Dadaism: characteristics, representatives and works

Dadaism is an avant-garde artistic and literary movement that took place in the first half of the 20th century. The starting point is the year of publication of the inaugural manifesto written in 1916 by Hugo Ball. However, before this year some artistic manifestations that can be described as Dadaists had already taken place, such as the ready made by Marcel Duchamp when we have the information.

This movement was part of the so-called historical avant-gardes and had a great influence on the development of contemporary art. But what were its characteristics, its contributions and its main representatives? What historical variables made it possible? In what aspects is its importance expressed for the following generations?

Historical context of Dadaism

During the First World War, which occurred between 1914 and 1919, Switzerland acted as a neutral country, which is why many people saw that country as a privileged refuge. Those people included artists, musicians and writers from all over Europe.

That young generation of creators was against the warlike chaos produced by the trench warfare, which they interpreted as a sign of the decline of the West. Indeed, what looked like a promise of development and progress during the second industrial revolution (marked by the marriage of science and technology), soon turned into mass death.

Encouraged by his antiwar values ​​and deep social critical sense, a group of artists and writers founded a movement literary and artistic expression that expressed his disagreement and disappointment in the face of the incapacity shown by official speeches such as the science-technology, religion, philosophy (idealism) and social science (positivism) to avoid the destruction of Europe. They gave this movement the name of "dada" or "dadaism."

The meaning of the word dada

The meaning of the expression dada is not clear. In the Dadaist manifesto written by Tristán Tzara in 1918 it is argued that:

Dada doesn't mean anything. If someone considers it useless, if someone does not want to waste time for a word that does not mean anything... The first The thought that is stirring in these heads is of a bacteriological order..., find its etymological, historical or psychological origin at least. From the newspapers we know that the black Kru call the tail of the sacred cow: DADA. The cube and the mother in a certain region of Italy are called DADA. A wooden horse, the nurse, the double statement in Russian and DADA in Romanian. Wise journalists see in all this an art for children, other holy men Jesus speaks to children, the return to a dry and noisy, noisy and monotonous primitivism. It is not possible to build sensitivity on a word. Every system converges towards a boring perfection, a stagnant idea of ​​a golden swamp, a relative human product. The work of art should not be beauty in itself because beauty has died ...

Origin and historical development of Dada art

The origin of Dadaism as a movement is usually located in the year 1916, when the writer Hugo Ball and other artists, gathered in the Cabaret Voltaire, they decided to unite efforts and found Dada art there, in what had been their meeting place in Zurich.

The Dada movement also had an important nucleus in Berlin, Germany. They were active in this George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann and John Heartfield (Helmut Hertzfelde, 1891-1968), one of the exponents of photomontage. This nucleus gave rise to what is known as Berlin Dadaism.

Dadaism was really scandalous. Affirmations such as the following were read about them: "never before has a group of decadent, devoid of all knowledge and all will, he has had the courage to show himself to the public as these Dadaists ".

In 1919, with the end of World War I, the movement moved to Paris, where it reached its peak but would also reach the end of its days. Indeed, the antiartistic and antipoetic character of Dada was the germ of his own death. Before that, however, the first Dada International Fair took place in Berlin in June 1920.

Dadaism was wearing out, and André Breton's adventures were gaining ground. The idea of ​​the scandal or the provocative gesture as an aesthetic fact in itself was being put aside, and turning the attention to the effectiveness of the artistic fact was once again an objective of the artists. Thus, over time, Dadaism favored the birth of Surrealism in 1924.

Characteristics and foundations of Dadaism

Dadaism or Dada art did not define a unified style, since it was based precisely on the criticism of the traditional sense of art, school or style. Still, it coalesced around a set of shared principles that gave it a distinctive tone, both literary and plastic. Let us then know its main characteristics.

Interdisciplinary character

The Dada movement was interdisciplinary, that is, it manifested itself both in the plastic arts (painting and sculpture) and in literature. He also integrated photography and sculpture. In all these disciplines the iconoclastic sense and subversion prevailed.

For this reason, Dadaism also grew embraced by manifestos and, in fact, throughout the movement some seven manifestos in total were drawn up.

Abhorrence versus the concept of beauty

For the Dadaists, the traditional concept of art lost its meaning in the face of the reality of the violence unleashed in Europe. Faced with the horror of war, the search for beauty and the idea of ​​an art to please the senses were absolutely inadmissible.

Anti-artistic and anti-literary sense

More than an art, Dada or Dadaism is more of an anti-art, that is, it is an approach, a concept, a positioning, which makes it, above all, a way of acting on reality and not a pictorial or literary language specific.

Valuation of the artistic gesture over the artistic object

The artist will cease to be the one who paints or sculpts, the one who generates beauty, and will become the one who chooses an object without aesthetic pretensions and gives it a meaning for the mere fact of having it selected. In this way, the era is established in which the artist's gesture will be what is truly considered "artistic".

