Art Movement: Dadaism

Dadaism

 

Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. Dada began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916 which spread to Berlin shortly thereafter, but the height of the New York Dada happened the year before in 1915. The roots of Dada lay in pre-war avant-garde, the movement was caused by a reaction to World War One, Nationalism and Rationalism.

 

The key artists in the movement are: Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Hans Arp, Raoul Hausmann, Hanna Höch, Johannes Baader, Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Richard Huelsenbeck, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Marcel Ducham, Beatrice Wood, Kurt Schwitters, Hans Richter and Max Ernst, among others.

 

Dada had influences and the main ones were Abstraction and Expressionism and to a lesser extent, Futurism. Dada was created and intended to provoke an emotional reaction from the viewers, typically shock or outrage. Using an early form of shock art, the Dadaists pushed mild obscenities, scatological humour (Toilet humour, or scatological humour, is a type of off-colour humour dealing with defecation, urination and flatulence, and to a lesser extent vomiting and other body functions.), visual puns and everyday objects which were renamed as "art" into the public eye.