whats the art movement 'dada' about?

Question

iv ben asked to do a project on dad and have no idea what to do, if anyone knows what it is and could name some artists id be really grateful.
thanks
katie xxx

Answer 1

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in neutral Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1920. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature (poetry, art manifestoes, art theory), theatre, and graphic design, which concentrated its anti war politic through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works.

Loads more info at the link below.

Answer 2

The Dada art movement was all about nothing. The word Dada itself was chosen to represent this movement as it has no meaning (apart from meaning "yes, yes" in Russian). Many believed the word to be chosen as it is usually the first word an infant says.

The Dada movement was anti-art and was born out of the exestentialism that followed the horrors of the first world war, it chose to oppose and forget all previous art and re-define what we consider art to be. This was achieved (or not as some may say) by various methods one such being "ready made art" which is most famously demonstrated by Marcel Duchamps "fountain" which was a urinal placed upside down which Duchamp claimed to be a portrait "If I say it's a portrait, it's a portrait" as he said.

Dadaism also embraced mistakes as art with the idea that a mistake by an artist is a natural function of creation, Jackson Pollocks drip technique demonstrated this well.

Dada was a revolt about the meaning of art being noble and highlighting the greater, loftier side of humanity, as how can humanity be noble and lofty after what it did to itself during the war.

Notable Dada artist are Hans Richter, Picabia, Arp and Schwitters.

Answer 3

Some say Dada means hobbyhorse, but it all depends what language you translate it into. It's all about chance really.

I think you should write up your project and cut out each letter. Put each letter into a hat or a bag, and take them out, one by one, and glue them down to a piece of paper. Andre Breton used to do this 'automatic poetry' I think it was called.
The Cabaret Voltaire would be a good place to start researching for Dada. Hugo Ball was the founder of the Cabaret Voltaire. Artists would perform there to a wide cultural audience. People from Zurich, Poland, France, etc would all go to see the performances, so Ball and Tzara came up with the idea of 'phonetic poetry' (or nonsense poems) This appealed to EVERYONE in the audience, as the words weren't real, so there was nothing to have to understand except how the pieces sounded and looked.
You could also look at Kurt Schwitters for his 'Merz' collages. He got arrested for rummaging through people's bins trying to find scraps for his collages!
Dada is an amazing art movement! Good luck

Answer 4

The dada movemet first appeared in the world art scene in 1916, in Switzerland. The leader and writer of their manifesto was Tristan Tzara. The movement was actually a revolution in art and life iself, defying the laws of hypocritical morality, and most of all, of absolute beauty. It was anti-art. For me, the most impressive of the artists in this movement was Marcel Duchamp, who explored 'ready-made' art; objects found in everyday life, put in a artistic enviroment, thus becoming art works. His most famous work is 'The Fountain', a urinal:)

Answer 5

Dada activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals. Passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture filled their publications. The movement was a protest against the barbarism of World War I, the bourgeois interests that Dada adherents believed inspired the war, and what they believed was an oppressive intellectual rigidity in both art and everyday society. The movement influenced later styles, movements, and groups including surrealism, Pop Art and Fluxus. Dada was an international movement, and it is difficult to classify artists as being from any one particular country, as they were constantly moving from one place to another.

Answer 6

Dadaism is more about rejection of old fashioned theories about art. The whole idea is to create debate.

As an example, if I paint a white line across a piece of paper and call it "Art", the work in it self is not necessarily "Art". If however you then turn to me and disagree with my description of it as "Art", then we have a debate going and by definition, dadaist definition, "we" have turned my white line into art.

Answer 7

Readymades and abstract art.
Dada is french for hobbyhorse and was founded by Tristan Tzara in the early 20thC, Marcel Duchamp is a very famous exponent who created "Fountain", an upside down urinal he signed R.Mutt.

Answer 8

the answers above are fine. But to take it out of the fine art context: it was like punk in music

Answer 9

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1920.
Dada suggests "anti-art"- meaning a rejection of the prevailing standards of art. The origin of the word is unclear, but the most widely accepted account of the movement's name concerns a meeting held in 1916 at Hugo Ball's Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, during which a paper knife inserted into a French-German dictionary pointed to the word "dada". http://www.peak.org/~dadaist/English/Graphics/index.html
This anarchic movement coalesced at the Cabaret Voltaire, formed with the aim to create a center for artistic/political expression.
The founder members were Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp, Hugo Ball and Emmy Jennings.
"We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. At the Cabaret Voltaire, we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order."- Marcel Janco.

New York was a refuge for artists and writers from World War I, and Americans joined with them to form a Dadaist group: Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia (both French), American artist Man Ray, and American Beatrice Wood were among them.
Works by Beatrice Wood, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia and Man Ray:
Beatrice Wood: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hamiltonpressgallery.com/images/bigwood2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hamiltonpressgallery.com/wood2.shtml&h=459&w=261&sz=14&hl=en&start=77&tbnid=WDRfgSbdAQUjbM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=73&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBeatrice%2BWood%26start%3D72%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN - based on the Dadaist journal "The Blindman".
Marcel Duchamp: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.abdn.ac.uk/french/images/duchamp_sub.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.abdn.ac.uk/french/duchamp.shtml&h=192&w=192&sz=16&hl=en&start=37&tbnid=PnMB6kQCJ6pfMM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=103&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMarcel%2BDuchamp%26start%3D36%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN
Francis Picabia: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tate.org.uk/imap/imap2/images/artworks/picabia.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tate.org.uk/imap/imap2/pages/picabia.html&h=309&w=242&sz=56&hl=en&start=12&tbnid=tpL7Xd0oVpDFdM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=92&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFrancis%2BPicabia%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
Man Ray: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.galerie-ch-duerr.de/images/manray-2-gr.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.galerie-ch-duerr.de/kuenstler_manray2.html&h=419&w=314&sz=50&hl=en&start=48&tbnid=lFa4bIgzJnmBcM:&tbnh=125&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMan%2BRay%26start%3D36%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3D

Famous image by Marcel Duchamp:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude_Descending_a_Staircase%2C_No._2

And two early works by Man Ray:
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=61252
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=53232