History of Dadaism
...ists were wont to do. It also hints at a tenet of the Dadaist movement, the negation of the family, in my opinion. A latter painting from Picabia from 1929 called “Catax” displays more principles of Dadaism (see figure 6). While it seems cubist in its multitude of viewpoints, the illogical juxtaposition of forms is Dada. It displays the Dadaist belief in the power of observation, the existence of infinite points of view, none more correct than another. In New York, the Dadaist movement centred around two men. First the photographer, Alfred Steiglitz, who in 1908 opened a gallery called “291”. He used his gallery to exhibit progressive painters and new trends in art, that were otherwise ignored. It remained opened until 1917. In 1913 a pivotal precursor to American Dada occurred with the Armory Show, a modern art exhibit held in New York and later in Chicago and Boston. Over 1600 items were on display, ¾ of which were by American artists. The remaining pieces from European artists had a great influence on their American counterparts. According to one Milton Brown, it “acted on the complacency of American art like a shock”. This show not only served to expose the general public and artists to Euorpean trends in art but provided an opportunity for European art to be bought by Americans. The second circle revolved around Walter Conrad Arensberg. Arensberg transformed his New York apartment into a kind of salon hospitable to artists and writers of the Dada movement. It continued from 1914 through until 1921. The American artists were developing similar ideas before embracing this movement and referring to themselves as Dadaists. They had an interest in primitive art, adopted and used photographic materials, treated the machine artistically and utilized found objects in creating their art. They did differ from their European counterparts in that they preferred private gatherings to confrontational public performances. By 1923 Dada was finished as a movement. Some artists continued on their unique creative paths others embraced new movements like surrealism. Anita Dada is an artistic and literary movement that reflects a widespread nihilistic protest against all elements of Western culture, especially militarism during and after World War I. The term Dada, the French word for hobbyhorse, is said to have been selected at random from a dictionary by Tristan Tzara. One of the definitions of a hobbyhorse is, "A subject or obsession upon which one is constantly setting off; a favorite and ever-recurring theme of discourse, thought, or effort; that which occupies one's attention unduly, or to the weariness of others". Dada originated in 1916 by Tzara, the German writer Hugo Ball, the Alsatian-born artist Jean Arp, and other intellectuals living in Zürich, Switzerland. A similar revolt against conventional art occurred simultaneously in New York City and was led by Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia. Yet another revolt took place in Paris as well, which was the inspiration for the Surrealist movement. After World War I the movement spread to Germany, and many of the Zürich group joined French Dadaists in Paris. The Paris group would soon disband in 1922 though. In their efforts to express the negation of all current aesthetic and social values, the Dadaists frequently used artistic and literary methods that were deliberately incomprehensible. Their theatrical performances and manifestos were often designed to shock or bewilder, with the aim of startling the public into a reconsideration of accepted aesthetic values. For example, the Dadaists used novel materials, including discarded objects found in the streets and new methods, such as allowing chance to determine the elements of their works. The German painter and writer Kurt Schwitters was noted for his collages composed of waste paper and similar materials. French painter Duchamp exhibited as works of art ordinary commercial products – such as a store-bought bottle rack and a urinal – which he called ready-mades. And of course there is Tzara’s Manifesto, which I will discuss a bit later. Although the Dadaists employed these radical techniques, their revolt against standards was based on a profound belief, stemming from the romantic tradition, in the essential goodness of humanity when uncorrupted by society. Dada as a movement declined in the 1920’s and some of its practitioners became prominent in other modern-art movements, most notably surrealism. During the mid-1950’s an interest in Dada was revived for a short while in New York City among composers, writers, and artists, who produced many works with Dadaist features. "Dada is a state of mind. That is why it transforms itself according to races and events. Dada applies itself to everything, and yet it is nothing, it is the point where the yes and the no and all the opposites meet, not solemnly in the castles of human philosophies, but very simply at street corners, like dogs and grasshoppers". "Like everything in life, Dada is useless". "Dada is without pretension, as life should be". "Perhaps you will understand me better when I tell you that Dada is a virgin microbe that penetrates with the insistence of air into all the spaces that reason has not been able to fill with words or conventions". These statements, as spoken by Tzara himself, are all possible ways of describing Dada. Whether or not they are considered to be the accepted definitions is beside the point, the idea that we have to remember is as Prof. Leonard said in our last lecture (June 3, 2003), "Dadaism is the announcement that we will revel in meaninglessness". Dada means not to tell us what to think, nor what to believe in, Dada just asks why we think, why we believe. The beginning of the Manifesto makes a point of criticizing the beliefs of other movements, questioning their systems of meaning, but doesn’t offer up its own, because then Tzara would have to question it. He has an appreciation for the "novelty" of old work, but the same cannot be said for the work of Cubists, Futurists and almost all other Modernist movements. He states, and I quote, "Writers who like to moralise and discuss or ameliorate psychological bases have, apart from a secret wish to win, a ridiculous knowledge of life, which they have classified, parcelled out, canalised; they are determined to see its categories dance when they beat time. Their readers laugh derisively, but carry on: what’s the use?" He attacks other Modernist authors who partake in creative writing here, stating that they are only writing for their personal gain and that the only thing that is revealed in their work is their "supreme egotism". He states that, "Every page should explode, either because of its profound gravity, or its vortex, vertigo, newness, eternity, or because of its staggering absurdity". In short, the selfishness of the other Modernists is what drives their creative writing, especially if it is published and deserves to be bombed into oblivion. Of course, that isn’t their true position, it’s w...