Dadaism is a post-World War I cultural movement (1916-1923) in visual art and literature that emerged as a rebellion against the horrors of war and the rigid intellectualism in society. Founded by artists like Tristan Tzara and Marcel Duchamp, Dadaism embraced irrationality and chaos, challenging conventional definitions of art and introducing concepts like 'anti-art'. The movement significantly influenced later art movements, such as surrealism, and is characterized by a lack of rules, emphasizing that 'the idea is more important than the work itself.'

2. What Is
Dada?
An Art?
Philosophy?
Or State
Religion?
Is DADA
Real
Energy?
Or It Is
Nothing At
All?

3. WHAT IS DADAISM?
 Dadaism or Dada(1916-1923) is a post-World
War I cultural movement in visual art as well as
literature (mainly poetry), theatre and graphic
design.
 A protest against the barbarism of the War
and what Dadaists believed was an
oppressive intellectual rigidity in both art and
everyday society; its works were
characterized by a deliberate irrationality and
the rejection of the prevailing standards of
art.

4. HOW WAS DADA CREATED ?
 The Dadaists first met at a café
Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich,Switzerland
in 1916.
 The artists who started it were against
World War 1. They wanted to rebel
against the horrors of war.
 Their leader was named Tristan Tzara.
He was a poet from Romania. His co-
founder was Richard Huelsenbeck.
 The story goes that someone took a
knife, opened a dictionary, and
stabbed the page. The knife hit the
word dada, so that is what they
named their group. Some believe that

5.  Their motto was
"Destruction is also
creation" because Dada
had no rules. Dada had no
values. Dada shocked
people.
 The Dada artists liked to do
absurd art. It may be one
of the strangest art styles
ever invented.
 Dadaists did not even
want to be called an art
movement!

6. DADAISM PHILOSOPHY
“The idea is more important than the
work itself”
“Art can be made of anything”

7. CHARACTERISTICS OF DADAISM
 In general, Dada sought to undermine all
art, viewing it as part of cultural norms and
sensibilities that established oppressive
aesthetic standards and emphasized the
"reason" and "order" that had led to the
self-annihilating destruction of World War I.
Therefore, anything that contradicted
these norms-chaos, irrationality,
impermanence, repugnance-was fair
game for Dada's proponents.

8. •The “Fountain”, a major
Dadaist work by Marcel
Duchamp, was rejected
at the exhibition of the
Society of Independent
Artists, causing an uproar
among the Dadaists.
•It influenced later
modern art movements
such as Surrealism and
Pop Arts, and led to
important innovations in
fine art like collage and
photo-montage.

9. The rejection of cultural standards and
values also implied the rejection of "art" as
well.
The Dadaists saw themselves an anti-art
movement. The simple act of creating "art"
that is "anti-art" is itself ironic, but some
Dada works were imbued with an
additionally dark humor.
The artists were shocked by the war, and
wanted to produce something
shocking.They wanted to be different and
produce things that were different.

10. FAMOUS DADAISTS AND
THEIR WORKS

11. MARCEL DUCHAMP (1887-1968): AVANT-GARDE
ARTIST
 He was considered as one of
the most famous artists of the
20th century. Marcel
Duchamp, as all the other
representatives of the Dada
current, managed to
completely change the vision
on art.
 He used to artistically present
different objects surrounding
him and called them “found
art”. Such a representation is
L.H.O.O.Q , an ironization of
the famous painting Mona
Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.
Mona Lisa is rendered with a
beard and a mustache, in
'I have forced myself to contradict
myself in order to avoid
conforming to my own taste.’
--Marcel Duchamp

12. THE FOUNTAIN

13. 'L.H.O.O.Q
 The title is a typical Duchamp
witticism. Pronouncing those
letters in French makes the
sentence “Elle a chaud au
cul”, for which the literal
translation is 'she is hot in the
ass'.

14. MAX ERNST (1891-1976): PAINTER, SCULPTOR,
GRAPHIC ARTIST, POET
 He founded a Dada group in
Cologne in 1919.
 One of his most important works is
Celebes, realized in 1921. This
work combines over realistic
elements with those of the
Dadaism specific collage.
 His paintings are characterized by
spontaneity and they are very
abstract.'Art has nothing to do with
taste. Art is not there to be
tasted.' --Max Ernst

15. THE ELEPHANT CELEBES

16. PIETÁ OU LA REVOLUTION LA NUIT REALIZED IN
1923.
It is a controversial painting
since the critics claimed
that it is a reproduction of
the Virgin Mary holding her
baby, but the Virgin is
replaced by the artist’s
father and Jesus by the
artist himself.

17. FRANCIS PICABIA (1879-1953): PAINTER,
AVANT-GARDE ARTIST
 A French painter,
Picabia is one of the
most famous painters of
Dadaism.
 He formed a group for
the supporters of
Dadaism in Barcelona
 His most important
painting is Amorous
Parade.'Dada talks with you, it is everything, it
includes everything, it belongs to all
religions, can be neither victory nor
defeat, it lives in space and not in time.' -
-Francis Picabia

18. AMOROUS PARADE

19. TRISTAN TZARA (1896-1963): AVANT-GARDE
ARTIST
 A Romanian poet and
performance artist,
journalist, playwright, art
critic and film director.
 He became one of the
pioneer activists of Dada in
Zurich where his shows at
the Cabaret Voltaire, as
well as his writings and
manifestos, were the
driving features of extremist
Dadaism.'Freedom: Dada, Dada, Dada,
crying open the constricted pains,
swallowing the contrasts and all the
contradictions, the grotesqueries
and the illogicalities of life.' --

20. PARLER SEUL

21. RAOUL HAUSMANN (1886-1971): PAINTER,
PHOTOGRAPHER
 He was a leading member of
the satirical and highly political
Berlin branch of Pioneered the
technique of photomontage –
the art of affixing and
juxtaposing photographs or
other “found” illustrative
materials onto a flat surface,
not like an embellished type of
collage.

22. RAOUL
HAUSMANN’
S
SELF-
PORTRAIT OF
THE
DADASOPHE
,
COLLAGE-
PHOTOMONT
AGE, 1920.

23. “RECTANGLES
ARRANGED
ACCORDING
TO THE LAWS OF
CHANCE”
BY
JEAN/HANS ARP

24. THE SIMPSONS’ “THE SCREAM”

25. JEAN ARP
POET AND SCULPTOR
Jean Arp / Hans Arp (16
September 1886 – 7 June
1966) was a German/French
sculptor, painter, poet and a
founding member of
Dadaism.

27. MAX ERNST
PAINTER SCULPTOR GRAPHIC ARTIST POET
Ernst was one of the
primary pioneers of the
Dada movement and
Surrealism.

29. Man Ray
Painter Photographer
Man Ray (August 27, 1890 –
November 18, 1976), born
Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an
American artist who spent most of
his career in Paris, France. Perhaps
best described simply as a
modernist, he was a significant
contributor to both the Dada and
Surrealist movements, although his
ties to each were informal. Best
known in the art world for his avant-
garde photography, Man Ray
produced major works in a variety
of media and considered himself a

31. According to the
artists, dada was
not real art, it was
anti-art – meant
to be everything
opposite of what
art stood for.

32. Dada was a movement in visual art, but also literature
(mainly poetry), theatre, and graphic design.

33. The dada
movement
developed in
European
countries as
well as in
America –
mostly in New
York.

34. Interpretation of dada is meant to be entirely dependent on the viewer – you
decide!
The art coming out
of New York tended
to be more
whimsical and less
about the violence
that was happening
in Europe.

35. THE END.