- picasso's collage re-introduces use of everyday
- WWI 1914-18: over 16 mill. dead, 20 mill. wounded
- art moved away from didactic nature (of courbet)
-if to be modern means to be at war
-questioning value of art
-abandoning of museums & galleries
-bringing art into the streets
-turn away from conventional artistic materials (rejecting painting as paint on canvas)
-anti-medium specific
-answer social violence w violence internalized in imagery & technique --> revolutionary attitude toward traditional aesthetics
-shock appeal of the bizarre
-rediscovery of irrational drew upon symbolism
dada: (1915-1923)
-took form during wartime
1916: hugo ball gathered group of exiles from the war
artists opposed to war gather in zurich, switzerland
became founders of dada
-international movement
-proclaimed uselessness of social action
-dada nihilism had more relevance as social critique
-resisted idea that art would be made & put in a museum
-"where did we go wrong?"
-"anti-art"
-art was about ideas
absurdity
-utilize graphic communication
-rebellious movement against WWI
wanted to change status quo
provocative, offensive, chaotic, irrational
scandalous exhibitions
-inspired by italian futurists
rejected logic & reason, ideas & values & complacency of old europe
-thought of as a network
-deconstruction of language (in poetry)
-no stylistic unity
disruption
law of chance
- readymade/assemblage: takes away artists' hand
- photomontage: fragmenting world & reassemble it into a utopian world
dada manifesto:
-doesn't like common sense
-dada means nothing
-"a work of art should not be beauty in itself, for beauty is dead"
-criticism is useless, exists only subjectively
-"born of a need for independence, of a distrust toward unity"
-recognize no theory
-no longer paints but creates
-"all pictorial or plastic work is useless"
-"there is no ultimate truth"
-"logic is always wrong"
-w/o aim or design or organization
collective dada manifesto- richard huelsenbeck:
-club founded in berlin
-join w/o commitments
-state of mind
-art is dependent on the time it lives
-cease to take an aesthetic attitude toward life
-tearing all the slogans of ethics, culture, & inwardness
-rebellion of artistic movements
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dada-ists led by hugo ball
created nonsense poetry & announcement
absurd theatre |
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| met in zurich at cafe voltaire |
dada sound poetry:
-language is a marker of cultural difference
-critique of language as a modernist tool of rational thought
-try to reunify spectactors through mutual alienation
-evoke high ritual (like catholic mass) combined w an african ritual
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use of onomatopoeia
deconstruction of language |
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collage- schwitters
nonsense/chance/surprise elements
aware of tonality, color, balance, & order |
"Take a newspaper.
Take a pair of scissors.
Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem.
Cut out the article.
Then cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them in a bag.
Shake it gently.
Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag.
Copy conscientiously.
The poem will be like you.
And here are you a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that is charming though beyond the understanding of the vulgar."
-To Make A Dadaist Poem- Tristan Tzara (1920)
drawing overtly from african culture:
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| "negro song"- marcel janco |
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| mask- janco 1919 |
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| portrait of tristan tzara- janco 1919 |
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collage (squares arranged according to the laws of chance)- hans arp
1916-1917
embracing chance, irrationality, irregularity
paper falls down to horizontal space- performed metaphor of avant-garde
artists' demand that work of art return to world/stuff of everyday
moves further than picasso's collages
(which are highly organized compositions) |
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the blessed virgin- francis picabia
ink splatter
disavowing controlling role of artist
composing work by chance
attacking traditional art & christian figure |
- marcel duchamp & francis picabia escape to new york before war- ferment dissent
proto-dada-ist:
-duchamp attempts to participate in modernism but is spurned --> dadaism
-quits painting
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dulcinea- duchamp 1911
attempting to work in cubist mode |
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yvonne & magdeleine torn in tatters- duchamp 1911
multiplication of subject matter- not something seen in cubist painting |
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nude descending the staircase, no. 1- duchamp 1911
attempt at cubism |
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nude descending a staircase, no. 2- duchamp 1912
attempt at cubism |
- seeds of diagrammatic & machine aesthetic --> industry
readymade:
-object chosen by artist & altered slightly & signed: establishes idea that signature of artist makes it art
-way of avoiding painting
-anti-aesthetic objects --> work of art
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bicycle wheel- duchamp 1913
fixture to have in one's home, spin wheel
assemblage, sculptural collage
attached to stool- negates purpose of both wheel & stool, almost a pedastal |
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bottle dryer- duchamp
1914 |
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| in advance of the broken arm- duchamp 1915 |
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| hat rack- duchamp 1917 |
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trebuchat (trap)- duchamp 1917
hat rack nailed to floor- made dangerous |
- objects of anonymously produced collection
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the fountain- duchamp 1917
"this is art bc i say it is so"
turned toilet on side, signed "r mutt"
seen as ugly, crude, lewd, lacked recognizable artistry
bc he didn't actually make the object himself
work HAD to be submitted but they hated it
submitted into exhibition that he's on the committee of
to test limits & power/taste of institution
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debate over legitimacy of The Fountain as a work of art:
-"the blind man- the richard mutt case"
-it is a work of art bc it was CHOSEN
-intellectual power to designate what is/isn't art
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L.H.O.O.Q.- duchamp 1919
mass produced postcard that duchamp gives
a "coded" name to & draws a mustache
interested in questioning gender binaries |
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the bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even- duchamp 1915-1923
cracks on the way to an exhibition |
DADA IN GERMANY:
-opening of the first international dada fair in berlin, june 1920
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installation- huelsenbeck
first international dada affair
at top, figure w pig face & military costume = political commentary
counter-german expressionism & artists' "genius" |
CONTEXT:
-reacting/responding to germany's post-WWI moment (weimar republic 1919-1933)
-void in leadership --> socialist revolution aligns w prior military powers
-WWI & negative fallout, moment of counter-revolution
- 3D assemblage
- collage- violent: cutting up
- visual violence
- propaganda posters calling for political & aesthetic revolution
- against refined, highly formalist, elite, modernist paradigms of art
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ABCD- raoul hausmann 1923-24
manipulating readymade items
provocative, playing w humor |
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the hand has five fingers- john heartfield 1928
more sophisticated propagandist
communist party election poster |
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mechanical head (the spirit of our age)- raoul hausman
moment of aftermath of wwI, see refigurement of bodies |
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a victim of society- george grosz
1919 |
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cut w the kitchen knife dada through the last weimar
beer belly cultural epoch of germany- hannah hoch
collage/photo montage
1919
words, images, etc.
sophisticated collage practice
map of her moment in the society that she lived in
barely coherent, fragmented form
4 zones: anti-dada, science figures, crowds/people/masses,
dadaists/political revolutionaries
men's bodies in repose
female figures active
work responding to mass media |
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| the beautiful girl- hoch 1919-20 |
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| dada-ernst- hoch 1920-21 |
the german "new woman":
-desire to enter work force
-short hairstyle
-masculine clothing
-ambivalent
-new regime of women's perfectibility & training
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whoever reads bourgeois newspapers becomes blind & deaf- heartfield 1928
material from news media & critiquing news media
work responding to mass media |
