What is dadaism?

It’s a religious movement among babies involving the worship of their fathers.
Of course many infants practice Mamaism.

It’s one hell of a long definition and something that I can’t effectively put in my own words so I’ll let Wikipedia do the talking for me:

Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Dada activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals; passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture were topics often discussed in a variety of media. The movement influenced later styles like the avant-garde and downtown music movements, and groups including surrealism, Nouveau Réalisme, pop art, Fluxus and punk rock.

You can now consider yourself enlightened. :o)

Are you sure? I could have sworn it had something to do with infants.

I like AC’s version a lot more for the humor aspect. Very witty.

Also artists performed in public with poems, sonnets, and other cabaret-esque numbers with words and lyrics that often were jibberish or made-up jargon, and the word “Dada” is an emblematic of the kind of speech patterns and non-sensical language that was performed.

But isn’t it anti-art? So why would they make art?

Anti-art in the sense that it was atypical to what the established canon of fine art was supposed to be and how it was to be created, i.e. oil on canvas that epitomized aesthetic beauty.

I had to watch this whole documentary about it in one of my classes and the background noise went “Da Da Da Da Da Da” every-time there was a transition so I know correlate it with that and when I see DaDa art work I want to push elderly people into busy crosswalks… oh and I think it was German so probably was anti-semitic.

So like drawing a mustache on the mona lisa, or inverting the colours of starry night? The artist who made the original must feel really crappy that someone is taking their art and twisting it around. It’s kinda like art terrorism????

Here’s something else I found too that kind of goes along with Mtl zack’s examples of defacing or changing someone’s work or even creating bizarre art itself:

Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris.

I can imagine; a nearly worldwide war with new and incredibly destructive weapons and newsreels bringing the war to the cinema down the block, people dropping dead from a flu pandemic… the world was crazy, nothing made any sense, so why should the art? Why not draw moustaches on the Great Masters? Why not make things look as fake as possible? What was real anymore, anyway? Bring on the jibberish!

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jenglish/English104/tzara.html

Read this. It explains it all. Dada isn’t anything, but a different way of thinking. That’s its whoooolllee point.

@madcapper while I can’t speak for individual Dada artists the movement on the whole was politically opposed to German nationalism, as was cabaret. They were both subversive. And this was WW1 era so Germans on the whole weren’t talking about Jews any more than the rest of Europe which already had a long history of demonizing Jews. (There was a persistent rumor that Jews sacrificed Christian babies and such not).

Shakespeare and Dickins both used Jewish villains that were very much based on stereotypes (Fagin and Shylock) and in Marlowe’s Faust, the title character uses his Jewish neighbor to get an introduction to the devil. More recently silent movie villains were commonly dressed up as a Jewish caricature. It would have been obvious at the time, but that image has been excised from popular culture since WW2 shifted the Jewish stereotype from villain to victim.

The politically progressive (if horribly written) 19th century novel The Monks of Monk Hall actually satirizes the trend of using Jewish characters as villains with the character of Devil-Bug. While Devil-Bug is not the main villain, he is the gatekeeper to the the sinful Monk Hall and as all of Monk Hall’s past doorkeepers he takes the name Abijah K. Jones, a very Jewish name. Everything about Devil-Bug smacks of a classically demonized Jewish villain, except, he isn’t Jewish. The book is pretty badly written but it does skewer a lot of pretty deserving injustices.

…and I go off on tangents.

@fundevogel I know that is was opposed to WWI and German Nationalism, I did watch the documentary, but I was just joking around haha. Sorry for the confusion but well written response.

The whole post-WWI period is fascinating in terms of how the horrific experience of mechanized warfare affected all generations moving forward. The impact that historical events had on the arts is quite profound, and art really found its voice as a form of political expression far greater than ever before. The sheer outrage at life found its voice in expressive mediums that defied conventions. A really good book to read is The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes, which details the history of modern art. I was a docent for an Impressionist exhibit at the local museum, and really got into the history of modern art in preparation for having to sound reasonably intelligent to the public at large

@madcapper—I see :). I steal any little excuse to flap my trap.

