Between World Wars Dada began as a protest to WWI and the Dadaists believed war was caused by traditional values. Dada was a nonsense word that became a rallying cry with ambiguous meaning. Marcel Duchamp challenged traditional standards of beauty with readymade art like altering a snow shovel. Surrealism focused on dreams, fantasies, and hallucinations, influenced by Freudian psychology. Salvador Dali painted his nightmares with realistic yet improbable scenes, using academic techniques on untraditional subjects. American Regionalism used local everyday subjects and people during the Depression era to capture Midwestern character.

1. Between World Wars
2 2
t er
p
C ha

2. DADA
• Began as a protest to the horrors of WWI
• Dadaists believed that the horrors of war were caused by traditional values
• Dada was a nonsense word that became a rallying cry with an
ambiguous meaning

3. Hannah Hoch

4. Hannah Hoch

5. Marcel Duchamp
• A slap to traditional
standard of beauty
• LHOOQ-translates
to “she has a hot
tail”
• Controversial
“readymade” art
was often just an
altered object
nce he signed a snow shovel
and gave it a name and that
was his art piece!

6. Surrealism
• These artist did not like the modern reliance on science
• They focused on the importance of dreams, fantasies, and
hallucinations
• They were also heavily influenced by the psychology of Sigmund Freud

7. Salvador Dali

8. Salvador Dali

9. Salvador Dali
• Painted his nightmares
• Highly realistic yet improbable
• Extremely high academic technique of untraditional subject matter
• It is said that Salvador Dali would sleep holding a spoon over a pan and
when he would inevitably drop the spoon, he would wake up mid dream
and be able to use those images in his paintings

10. Renee Magritte

11. Renee Magritte

12. Latin Amercian Modernism
• Art began to reflect Afro-Brazilian traditions, Cubism, abstraction,
and there was often interdisciplinary art form combined
• Frida Khalo
• Was adopted by the surrealists
• Her style was surreal, but had strong roots in the Folk art of Mexico

13. Frida Khalo

14. American Regionalism
• Coincided with the depression era
• People were relatively indifferent to art at this time
• Local subject matter
• These artists were using everyday people and places as their subject matter

15. Grant Wood. American Gothic. 1930.
29-1/4" × 24-1/2". 74.3 × 62.4 cm.
Copyright ©2011, ©2009 Pearson Prentice Hall Inc.

16. American Gothic
• Crisp and realistic in style
• Grant Wood was having little success in Paris as a painter, so he
returned to his hometown in Midwest America
• He wanted to capture the unique character of the people and land and
how they lived
• Inspired by a house built by a local carpenter in what he thought was a
rendition of Gothic architecture