“Dadaism”

Literary Movement (Dadaism)

 Definition
The word “Dada” translates to “hobby horse,” and was coined by Hugo Ball, a German
author and poet widely considered to be the founder of the movement. Ball noted in his
diary, “For Germans it is a sign of foolish naiveté, joy in procreation, and preoccupation
with the baby carriage. “Dadaism or Dada is a post-World War I cultural movement in
visual art as well as literature (mainly poetry), theatre and graphic design. The movement
itself is difficult to define because members wanted to evade the definition of a unified
operation entirely; abandoning established artistic norms. It was the first conceptual art
movement where the focus was not on crafting aesthetically pleasing art, but on creating
things that challenged traditional art, the role of the artists, and societal issues. Dadaism
has its characteristics: Social Critique, Anti-art, Shock Value, Chance, Nonsense and
Irrational, Ready-Made Objects and Irony.
 Dadaist and their famous works
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) – He was considered as one of the most famous artist of
the 20th century.

 Fountain- is one of Duchamp’s most famous works and is widely seen as an icon
of twentieth-century art. The original, which is lost, consisted of a standard urinal,
usually presented on its back for exhibition purposes rather than upright, and was
signed and dated ‘R. Mutt 1917’. Fountain has been seen as a quintessential
example, along with Duchamp’s Bottle Rack 1914, of what he called a
‘readymade’, an ordinary manufactured object designated by the artist as a work
of art (and, in Duchamp’s case, interpreted in some way).
Max Ernst (1891-1976) – His paintings are characterized by spontaneity and they are
very abstract.

 The Elephant Celebes- This painting grew directly out of Ernst's use of collage
from 1919 onwards to produce bizarre combinations of images, though no
preliminary collages or sketches were made for it. The idea of the painting
appeared spontaneously on the canvas with few alterations as it progressed. The
boiler-like monster to which the title refers is, like the rest of the painting, highly
ambiguous.
Francis Picabia (1979-1953) - a French painter, and is one of the most famous painters
of Dadaism.

 Amorous Parade- Picabia's mechanomorphic pictures suggest analogies between

machines and the human form. To contemporary viewers they were scandalous in
their rejection of the idea of the human soul and their emphasis instead on instincts
and compulsions - both often erotic. In this work, Picabia blended male and female;
the upper part in red might be considered female and the lower part in blue, male.
The viewer can imagine the sound of hammering and the idea of a "sonorous
sculpture," or a musical instrument. Of course, the most famous example of the
male and female mechanized forms going through their motions.