Description
Dada (/ˈdɑːdɑː/) or Dadaism was an international art movement that developed in the context of World War I and its aftermath and the Futurist movement, first established in Zürich, Switzerland, and later quickly spread to Berlin, Paris, New York City and a variety of artistic centers in Europe and Asia. The Dada movement's principles were first collected in Hugo Ball's Dada Manifesto in 1916. Ball is seen as the founder of the Dada movement. Other key figures in the movement included Emmy Hennings, Jean Arp, Johannes Baader, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, Hannah Höch, Richard Huelsenbeck, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Hans Richter, Kurt Schwitters, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Tristan Tzara, and Beatrice Wood, among others. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Hugo Ball
Founder of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich and author of the first Dada Manifesto who pioneered nonsense phonetic poetry ('Lautgedichte') to protest WWI rationality.
Tristan Tzara
Charismatic Romanian poet and indefatigable propagandist of Dada who penned the radical 1918 Dada Manifesto and led the movement's expansion into Paris.
Marcel Duchamp
Supreme intellectual provocateur of New York and Paris Dada who revolutionized art by inventing the 'readymade' - everyday manufactured objects elevated to art by choice.
Jean (Hans) Arp
Co-founder in Zürich who pioneered chance compositions ('Collages According to the Laws of Chance') and organic biomorphic wooden reliefs.
Hannah Höch
Pioneering Berlin Dadaist who masterfully weaponized photomontage and collage to dissect Weimar political corruption and gender roles.
Raoul Hausmann
Co-founder of Berlin Dada known as 'Der Dadasoph' who co-invented political photomontage and created iconic assemblage sculptures.
Francis Picabia
French-Cuban master of machinist ironies who published the Dada periodical 391 and bridged New York, Zürich, and Paris Dada.
Man Ray
American Dada photographer and object-maker who invented camera-less 'Rayographs' and constructed poetic, unsettling readymade assemblages.
Kurt Schwitters
Hanover-based solo Dadaist who created his own parallel movement 'Merz', transforming street garbage and discarded tickets into exquisite collages and architectural installations.
Famous Artworks
L.H.O.O.Q.
Marcel Duchamp · 1919
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris - Rectified readymade: pencil mustache and goatee on a postcard reproduction of the Mona Lisa
The Gift (Cadeau)
Man Ray · 1921
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (replica) - Painted flatiron with row of fourteen brass tacks glued to the bottom
Fun Facts
According to popular Dada mythology, the movement's name was discovered inside the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich when Hugo Ball and Richard Huelsenbeck inserted a paper knife at random into a French-German dictionary and struck upon the word 'Dada' (French for a child's hobbyhorse).
↗ Source: britannica.com
At the opening of the historic First International Dada Fair in Berlin in June 1920, the artists hung a stuffed military officer's uniform with a pig's head suspended from the ceiling by a rope around its neck, which led German authorities to prosecute them for insulting the military.
↗ Source: tate.org.uk
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