Beginning in Zurich and spreading out to Berlin, Paris, New York, etc., Dada was an art movement of the European avant-garde from the 20th century. The beginning of the Dada movement was the beginning of the breakage of rules in art. It ignored balance, proportion, logic and reason. Being perceived as an anti-art and literature movement, Dadaism was against the way art was appreciated by most of civilization. It is a result of the negative reactions brought on by World War I because of people’s opinion of the war having no meaning or purpose. Their protests against it aimed to show that it was pointless and irrational and therefore produced art that embodied the same meaning as the war – no meaning at all. This new to the time trend suggested that this kind of art was normal for the world they lived in.
One of the most famous ‘ready made’ art productions of the Dada Movement was ‘The Fountain’ by Marcel Duchamp. It is a urinal turned upside-down and signed ‘R.Mutt’, a fake signature.
‘The Fountain’ by Marcel Duchamp
I agree with the idea of associating people’s art with their opinion on World War I. I am not a fan of a lot of pieces of the sort that I have posted above, but there is more to Dadaism that I personally admire. I have come across some beautiful designs that, in their attempt not to follow any rules of Typography or assemblage, have appeared to be completely different from each other. This resulted in a constant growth of the movement, new ideas, new designs, etc. Following are some pieces that caught my eye.
‘ABCD Self-portrait’ by Raoul Hausmann
‘Dada-merika’ by George Grosz and John Heartfield
The above piece is “an almost random mixture of printed ephemera, deliberately lacking all of the attributes of a traditional easel painting.”
Dada poster by Theo Van Doesburg
http://www.oxfordartonline.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada
Neli Todorova's blog 