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Dada (1915-1920) : Mona Lisa, Marcel Duchamp

Dada was an anti-war art movement that began during World War I in response to the devastation of the war. Key artists like Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters created provocative anti-art works that protested the cultural and political forces behind the war. Another movement called De Stijl emerged in the Netherlands after the war seeking to establish a new artistic language of simple geometric forms and primary colors to rebuild culture and prevent future wars. Artists like Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, and Gerrit Rietveld developed the style of Neo-Plasticism which reduced compositions to horizontal and vertical black lines on a white ground.

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74 views4 pages

Dada (1915-1920) : Mona Lisa, Marcel Duchamp

Dada was an anti-war art movement that began during World War I in response to the devastation of the war. Key artists like Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters created provocative anti-art works that protested the cultural and political forces behind the war. Another movement called De Stijl emerged in the Netherlands after the war seeking to establish a new artistic language of simple geometric forms and primary colors to rebuild culture and prevent future wars. Artists like Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, and Gerrit Rietveld developed the style of Neo-Plasticism which reduced compositions to horizontal and vertical black lines on a white ground.

Uploaded by

Danny Rodgers
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Dada (1915-1920)

Dada was a cultural movement that begin during World War I (1914-1918) At this point in time, Europe was split into two camps: One camp holding Germany, Austria and Turkey. France, Russia and England made up the alliance. The First World War was started by mistake, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated. This event was seen as the main trigger for the start of the war. This war wiped out a whole generation of young men. On the first day, it is thought that roughly 200,000 Englishmen lost their lives. The average life expectancy during the war as 3 months.
Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, Hannah Hoch

Britain was transformed into a very poor country because of the war. Dada was originally started war artists, as they created British War Art. Dada was seen as protest against the bourgeois separatist and colonialist interests, who many Dadaists believed started the war, and against the cultural and cerebral consistency-in art and more broadly in society-that corresponded to the war. A lot of the art work produced throughout the Dada movement seemed to be anti-art. It wasnt seen a being beautiful, and seemed to be passionately against the war. Some was even labelled as being rude, an example being the Mona Lisa with a moustache!

Mona Lisa, Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp is seen to be the most famous Dada artist. Duchamp challenged straight thought about artistic development and art marketing, not so much by writing, but through rebellious actions such as dubbing a urinal "art" and naming it Fountain. Kurt Schwitters was another Dada artist. Shwitters art included collages made out of rubbish and junk. Although instead of sticking the rubbish down in a near, orderly fashion, Schwitters would stick it down by chance and hope that it would turn out ok. Fountain, Marcel Duchamp

Das Undbild, Kurt Schwitters

De Stijl- The Style (1917- 1933)

De Stijl was another reaction, similar to Dada, against the war. De Stijl wanted to take action to stop it from happening again, founded in the Netherlands.

Before the war there was a great feeling of nationalism, but after the war people wanted an international world. There was a new language put forward after the war, Esperado. This was a new language that everyone would learn. Piet Mandarin, Theo Van Doesberg, and Gerrit Rietveld were all artists who wanted to produce a new style, create a new beginning. De Stijl was a movement that reduced painting to black and white, and the three primary colours. The Red and Blue Chair, designed by Theo Van Doesberg is a perfect example of the distinctive De Stijl style. The art philosophy that formed the basis of this movement was called Neo Plastic Art. Neo Plastic Art, or Neoplasticism, was am art technique in which everything in the work would meet at a right angle.

Red and Blue Chair, Theo Van Doesberg

De Stijl Side Table, Eileen Gray De Stijl Side Table by Eileen Gray is an example of Neo Plastic Art. All of the edges meet at a right angle; everything is joined at some point. The colour of the table is also a feature of De Stijl, the use of plain black and white is a significant trait of De Stijl.

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