Dadaism was an anti-art movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland between 1916-1920 in response to World War I. It rejected reason and logic and emphasized anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art cultural works. Dadaists like Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara and Emmy Hennings held public gatherings and performances to express their disgust with the war. Tzara said Dada could mean anything or nothing, depending on the viewer. The movement went on to influence later styles like Surrealism through its absurdist works and rejection of social norms.
3. Overview
• The movement is against
the World War I and the
bourgeois interests that
inspired the war
• Public gatherings
• Demonstrations
4. What is dada?
• Dada strove to have no meaning –
interpretation of Dada is dependent entirely
on the viewer
• The movement concentrated its anti war
politic through a rejection of the prevailing
standards in art through anti – art cultural
works
5. • Tristan Tzara said : “ God and my toothbrush
are Dada, and New Yorkers can be Dada too, if
they are not already”.
• The movement influenced later styles and
movements like surrealism, Pop Art and
Fluxus.
• But dada philosophy was described as “ the
sickest, most paralyzing and most destructive
thing that has ever originated from the brain of
a man”. by reviewer from American Art News
6. History
• 1916 Hugo Ball,
Tristan Tzara, Hans
Arp, Emmy Hennings
put on performances
in the Cabaret
Voltaire that express
their disgust of the
war
• Origin of the word
Dada
7. Poetry
• To make a Dadaist poem
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 you are a writer,
infinitely original and
endowed with a sensibility that is
charming
though beyond the understanding
of the vulgar. by Tristan Tzara
8. The first piece was created by authors who used the instructions
provided by Tristan Tzara in his piece
• That race- quick/doomed,
Abuse can park boyhood
After still how supply giants
Win America
Over leagues he is.
Manager Brewers’ Food lived
in open
Determined varsity
Still drinking, ramification
• Emmy Hennings
• We pull ourselves toward Death with the
cord of hope.
Ravens are envious of the prison yards.
Our never-kissed lips quiver.
Powerless solitude, you are magnificent.
The world lies outside there, life roars there.
There men are permitted to go where they
like.
Once we also belonged to them.
And now we are forgotten and presumed
dead.
At night, we dream of miracles on our
plank-beds.
During the days, we move along like
frightened animals.
We mournfully look out through the iron
railing
And have nothing more to lose
Than the life God gave us.
Only Death lies in our hand.
The freedom no one can take from us: