Francis Picabia, a French painter, once summed up Dadaism in a single quote: “Dada
speaks with you, it is everything, it envelops everything, it belongs to every religion, can be
neither victory or defeat, it lives in space and not in time.” (Buell) The Dada art movement was
an anti-art movement whose works were merely nonsense. It was nihilistic and brought forth
new ideas, artists, and feelings. Dadaism was built on feelings was to be interpreted differently
by people depending on their mood. The artists managed to appeal to these feelings efficiently by
putting their own emotion into their art. The crazed artists of Dada blasted this emotional, yet
unique, art movement into an unsuspecting world, launching a plethora of paintings, sculptures,
poetry, culture, and personalities to be experienced.
But Dadaists never wanted their art to be examined and critiqued by others. They did not
even want their art to be considered as real art. The anti-art movement known as Dada was
“Officially, not a movement, its artist, not artists, and its art, not art.”(arthistory) Dadaism has
inspired many art forms that have followed in its path. From Surrealism to Abstract
Expressionism to Pop Art and Modern Art, the absurdness of Dada is apparent in different art
forms in American culture.
Preceding Dadaism were movements such as Cubism, Expressionism, Fauvism, and
Futurism, that were already exploring nonsense in art. Dada art took this notion to a higher level.
All of these movements broke the molds of previous art because the artists in this generation
were dealing with the catastrophe known as World War I. It was said that, “Just two years before
the war there appeared symptoms of a certain disregard of those which automatically accompany
all forms of art no matter how novel. Cubism, marvelous in certain aspects, and yet already so
inartistic and unpoetic, was, under the leadership of certain wastrels, drifting towards an odious
estheticism.” (Fantastic art p.15)
One of the biggest questions surrounding Dadaism is where the movement actually
began. It has been said, “Where and how Dada began is almost as hard to determine as Homer’s
birthplace.” (bergen.org) However, the popular belief is that is was started in Zurich in 1916
when poet Hugo Ball founded Cabaret Voltaire. Cabaret Voltaire was a Bohemian club where
“non-artists” and “Non-poets” gathered to exhibit their works. Soon the club began to grow more
popular as more and more war-hating artists and poets sought refuge from the destruction of the
war.
What Hugo Ball did not realize was that he had gathered all of these artists and poets who
would soon form the Dada Movement. When Cabaret Voltaire’s patrons realized they had started
a new movement in culture they decided to choose a name for it. The method of choosing a name
for the movement was as absurd as the movement itself. A knife was randomly inserted into a
dictionary pointing to the word “dada”, thus reiterating the meaning of Dada that is sometimes
translated to mean non-sense and absurdity. Dada drew all emotions from the absurdity and
confusion resulting from the War. Though similarities between Cubism and Futurism included
being rebellious and disturbing to the public, Dada demanded complete abstraction in its works
of art.
In Zurich, the Cabaret Voltaire was becoming a café where art exhibitions, poetry
readings, and dramatic performances were common occurrences. The artists and poets were
finding refuge in the neutral land to express their antagonistic views against their countries’
involvement in World War I. Each of these artists shared the same “anti-art” style in this new
movement, yet they all came from different countries. Soon after the movement began in Zurich,
the artists split up to return to their homelands to spread this new and exciting idea. But some
managed to stay like Hans Arp and Sophie Tauber, who later married in 1922.
These two artists became the pride of the Zurich Dadaists producing collages,
watercolors, paintings, embroidery, engravings, and reliefs. Arp was trained as an Expressionist
artist, yet he began experimenting with nonfigurative collage. This technique began with tearing
colored pieces of paper rather than cutting them. Arp then dropped these pieces onto a larger
sheet, claiming they were arranged “according to the laws of chance.” But Hans Arp reverted to
the traditional geometric shapes of cut paper to make collages, too. He also dabbled in
embroidery as well as woodwork reliefs. In his relief The Burial of the Birds and Butterflies, he
used three different pieces of wood, some smoothly painted in bold colors and others jagged and
rough, to create a three-dimensional appeal.
