Dadaism as a movement in art was not created as art or by artists. Dada was born in war and in particular the first World War, as an escape, a revolt against the dictatorship in power and their traditions and values. Dada itself is proof ,that the power and the will of man can create and compose during the decay and ruin, when time had stopped. Dada is a natural product of the creative person, human creator who is seeking the continuation of life. Out of spite. Dada is a revolt over oppression and over the bourgeois class during the war. Dada denies the war. So Dada is exempt from rules as a natural desire for freedom without limits which a wartime sets. Dada is filled with humour, humour that helps you survive and see art everywhere around you, even the war itself and the people who caused it. Dada laughing at all of this. Dada made fun of aesthetics precisely because the very Dadaist see how devoid of aesthetics art can be, when faced with such circumstances. Dadaist themselves are war veterans. It says enough about the movement itself. It is believed that Dadaism gives rise to movements such as avant-garde, pop art and even punk. This can be found in many of Jamie Reid's’ works, who was also an artist and anarchist and connected with Situationist international, a part of the movement for Anti marksizam..which is believed to give way to Dadaism and Surrealism.
*The origin of the name Dada is unclear; some believe that it is a nonsensical word. Others maintain that it originates from the Romanian artists Tristan Tzara's and Marcel Janco's frequent use of the words "da, da," meaning "yes, yes" in the Romanian language .Another theory says that the name "Dada" came during a meeting of the group when a paper knife stuck into a French-German dictionary happened to point to 'dada', a French word for 'hobbyhorse'.
''To the Dadaists, logic was a pestilence. They believed that logic had led to a culturally and morally deficient society. These artists were so appalled by World War I that they violently rejected existing notions of culture, aesthetics, and even reason. Their work was anti-war, anti-bourgeois, and anti-conformity. Freedom was the goal; Dada sought to liberate a variety of media and its meanings from the shackles of the past. The Dadaists’ most powerful tools were biting satire and brazen provocation. Their ideology laid the foundation for Surrealism and their delight in anarchy makes them a cultural precursor to the punk movement that was born half a century later.
One of the most widely recognized symbols of the Dada movement is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917). The artist turned a urinal on its back, scrawled the absurd pseudonym ‘R. Mutt’ on its side, and declared it art. It was a lewd gesture towards the notion of contemporary art itself, which Duchamp criticized as being too ‘retinal’ in nature – mere aesthetic decoration. He succeeded with his ‘readymades’ at putting art “in the service of the mind” (hence, the constant labeling of his work as ‘conceptual’). The piece is emblematic of “the vehemently untraditional and bitingly critical nature of the Dada movement” (Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968, an essay by Nan Rosenthal). Dadaism assaulted the traditional values of fine art; Duchamp’s work succeeded in redefining the conception of what belongs in a museum setting, and therefore, the conception of what is considered art.''
- Dada was a form of artistic anarchy that challenged the social, political and cultural values of the time.
- Dada embraced elements of art, music, poetry, theatre, dance and politics.
- Dada aimed to create a climate in which art was unrestricted by established values.
- Dada was anti-establishment and anti-art.
- The name 'Dada' means 'hobbyhorse' or the exclamation "Yes-Yes".
- The Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich was the birthplace of Dada.
- After the war the Dadaists relocated to Berlin, Cologne, Hanover and New York.
- The Dadaists published 'manifestos' and magazines to help communicate their ideas.
- The Dadaists used techniques such as automatism, chance, photomontage and assemblage.
- The Dadaists introduced the concept that an artwork could be a temporary installation.
- The Dadaists expanded the boundaries and context of what was considered acceptable as art.
- Several Dada exhibitions caused public outrage and were closed by the authorities.
- Dada influenced the development of Surrealism, Action Painting, Pop Art, Happenings, Installations and Conceptual Art.
- The main artists associated with Dada were Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Jean (Hans) Arp, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, John Heartfield, Kurt Schwitters, Johannes Baargeld, Johannes Baader, Max Ernst, George Grosz, Hans Richter, Francis Picabia, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp.
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| Le Coeur à Barbe: Journal Transparent (1922) by Ilia Zdanevich |
Photomontage and collage developed into two of Dada’s most effective tools of artistic communication. The reappropriation of images from the mass media allowed for deft social commentary. Dissonant combinations of photos, advertisements and text seemed to capture the jolts of modern reality
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| RAOUL HAUSMANN (1886-1971) 'ABCD' 1920 (collage) |
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| 'The Art Critic', (1919-20) by Raoul Hausmann |
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Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain 1917  
Dada Typography:
The Dada influence on typography broke with most printing traditions. It had a radical attitude toward design and took typography seriously; it was a necessity, not a side effect. An anti-bourgeois outlook took form.
Distinguishing style elements are the close relationship between word and image and the use of a variety of type forms and line dimensions. New interpretations of the horizontal-vertical dimension were created and layouts included lines, surfaces, and techniques sometimes irrelevant to the purpose, like engravings. Syntactic elements like capital-lower case, condensed, light-semibold, etc., were used extensively. The legibility of texts suffered, but the content was revealed and emphasized.
Poster for Salon Dada Exposition Internationale, Galerie Montaigne, 1921.
Raul Hausmann
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