essay (goo's bear's introduction to dada written for a scholarly audience)

7/29/2019 Essay (Goo's Bear's Introduction to Dada Written for a Scholarly Audience)

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Goo (Julia) Cooper 311240828ARHT1002 - Modern Times: Art and Film Essay

Dada is nothing, nothing, nothing. How do you evaluate the anti-

aesthetic anarchism and nihilism of Dada? In answering this question,

you might consider how Dada is best characterised. To what was dada

responding? What were the tactics of this response? Deal with the work,

writing and actions carried out in at least one of these cities: Zurich,

Berlin, New York, and Paris.

Dada was a cultural movement that peaked from 1916 to 1922. It

commenced during World War 1 in Zurich, Switzerland as a reaction to

the various events that were happening at the time. This cultural

movement predominantly involved poetry, visual arts, art theory, theatre,

art manifestoes, graphic design, literature and just about anything they

could get their hands on to use creatively. Dada was all about its anti-war

and anti-art attitude, rebelling against any thing and every thing was the

Dada intention and purpose. It had the aim of making fun of any kind of

convention and by doing so, gave itself a very quick anarchistic reputation

(Richter, Hans 1997 p.11). In this essay, I will be discussing Dadaism andits philosophical attitudes, as well as all the places that dada was involved

in, such as New York, Zurich, Berlin and Paris, evaluating its anti-

aesthetic anarchism and nihilism and showing how and what Dada was

responding to throughout its time.

If Dada had any rules at all, it would only have one and that was to

never follow any of the known or conventional rules that art and the world

at large had been suffocated by. Dadaism was highly influenced byabstraction and expressionism and was to abandon all stylistic

contrivances intending to provoke as many emotional reactions as they

could get away with, this involved shocking and outraging the viewer out

of their minds. Dada was expressing how foolish society had become

through ajokers perspective. It arose and came out of observing the

absurdity of what the government and other political powers were up to

and were so absurdist as to the point of making a joke out of almost


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anything, including itself. Even something as psychotic as war could

contain some kind of twisted humour, a kind of humour that is not very

optimistically funny, but rather a nihilistic and anti-society type of

comedy that pokes and laughs at itself from the inside (Richter, Hans1997 p.26). This can be perceived as a wonderful movement and

experiment, as it gave one the option to stand outside the expected way of

perceiving society whilst at the same time being engaged in it. Having a

sense of humour on things that are considered deadly serious is a method

of freedom, it frees one from restricted cultural values that every one was

taught before they had the ability to question.

For something that allegedly meant nothing, Dada utterly created alot of branches in the art scene, clearing the landscape as it were for new

flowers such as surrealism to grow out from its basses. In addition to

constructing numerous literary journals, Dada influenced many trends in

the visual arts. The most well known movement that Dada was directly

responsible for was Surrealism. But Dada never wanted to be in or even

part of the art scene and so self-destructed itself when it was at risk of

becoming "suitable" and part of the culture (Hopkins, David 2004 p.104).

The Dadaists were mostly responding to World War 1. They were

expressing the bewilderment that was felt by a large number of the

population towards the twisted behaviour of society, the absurdity of war,

technological society and any form of progress. The basis of Dada was

complete nonsense and chaos, which in a sense represents the madness

behind these three things. The cynical attitude towards the potential of

war generated a nihilistic view of society and then was expressed through

what you might call their anti-art products (Dachy, Marc 2006 p.34). The

tactics to this response was to shock people out of their belief systems and

the way this was possible was through these art works, one of the most

popular examples being The fountain done in 1917 by a French man

named Marcel Duchamp who lived in Paris at the time, but then later

moved to New York. This artwork (or more precisely anti-art work) was

simply a urinal mounted on a pedestal with initials inscribed upon it. It


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was also believed to contain the shadow of the Virgin Mary. To make a

statement like that during that time period was considered absolutely

barbaric and crude. Yet Duchamp was probably sitting in a corner

somewhere simply having a laugh, using biblical references only to fire upthe audience, as this would clearly get the blood pumping for fundamental

Christians and the art critics who at the time really had no sense of

humour. Dada arose out of this need, to shock people and to cause the

audience to think about hitherto unthought-of thoughts.

As we may already know, Dadaism was founded in Zurich,

Switzerland, but over time it also branched out to other places such as

Berlin, Paris and New York. The way Berlin Dada differentiated fromother forms of Dada is that it was more aggressive and had a politically

motivated approach to the arts. This was to be expected, as the damage of

the First World War and its aftermath had hit Berlin much harder than it

had in Zurich. Berlin Dada was also much more interested in publishing,

the mass media, transitory works and alternate other forms of Dada. The

climax of Berlin Dada can be seen as the First International Dada Fair,

which had the theme "Art is dead! One of the major Berlin Dadaists anti-

art works contained a central piece, which was a dummy with a pigs head,

hanging from the ceiling, dressed as a German officer. The works involved

shocked the general public and created publicity for Dadas anti-beliefs

(Dietrich, Dorothea 2008 p.342).

Dadaism also had a certain number of forerunners in Paris, but

these Dadaists tended to be poets, writers, and editors as well as visual

artists. A famous piece by Marcel Duchamp that was done in Paris 1919

was the act of him using a led pencil to draw a mustache on a duplicate of

the Mona Lisa, labeling it with the initials L.H.O.O.G, this is read like

Elle a chaus au cul and in English this means Shes got hot pants. He

became extremely successful at mocking the most famous work of art in

the history of painting. This is probably the most Dada one can get, as it

resembles Dada perfectly (Dietrich, Dorothea 2008 p.400).

Dada in New York however, was in fact another extremely essential


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episode of the Dada movement. It started when Marcel Duchamp moved to

New York from Paris in 1915. The arrival of Duchamp formed the

beginning of the Dadaists who were thrilled and excited to be able to use

heavily industrialized United States machines and other manufacturedobjects for Dada purposes. Many New York Dada artists (or non-artists)

ensure that the New York section of Dada concentrates on readymade

objects, new technology with airbrushing and graphic works reminiscent

of mechanical drawings (Dietrich, Dorothea 2008 p.456). Duchamp was

also connected to Dada in a very spiritual way, yet at the same time, to

some degree was the most dogmatically Dadaist around. Duchamp

possessed a wonderful absence of principles and prejudices, and viewingevery thing as equal and permitted. "There is no solution," says Duchamp,

"because there isn't any problem." Although this can be seen as something

anarchistic and rebellious, it can also be perceived as an incredibly

consciousness expanding statement, a statement that if understood would

change the whole world and the way society would operate (Ades, Dawn

2006 p.146).

Dada can be considered as one of the most entertaining and clever

art movements in history. It is the type of movement that is incredibly

necessary for the evolution of society. To fulfill the most shocking and

unexpected acts is to take a step further into art, which actually creates

an intense reaction in the audience, in ways they would never act to just

an ordinary painting. Dada encourages one to have a sense of humour

about reality and not to think of it as such a solid and serious place. Life is

a show and we all play our own characters, this show does not need to be

taken as seriously as it was in the early 1900s. Dada helps one to realise

that life all around us at all times is filled with spontaneity, chaos and of

course, humour.


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BibliographyAdes, Dawn (2006) The DADA Reader: A Critical Anthology. University ofChicago Press

Dachy, Marc (2006) Discoveries: Dada: The Revolt of Art. Harry N.Abrams

Dietrich, Dorothea (2008) Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, NewYork, Paris. National Gallery of Art, Washington

Hopkins, David (2004) Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction.Oxford University Press, USA

Richter, Hands (1997) Dada: Art and Anti-Art (World of Art). Thames &Hudson

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