Dada

Dada was an art movement in the early twentieth century. It began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916, spreading to Berlin shortly after. Dada is quoted to have been 'born out of negative reaction to the horrors of World War 1'. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated on anti-war politics. Dada was not confined to the visual and literary arts; its influence reached into sound and music. Kurt Schwitters developed what he called sound poems, while Francis Picabia and Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes composed Dada music performed at the Festival Dada in Paris.


One of the most famous artists associated with the Dada art movement is French artist Marcel Duchamp. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art. The dadaists imitated the techniques developed during the cubist movement through the pasting of cut pieces of paper items, but extended their art to encompass items such as transportation tickets, maps, plastic wrappers, etc. to portray aspects of life, rather than representing objects viewed as still life. Photomontages were also a popular form of Dada art, using scissors and glue rather than paintbrushes and paints to express their views of modern life through images presented by the media.


While broad, the movement was unstable. By 1924 in Paris, Dada was melding into surrealism, and artists had gone on to other ideas and movements, including surrealism, social realism and other forms of modernism. Some theorists argue that Dada was actually the beginning of postmodern art.