Sophie Tauber had been trained as a dancer before the Dada movement, yet she began to
experiment with watercolors, drawings, and embroidery like her husband Hans Arp. She liked to
work with horizontal and vertical structures as well as bold colors such as red, blue, yellow, and
black. Sophie created a “Dada” form of sculpture by carving her soon-to-be husband’s head into
wood. She also used her stage training from her dance career to create a puppet show based on
Carlo Gozzi’s play Le Roi-Cerf.
From Switzerland, the Dada movement traveled north to the German Empire, where war
was raging. With leaders such as Max Ernst, George Grosz, Richard Huelsenbeck, and Kurt
Schwitters, the German Dada movement prevailed in the major cities of Berlin, Cologne, and
Hanover. After spending time in Zurich with the masses of Dadaists, Richard Huelsenbeck
returned to Berlin in 1917 to help lead the German Dada movement, also known as the “Berlin
Dada Government.” German Dadaism was more aimed at opposing political and war issues than
any other country’s form of Dadaism. These leaders formed government official titles to use to
address each other as a rebellion against their country’s government. Richard Huelsenbeck was
named “Welt-Dada”, which means World Dada, and George Grosz was dubbed “Marshal Dada.”
Richard Huelsenbeck, a writer, helped form a “Dada Club” in Berlin and began to write
Dada essays and publications for the public. Another Berlin native, George Grosz, also wrote for
the Dada Club in reviews such as “Die Pliete.” Grosz was immensely disturbed by the war, and
after having spent two years on the front lines for the German army he was sent to an asylum.
After his time there, he moved to Berlin and became a major political advocate. He constantly
voiced his opinions on Germany’s society in his writings and art, and it was said that, “Humanity
was chronicled by Grosz as mutant, stunted, and deformed by the poisons of society gone
wrong.” (Art of the world 285)
From Berlin, the movement traveled to Hanover with the help of Kurt Schwitters.
Schwitters was less eccentric than his cohorts in Berlin and opted to stay out of the political
controversies. He was never accepted into the Dada Club because Richard Huelsenbeck did not
like him. But Schwitters enjoyed Dada because it was new and exciting; it threw out old
standards and brought in new, enticing methods. Kurt created his own offshoot of Dada known
as “Merz.” The word “merz” was taken from the German word “kommerzbank”, yet Kurt’s art
had nothing to do with a “kommerzbank”. Since he was a painter, sculptor, and writer,
Schwitters had a myriad of art forms to indulge in, thus giving him reasons to collaborate with
other artist and making him one of the most influential Dadaists of the movement.
Using some forms of Cubism merged with Dadaism, Schwitters transformed his “Merz”
art into unique works. With his regular oil paintings, he added junk he had collected, such as
cardboard and metal, onto the canvas. Many times it was common to hear Kurt say, “I am a
painter, I nail my pictures together.” This art of adding scraps to paintings and sculptures was
common in Schwitters work as well as cutting out different patterned letters from printed articles
to use in his poems. His obsession with collages and the like spread to his interior decorating as
well; he transformed his house into an enormous collage. His “Merz” works are still influential
in the works of artists today, both visual and written art.
The last major city in Germany to experience the Dada movement was Cologne. The
leader of the Cologne Dada group was Max Ernst who constantly stirred up controversies with
his reviews and his provocative exhibitions. Like most of the other Dadaists, Ernst created the
ever-popular collages. One of Ernst’s more notable works of art was Fantagaga, a group of
collages he created with the help of Hans Arp. Max also experimented with a new art form by
cutting apart 19th century illustrations on wood cuts and then piecing them together to form a
new collage. Ernst continued to work in Cologne until 1922 when he moved to Paris, where
Dadaism moved next.
Paris, often considered the capital of the art world, became a haven for Dadaists along
with New York City. In fact, because these two cities were so closely related in the Dada
movement, many artists spent time in both places, commuting back and forth across the Atlantic.