Ironic humor, provocative and irreverent character

Dadaism thus proposed a fierce mockery of art - not only of traditional art but even of the avant-garde such as cubism and Futurism, the latter glorifier of war-, a mockery of the capitalist bourgeoisie, finally, a challenge to the esthetic.

Sharp criticism against western society

The proposal of Dadaism is structured as a rejection of the bourgeois values ​​of the beginning of the century. Indeed, the reigning values ​​of that generation, such as the blind and unthinking faith in scientific-technological development as a sense of history, Radical nationalism, the cult of capital and the use of art as a tranquillizer of consciences aroused the unease of the new generation of creators.

Claiming irrationality as a rejection of positivism

When it was discovered that modern reason did not bring a better life but destruction massive, Dadaists understood that art and literature were no longer justified in the name of reason. Thus they gave way to the vindication of the irrational in art and the absurd. This way of operating in creation made possible an unprecedented creative development, although not without controversy and rejection.

Creation of new artistic techniques

In plastic arts, Dadaism brought with it the creation of new artistic techniques such as photomontage and ready made, and use of techniques such as collage, created by cubism.

The photomontage was a technique created by the Dadaists that consisted of superimposing various fragments of photographs to create a unique work. These fragments were sometimes interconnected by additional resources such as illustrations.

The ready made, which has been translated as found object or made object, was a technique that consisted of taking an object of daily use and intervening with a deliberately significant intention.

Innovative use of the word

Attached to the values ​​of the movement, Dadaism preferred the use of words by succession without them being spun by an obvious meaning or a logical discursive sense.

They also took as raw material the letters themselves and the sounds, which made it possible to avoid the association with a rational sense. The random played an important role in this.

They also implemented techniques such as the calligram, which had already been used by Guillaume Apollinaire, a writer who was related to cubism.

It may interest you: 15 avant-garde poems

Representatives and emblematic works of Dadaism (literature)

Hugo Ball (1886-1927)

German-born musician and writer, who played the leading role as the founder of the Dada movement. He was the writer of the Inaugural manifesto of the first Dada evening, although very soon he was detached from it.

Tristan Tzara (1896-1963)

He was a writer of Romanian origin who was strongly attracted to the ideas of Hugo Ball, and who ended up becoming the fundamental reference of literary Dadaism.

He wrote what is considered to be the first true Dada manifesto, in 1918, as well as the following. In his ensemble they were called the seven dadaist manifestos. He was the author of works such as The first celestial adventure of Mr. Antipirina (1916) and Twenty five poems (1919).

You can also read: Literary vanguards

Representatives and emblematic works of Dadaism (plastic arts)

François Picabia (1879-1953)

French painter and writer. He dabbled in Cubism, Surrealism, and Dadaism. From 1916 on he concentrated on Dadaism, especially works of mechanical ingenuity.

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)

French painter and sculptor. He reinterpreted Cubism, becoming more interested in introducing the movement, and put it in relation to Futurism. In Dadaism he is recognized as the creator of the ready made. He stood out for making interference on consecrated works of art, such as the intervention he made on Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Jean Arp (1887-1966)

Sculptor of Franco-German origin. Classicist in training, he was part of the movement Der blaue raiter, he promoted Dadaism and approached Surrealism years later. He was characterized by his interest in form, in making the work independent of the literary content and in the polished and sensual finish on the surfaces. He developed an artistic style of his own that was called biomorphism.

Man Ray (1890-1976)

American painter and photographer. He managed to bring photography and painting to a certain degree of autonomy. In his work, the ray images of him stand out (photographs intervened by applying objects on diluted photographic paper). He approached abstraction.

Hans Richter (1888-1976)

Painter and filmmaker of German origin. Although he was one of the founders of the Dada movement as a painter, he was dedicated for a long time to cinematographic research, which he managed to relate to painting and poetry. He was particularly known for the play Rhythmus 21.

Contributions and influence of Dadaism

The Dada movement exerted a very important influence on the development of 20th century art. The first thing to say is that, by incorporating techniques such as photomontage - never explored before - and the ready made, they opened the path to endless possibilities in the field of graphic design, advertising design and, of course, in the arts plastic.

They were also a fundamental precedent for the development of the surrealist avant-garde, which started with some elements of Dada art to create a new aesthetic and a new purpose for art.

Dadaism laid the foundations for conceptual art that would develop in the second half of the 20th century. This is because it allowed the notion of art as an object intended for mere aesthetic contemplation, and thus for sense gratification, could also be valued for its ability to construct critical discourse, to bother or to propose complex concepts for purposes other than those aesthetic.

The ready made, for his part, paved the way not only for conceptual art itself, but for installation art that plays such an important role today.

Unlike current times, these elements in their time represented a real break with tradition. Dadaists promoted the idea that the artist was not just the creator of an object and that art was not just a museum affair. For them and with them the idea of ​​art was born as a daily attitude, as a lifestyle, as a permanent, infinite performance.

See also Artistic movements of the 20th century