Dada is an art (some would say an “anti- art”) movement characterized by its use of everyday objects as art materials, irreverent or ridiculous imagery, and photomontage. The movement incorporated visual arts as well as performances, poetry, and the writing of journals and manifestos. Despite its comical and shocking nature, it attempted to make comments on war, industrialization, and modern society. Dada artists made use of printed media images to poke fun at consumer culture. They rejected the traditional definition of art and attempted to blur the boundaries between art and life.
Dada originated in Zurich around 1916 with a group of artists and freethinkers involved with the “Cabaret Voltaire”. Hans Arp, Marcel Janco, Tristan Tzara, and Richard Huelsenbeck formed a rebellious artistic community centered around the cabaret with its founder Hugo Ball. These artists and writers came to neutral Switzerland to escape the oppression of Germany and other countries involved in World War I. They wished to use their art to oppose the war and make social commentaries on the events going on around them. Initially many of the artists used abstraction in their work and experimented with the element of chance, such as Arp’s collages in which he would drop pieces of paper onto a larger paper and paste them where they landed in an attempt to avoid artistic decision-making. The element of arbitrary chance appealed to Dadaist who believed that rationalism had not prevented the war. The early Dadaist were also interested in anything “primitive” such as art made by children or ancient cultures. This interest led to the creation of “sound poetry” which involved the reading of several “wordless” poems in different languages simultaneously, combined with drums or chanting to create a kind of ritual. After the Cabaret Voltaire was forced to close, Tristan Tzara became the group’s spokesperson and turned Dada into a wider art movement, creating publicity to spread its influence beyond Zurich.
Richard Huelsenbeck and several other artists later formed “Club Dada” in Berlin. One of the most important contributions to Dada this group made was photomontage, collages created from photos and printed media images. They were able to to use mass media images against themselves by using them to make social commentaries against war, violence, corruption, and industrialization. Raoul Hausmann and Hannah Hoch were especially well-known for their use of photomontage as social and political satire.
One of the founding members of “Club Dada,” Hausmann liked to try his hand at everything including painting, photography, fashion, poetry, publishing, and design. He claimed to have invented photomontage although its basic origins could be traced back to earlier work at the Cabaret Voltaire. Photomontages used dramatic juxtapositions and often featured images of figures combined with machinery, text, numbers, phrases, political figures, and mass media imagery. He often combined media and sometimes used paint despite it being a more “traditional” art medium. A photomontage that later became known as Dada Siegt (Dada Triumphs) incorporates watercolor with images of a medical diagram of internal organs, the profile of a man with his brain partially exposed, an urban city scene, a photo of himself, and miscellaneous objects among other things. The word “Dada” and other references to it such as the number 391, the title of a Dada journal, appear throughout the piece. One of his most famous sculptures, Mechanischer Kopf (Der Geist unserer Zeit), or (Mechanical Head [The Spirit of Our Age]), combines a hairdresser’s dummy with a wallet, the number 22 on a plaque, a typewriter cylinder, bolts, nails, and other mechanized parts. About the methods of Dada art Hausmann said, ” …it embodied our refusal to play the part of the artist. We regarded ourselves as engineers and our work as construction…all the arts and their techniques needed a fundamental and revolutionary change, in order to remain in touch with the life of their epoch.” Indeed the photomontages and especially Hausmann’s sculptures do appear to be “constructed” rather than created in a traditional artistic sense.
Although he was separated geographically from many of the other Dadaists, artist Kurt Schwitters became a significant part of the Dada movement working in Hannover. Schwitters work incorporates ordinary objects and refuse from daily life such as newspapers, ration cards, or ticket stubs he found on the streets. His use of fragments represents what he felt was a shattered society torn apart by war and modernity. He called this type of work “Merz,” or “the principle of using any material.” One of his most important pieces, Picture with Spatial Growths, acts as a kind of visual autobiography. Schwitters worked on the piece for more than two decades, it is filled with scraps from the artist’s life in a chaotic composition.
The Dada movement spread to Cologne where artists continued to experiment with photomontage, the use of found objects, and absurd imagery. Many of them explored themes of the unconscious in their work. Max Ernst was one of the main Dada artists working in Cologne. His work was stongly influenced by his studies in art history and psychology as well as his experiences in World War I. He felt that despite its absurdity, Dada carried important moral messages. His untitled 1920 collage shows an airplane with human arms attached and three small figures in the lower right hand corner carrying a wounded soldier. The image combines the human figure with machinery, a common Dada theme, and is also a reminder of the effects of war on society. Ernst organized several Dada exhibitions, one of which was shut down for obscenity. It had taken place in a pub where viewers were forced to listen to obscene poetry, walk past the urinals, and were encouraged to destroy one of Ernst’s sculptures with a hatchet. The charges were later dropped and Ernst created a poster claiming “Dada Siegt!” or “Dada triumphs!”
Dada in New York was more playfully irreverent and less aggressive than it was in the European cities. Many of the artists working there were European artists escaping the war and they saw their work as a form of protest. They had a fascination with American technology and consumerism. New York Dadaists used industrial goods as materials and embraced photography which had been criticized for distancing the artist from his work. Francis Picabia used images of machinery to create symbolic portraits of his friends and felt that “the genius of the modern world is in machinery.” Artist Marcel Duchamp created “readymades” out of manufactured objects which he altered in some way or simply signed his name on them. His Apolinere Enameled is simply a tin advertisement for Sapolin brand paint mounted on a board and signed “from Marcel Duchamp” to emphasize the fact he did not actually make it. Similar to this and considered to be one of the most influential artworks of the 20th century is his Fountain, in which he signed a urinal “R. Mutt.”
The end of the war in 1918 enabled many European artists to return home and other artists to travel abroad. Dadaists such as Arp, Ernst, Duchamp, Picabia, Tzara and Man Ray became very productive in Paris. They created two art exhibitions, several performances, and numerous publications over 5 months known as the “Dada season.” Duchamp brought with him the New York Dadaists fascination with consumerist culture and continued to explore the boundaries of what constitutes art. In an attempt to mock “high art” he altered a reproduction of the Mona Lisa by adding a mustache and a vulgar caption. This act made fun of one of the most famous portraits in art history as well as the high society culture built up around fine art. Although it was meant to be comical, this kind of “vandalism” had an aggressive edge that characterized much of the Dada art in Paris. American artist Man Ray, for example, affixed metal spikes to an iron, thus creating a weapon out of an ordinary household appliance.
Despite its absurd, chaotic, irreverent imagery and performances, Dada had serious moral underpinnings that spoke out against social ills and questioned the nature of modern society. Its use of everyday objects, mass media images, and attacks on art history and anything traditional were used as a form of protest. Dada pushed the boundaries of what art can be defined as and paved the way for future avant-garde movements that followed. It broke down barriers between “high” and “low” art and effectively reflected a society forever changed by war, industrialization, and consumerism.
Works Cited
Cut & Paste: A History of Photomontage. “Raoul Hausmann.” .
National Gallery of Art. “Dada” . 2008.
The Artchive. “Dada / Surrealism“. .
