(c. 1916 - c. 1923) Dada: it has been said that a French German Dictionary was opened at random & the word was dada read out a child’s rocking horse?

(c. 1916 - c. 1923)

Dada: •it has been said that a French German Dictionary was opened at random & the word was dada read out •a child’s rocking horse? •a name a child first utters?

•It is an attack on earlier movements that have names that are descriptive of their activities.

Context: •WW1 - Mass produced, industrialized death (war in the trenches)

• Artists came to hate authority & tradition & many fled to Switzerland (Zurich) to escape the war

•Hugo Ball & girlfriend opened (Cabaret Voltaire) - provided a venue for artists to exchange ideas

• Dada occurred in Zurich, Berlin (associated with German Expressionism), Hanover (Schwitters), New York.

•Some Artists associated with Dada =Arp, Duchamp, Scwitters, Ernst.

e.g. of War Poetry: Those long uneven lines

Standing as patiently

As though they were stretched outside

The oval or villa park

The crowns of hats, the sun

On moustache archaic faces

grinning as if it were all

An August Bank Holiday lark….

Never such innocence,

never before or since,

AS changed itself to past

Without a word : the men

Leaving the gardens tidy,

the thousands of marriages

lasting a little while longer;

Never such innocence again.

War Propaganda

Soldiers in the trenches during WW1

A doctor checking feet for trench foot

Soldiers wearing gas masks during WW1

A graveyard in France after WW1

Influences: •Collage from Cubism •Bruitism (noise music), aggression & response to war like Futurism •Spontaneous techniques from Kandinsky •wanted to imitate the innocence & honest approach to art that primitive people had

Riot in The Gallery -Boccioni

Futurism:

Futurism:

Janco Mask

Characteristics •anti-tradition, anti -art , anti sense, nihilistic - stressed absurdity - Dada was an attitude rather than a style ( no common style & the exhibitions were known for incoherence)•The dada revolt was ironic - to destroy society meant their own destruction - (dada existed to destroy itself) •opposed naturalism - challenged traditional values & definitions of art - questioned the role & function of art

Marcel Duchamp, c. 1935

Duchamp with star & stripe

Marcel Duchamp Nude Descending a Staircase1912

Duchamp : L. H. O. O. Q., 1919

Duchamp The bride stripped bare by her bachelors , even (Large Glass) 1915-23

Duchamp The bride stripped bare by her bachelors , even (Large Glass) 1915-23

Duchamp: The Chocolate Grinder

Detail of Large glass with dust settled on the surface

Duchamp Fountain 1917

Duchamp Fountain 1917

Duchamp: Bottle Rack, 1917

Duchamp:Bicycle Wheel on a stool, 1914

Jean Arp working on a collage in his studio at Meudon, 1960

ARP: Collage with squares arranged according to the laws of chance, 1916-1917

Arp: Fleur Marteau, 1916

Jean Arp Upside - Down Blue Shoe with Two Heels, 1925

Arp: Mountain Table Anchors Navel, 1925

Max Ernst

Ernst: In Here Everything is still floating, 1920

Ernst: The Elephant of the Celebes, 1921

Kurt Schwittersc. 1940

SchwittersMerz Collage

SchwittersOpened by Customs, 1937- 8