Before Paris and New York, most of the Dada art had been written works and a few paintings.
But with the help of Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, the world would finally see the true
Dadaist paintings. Even though Picabia was a writer to begin with, his written works were
associated with artwork; absurdly evident in his work named 391. On the cover of this review
were two pictures with captions: a ship propeller with the caption “ass” and a light bulb with the
caption “American woman.” Picabia also created a piece of art that was just a few strings with
cardboard pieces holding absurd message like “Dance of Saint Guy” and “Tobacco Rat.”
Another piece of Picabia’s artwork that stirred up questions was The Cacodylic Eye, in which a
simple eye was painted on a canvas and surrounded by signatures of artists, musicians, and
writers, all acquaintances of Picabia. He also had two other paintings, The Match Lady and
Feathers that were created after the Dada movement but still held Dada characteristics of
tangible materials like feathers, buttons, and coins pasted onto a canvas.
Though Picabia had good fortune with his art in Paris and New York, nothing could
compare with the success that Marcel Duchamp achieved in Dadaism. He is the most important
artist of the movement, with Kurt Schwitters behind him. Probably his most famous painting,
udes Descending a Staircase became a hit in New York in a 1913 exhibit called “Armory
Show.” But what helped Duchamp achieve his “claim to fame” in the Dada world was the idea of
“assisted” ready-mades.
Ready-mades were exactly what they sound to be: already made to be presented. One of
Duchamp’s most notable ready-mades used a duplication of the Mona Lisa. Marcel took this
duplication, drew a mustache on her, and wrote the letters “L.H.O.O.Q.” Now this may not seem
so extreme to Americans, but if the letters are spelled out in French, the result sounds like this
sentence: “Elle a chaud a cul,” which, in French, means “She’s got hot pants.” (Buell)
Duchamp constantly upset the public with his obscene ready-mades, but one creation was
pulled from an exhibition because of its crudeness. This piece of art was called Fountain.
Fountain was a ready-made that consisted of a urinal with a fake signature “R. Mutt” added to
the bottom. While the public was outraged at this work, it only enlightened Duchamp’s fellow
Dadaists. Duchamp’s absurdity and dark humor may have sprung form depression as it was said
that, “It is hardly surprising that mechanized mass killing of the first World War should have
driven Duchamp to despair.” (History of Art p.660) But Marcel Duchamp continued creating
intriguing art until 1923 when he declared that he was finished with his painting Large Glass,
and through with the art world.
Soon Dadaism began to fade away as quickly as it had appeared, like most art
movements. The end came right when many young artists were beginning to adapt the new style.
But Dada had served its purpose: “By 1923 the iconoclasm and nihilism of Dada had begun to
fade, and most artists had deserted the movement. Nonetheless, Dada had performed a valiant
service in liberating the creative process from logical shackles.”
While Cubism and Futurism had opened the doors for Dadaism, it has opened many more
doors for other art forms. From Surrealism to Modern Art and everything in between, each
movement uses the absurdity found in Dadaism. People wonder why simple lines across a blank
canvas or a splatter of paint on a piece of wood can be consider art. It is because of Dadaism and
its creators that people see things differently. Dadaism helped the world realize that art does not
need perfection; it needs feeling.
Dada: Absurdity at its Finest
Amanda Gaston
ovember 23, 2004
English 11 Honors
1st Block
Works Cited
Buell, John. Dada Online. 21 November 2004. http://www.peak.org/~/dadaist/
Dadaism 21 November 2004. http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Dadaism/first.html
Esaak, Shelley Art History 101 - Dada. 21 November 2004.
http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm
Hartt, Frederick. Art: A History of Painting Sculpture Architecture. New York: Henry N.
Abrams, 1989.
Hugnet, Georges. Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1947.
Janson, H.W. History of Art New York: Henry N. Abrams, 1977.
Wood, Michael; Cole, Bruce; and Gealt, Adelheid. Art of the Western World. New York:
Summit Books, 1989.