Dadaism is more or less a thumbing of the nose at conventionality. The Mona Lisa is conventional beauty; drawing a mustache and beard on her makes her flawed beauty, but any less beautiful? What critic or conventionality got to decide that Mona Lisa was great art? Or that poetry had to rhyme? So much of the understanding of the expressiveness is tied up in understanding the history of the time period. What a bleak time period that was! The idea that it was the “good old days” is laughable. First, there was a world war, with the widespread usage of mechanized and chemical warfare. Unlike previous conflicts, there was no glory and nobility to WWI—it was tanks, machine guns, trench warfare, dirt and filth. That followed with the influenza pandemic. 8.5 million people died in WWI; over 20 million died the following year of influenza, most of whom were in their 20s and 30s. Hence we have a whole generation, who instead of being at the cusp of starting a life and buying into the status quo, are decimated by death. The effect on embracing conventionality was profound. What exactly is, or should be normality to this generation? The Roaring ‘20s ties into the clash with conventional culture, and fuels the break with traditional thinking.

This is a great question, Zack. I like thinking about this, especially at 4:00 am, since I can’t sleep. I wonder if tattooing and body modification is in itself an artistic continuation of Dadaism?

I heart Dadaism it’s great. A simple way that I would explain it would be:
One aspect of Dadaism was the embracing of chance in the works. Duchamp is famous for not fixing his The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors after it shattered during transportation, claiming that chance had finished the piece. They worked with a lot mediums including assemblage which is basically 3D collage. L.H.O.O.Q is a great representation of how Dadaism went against the grain, exploring many ideas like art having no utility.

LHOOQ is useless.
I fucking hate Dadaism.

I like Dada simply for the fact that it evokes reactions like that, WHICH is entirely its point. :) It’s there to piss people off, and I have to say it does a fine job. But, look at it this way, it wouldn’t be art if it was actually “useful,” then it would be something utilitarian along the lines of a tea kettle, tire-iron, or washing machine, instead.

@IBERnineD, oh art theory, how you have paid off. :D

I find nothing interesting or valid in anything that exists for the purpose of angering others.
And I actually find ’utilitarian art’ very refreshing.

@Mtl_zack: this is an amazing resource that provides a wealth of info, Dada Archive

I’ve used it in my own research on the movement.

@exitnirvana , oh how very, very cool. Thanks for the link.

@AlfredaPrufrock, no problem! Hope it helps you out :D

@exitnirvana Yes Art Theory is way beyond pedestrian opinions which seem to be laced with repressed anger issues. Of course that is the art snob in me…but I digress
@asmonet “I find nothing interesting or valid in anything that exists for the purpose of angering others” I agree, to an extent. But, when it comes to Dadaism they weren’t trying to “piss off” the viewers they were trying to shock the public, they forced them to experience something new. As to who they were really trying to piss off, it was the Art Academy, basically “the man” of the art world. Many artists besides those involved with the Dadaist movement angered the art world and that is including Monet amongst others i.e. feminist movement, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Salvador Dali, Jackson Pollock. All who in turn were indirectly if not entirely influenced by the Dadaist movement. (Not Monet of course, his paintings still pissed people off, but of course a different audience and little earlier.)

@IBERnineD, @asmonet, Do you think tattooing and body modification in itself is an extension of Dadaism?

Technically no because it was around long before Dadaism. In a sense I guess it could since someone could argue that each has a sense of rebellion, I would think that is a stretch. What do you think?

It wasn’t anti-semitic i know that was said ages ago but it really pissed me off if you don’t know what you talking about then shut up! it wasn’t even anti-german it was a group of people who thought the war was pointless and wanted to protest against the values which had brought the war about, values that lie in art and other areas that influence people, thats what they were rebeling against in Zurich, but then when you look at Parisian dadaism the meanings change the in Berlin, then New York, the in Hanover and Cologne it depends on what group you research into.
The only thing that stays the same is they wanted to rebel against the values.