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‘There is no must in art because art is free.’
- Wassily Kandinsky
If the above quote sounds reasonable, the word ‘Dada’ should also make sense regarding art history and the shaping of art movements in the twentieth century. As absurd, funky, and strange as it may sound, the word ‘Dada’ was originally derived from the French word meaning a hobby horse or something as inconsequential as a child’s toy. It was a rebellious call to free art from all sorts of super-impositions of society, of the cliched formulae and traditions. Dadaism art was a call to break all the confines, pushing the boundaries of what people would usually call creative expression. The movement of Dada was born amidst the unrest of the First World War, debunking the myths of realism and establishing a neo-normal form of the absurd, satirical, and incredible.
This blog tries to revisit the extraordinary and much-hyped movement of the twentieth century, the legacy of Dada art examples, styles and techniques associated with the movement, the super brains behind the freaky and (sometimes) disturbing artworks, and the intriguing art history of Dada that would surely keep you on the edge. It was a war raged on the conventional limits of understanding, seen through the lens of the unconventional and ridiculous. It was Dada.
Where it All Begun: The Rise of Dadaism
‘But nobody is visually naïve any longer. We are cluttered with images, and only abstract art can bring us to the threshold of the divine.’
- Dominique de Menil
Frankly speaking, Dadaism was way beyond the realm of the divine. It was a movement of war-ravaged artists, seeking repose in a newly found artistic identity. It all began in 1916, in Zurich, Switzerland, when the First World War was in full rage. A group of fleeing artists and intellectuals like Hugo Ball and Emmy Hemmings found shelter in Zurich to emerge as the pioneers of nonsensical art, later giving way to surrealism. Their journey landed them in the creation of 'Cabaret Voltaire', a café and nightclub sort of setting, where they would show their artworks, showcase unconventional performances, experiment with various art forms, disowning all myths about art and creation. They used forms like nonsense rhymes and sounds that were chaotic and absurd. This absurdity was born of disillusionment with the societal norms and boundaries imposed on people. They were the rebel artists.
What is Dadaism and How Did It Change the Face of Art?
What is art, and how must one conform to the notions and conventions of art? Was art worth it? All sorts of existential questions started to surface as the political turmoil took a toll on the senses of the Dada artists. They proposed art from an absurd perspective, to stay far from the status quo. They were the skeptical, the non-believers, and the non-conformists of the traditional, aesthetic art forms. And that is how they chanced upon a new wave of expressionist art that provoked the rebels, the seekers, and the anti-war preachers. Their art form included poems, visual arts, photo montages, collages, and performing arts, and they even introduced objects from real life to re-purpose and re-establish them as artistic props. They worshiped the nonsensical and turned down anything beautiful and aesthetic. It was a song of irrational, chaotic, and visual chaos.
It was all in their Minds: The Prominent Dada Art Examples
So, what was brewing in the beautiful minds of Hans Arp, Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, or Tritan Tzara when they started to mock reality with ideas that were ‘disturbing?’ They all looked for the answers to the playful and the radical, challenging the established norms of contemporary culture, and societal benchmarks. It plagued minds with absurdity as the anti-image of the beautiful, complacent, and conventional. No one could ever think of a porcelain urinal to be conceived as an art object. It was a deliberate use of the commonplace and ridiculous to embrace the futile shafts of reality. It started making sense within a group of followers and nonconformist artists.
Some of the iconic and remarkable Dada art creations that dropped jaws of the art fraternity were by Hannah Höch, Marcel Duchamp, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, Jean Arp, etc.
Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ (1917), a porcelain commode with an initial that was not revealed. The artist tried to figure out the scope of an artist to choose his object of portrayal and questioned the authority of expression.
‘The Art Critic’ (1919-1920), another pivotal creation by Raoul Hausmann, portrayed a photographic montage of the artists and critics scorned by the Dadaists.
Another sparkling example is ‘Collage with Squares Arranged According to the Laws of Chance’ (1916–17) by the Dada artist Jean Arp. It was a revolutionary collage showcasing the randomness and the probability of the non-occurrence, uncertainty, and lack of order. He tore papers into tiny bits and put them on a larger sheet to make the unpredictability obvious.
Deliberate Use of Ready-mades in the Dada Art Forms
‘A painting without something disturbing in it – what’s that?’
- Georges Braque
The use of random movements, absurd themes, and mundane objects as the representative of the art form started to gain ground in war-stricken Europe.
§ The ready-made objects became the perfect icons of chaotic arrangements, like the ‘Fountain’ by Marcel Duchamp, showcasing a urinal, signed as R. Mutt, that altered the reality and identity of the known and the normal. This showed the way art was interpreted through the minds of the anti-artists.
§ There were collages and photo montages, which also involved newspaper cuttings and haphazard alignment of materials to create neo-artistic expressions. This was influenced by the chaotic surroundings of politically disillusioned Europe. It looked jarring and catastrophic, and it provoked the viewers to think beyond boundaries.
§ The Dada artists also experimented with sounds, noises, and poetical syntaxes to make them cacophonic, erratic, and something that defied the established norms. By altering the arrangement of letters, or syntaxes, they tried to make the poetical expressions runny and irrational, and that was how they formed new ethics of the absurd. They liberated words from their constraints.
The concept of the ready-made by Duchamp created waves in America and was greatly followed by American artists and expressionists in elite cities like New York. The Dada art also started making waves beyond America and Europe, bringing a sea of change in artistic expressions and reflections. By the 1920s, this movement was a precursor to more sensational and archetypal movements like Surrealism that started its journey from the city of Paris, a hub of cultural and artistic finesse. In spite of all the upheaval the Dada wave was short-lived and destined to be absorbed by greater postmodern art movements.
Revisiting the Dada Art Movement History: Creating a Living Legacy of the Absurd
Today, as the art scene is going through a rapid change in form, digital presentation modes, and new ethics, we look back to the journey of the Dada artists, who have left a legacy of complete anarchy and chaos in the art forms, questioning the authority of artists, and altering the meaning of the real and unreal in the times of complete unrest. The Dada movement has inspired many commercial art forms, advertisement concepts, and campaigns, changing conventions of fashion design and digital arts. The conceptual art form was replicated in the form of installation art or performance art.
The movement eventually died down and was carried forward by more radical art expressions. However, the philosophy behind the Dada art movement matters even today, as it has produced many commercial artists and conceptual artists like Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei, following the Dada tradition, working as a critique of consumer culture. Dada tells many stories about dealing with art, not only for art’s sake but reshaping the boundaries of expression. Dadaism still holds ground while empowering an artist to think beyond the cocoon of comfort and blur the fine line that exists between life and art.
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