arp (1916)

This collage is made up of squares of paper cut out and arranged on a neutral background, according to a random and involuntary order.

Dadaist texts

To make a dadaist poem (Fragment of Dada Manifesto, 1918), by Tristan Tzara

Pick up a newspaper. Take some scissors.

Choose an article in the newspaper of the length you plan to give to your poem.
Cut out the article.

Then carefully cut out each of the words that make up that article and put them in a bag.

Shake it gently.

Then remove each cutout one after the other.

Carefully copy the poem in the order in which they came out of the bag.

The poem will look like you.

And, naturally, you will be an infinitely original writer with a bewitching sensitivity, although misunderstood by the masses.

The air is a root (ca. 1920), by Jean Arp

The stones are full of entrails. Bravo. Bravo.
The stones are full of air.
The stones are branches of water. In the stone that occupies the place of the mouth sprouts
a thorny leaf. Bravo.
a voice of stone is hand in hand and foot in foot
with a stone look.

stones are tormented like flesh.
stones are clouds because their second nature
dances on their third nose. Bravo. Bravo.

When stones are scratched, nails grow on the roots.
Bravo. Bravo.
The stones have ears to tell the exact time.

References

• Encyclopedia Britannica. (2024). in Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
• Lemoine, S. (1987). Dadaist. Universe Publishing (NY).
• Harriet Schoenholz Bee, Heliczer, C., Mcfadden, S., & New, A. (2013). MoMA highlights: 350 works from the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Museum Of Modern Art.
• Tzara, T. (1999). Seven Dada Manifestos. Tusquets.