The Dada Movement
The Dada Movement
This text is provided courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art.
By Man Ray - Yale University Art Gallery, PD-US
Portrait of Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp was an important figure in the Dada movement.
World War I and Dada
Dada emerged amid the brutality of World War I (1914-18)-a conflict that claimed the lives of eight
million military personnel and an estimated equal number of civilians. This unprecedented loss of human
life was a result of trench warfare and technological advances in weaponry, communications, and
transportation systems.
For the disillusioned artists of the Dada movement, the war merely confirmed the degradation of social
structures that led to such violence: corrupt and nationalist politics, repressive social values, and
unquestioning conformity of culture and thought. From 1916 until the mid-1920s, artists in Zurich, New
York, Cologne, Hanover, and Paris declared an all-out assault against not only on conventional definitions
of art, but on rational thought itself. "The beginnings of Dada," poet Tristan Tzara recalled, "were not the
beginnings of art, but of disgust."
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The Dada Movement
Dada's subversive and revolutionary ideals emerged from the activities of a small group of artists and
poets in Zurich, eventually cohering into a set of strategies and philosophies adopted by a loose
international network of artists aiming to create new forms of visual art, performance, and poetry as well
as alternative visions of the world. The artists affiliated with Dada did not share a common style or
practice so much as the wish, as expressed by French artist Jean (Hans) Arp, "to destroy the hoaxes of
reason and to discover an unreasoned order."
The Role of Visual Art in Dada
For Dada artists, the aesthetic of their work was considered secondary to the ideas it conveyed. "For us,
art is not an end in itself," wrote Dada poet Hugo Ball, "but it is an opportunity for the true perception and
criticism of the times we live in." Dadaists both embraced and critiqued modernity, imbuing their works
with references to the technologies, newspapers, films, and advertisements that increasingly defined
contemporary life.
They were also experimental, provocatively re-imagining what art and art making could be. Using
unorthodox materials and chance-based procedures, they infused their work with spontaneity and
irreverence. Wielding scissors and glue, Dada artists innovated with collage and photomontage. Still
others explored games, experimental theater, and performance. A central figure, Marcel Duchamp,
declared common, manufactured goods to be "readymade" artworks, radically challenging the notion of a
work of art as something beautiful made by a technically skilled artist.
What's in a Name?
Participants claimed various, often humorous definitions of "Dada"-"Dada is irony," "Dada is anti-art,"
"Dada will kick you in the behind"-though the word itself is a nonsense utterance. As the story goes, the
name Dada was either chosen at random by stabbing a knife into a dictionary, or consciously selected
for a variety of connotations in different languages-French for "hobbyhorse" or Russian for "yes, yes."
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The Dada Movement - Comprehension Questions
Name: ___________________________________ Date: _______________
1. The text says that Dada artists did not share a common style or practice, but did
share a common wish or goal. What "wish" or goal did Dada artists share?
2. Dada artists worked to break down conventional definitions of art. How did they do
this, using their own artwork? Support your answer with details from the text.
3. What is the main idea of this text?
4. Based on the text, what social structures did artists of the Dada movement believe led
to the brutal World War I?
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The Dada Movement - Comprehension Questions
5. The text says that "Dada emerged amid the brutality of World War I." How might the
war have influenced and inspired the Dada movement? Support your answer with
evidence from the text.
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