Art Movement Style: Dada
Art
Movement Style: Dada
Dada rather than being an art
style was more of a literary and artistic movement that first began as a form
of protest movement that carried out anti-war, anti-art values as well as an
anti-establishment manifesto. It was raised as a reaction towards World War 1.
Dada was fuelled by other avant-garde movements namely Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism,
and Expressionism (Dan.2018). It soon spread its diversity into art such as Photography,
Sculpturing, Painting and creation of Collage to mention a few. Dadaism characteristics
and aesthetics included factors such as motive to always be purposely negative
and to always question the existence of everything in general. Due to Dadaism’s
unorthodox ways of doing things, it managed to capture attention in many cities
where many artists resided, these cities included Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New
York and Cologne and further influenced movements such as Surrealism, Action Painting,
Pop Art, important events and conceptual art (Stamberg, S.2006). The origin of
the term Dada is widely controversial as the existence of how it came about is
unclear, where as its purpose and motives are very clearly understood. In some instances,
it is said that Dadaism stands for ‘yes’ in Slavonic. Some believe it to mean “hobbyhorse”
and has something to do with Richard Huelsenbeek and Hugo Ball: being on one
occasion they had chosen the word randomly by spearing a knife into a French
dictionary which landed on the word ‘Dada’. It has even been taken further by
whereby, the word closely relates to one, that a child would say and this
suggested characteristic of childishness and absurdity but nevertheless
appealed to the group of artists. The artists found it even better to have the
word mean (nothing) in all languages-seen as they were international and not from
the same place (Esaak, S.2017).
For example, during post-war Berlin where it was anti-art and more political, Dada adopted Collages inspired by Cubism and Futurism, Photomontages and Assemblages in attempts to relate artwork to real world conditions. The aim and purpose of Dada was to both help and stop the war and to vent frustration within the nationalist and bourgeois. To further spread Dada, the many artists in Zurich published a Dada magazine and held art exhibitions that would help spread the anti-war message. Even though Dada was an influential art movement, it started fading as the establishment of Surrealism began to take place, nevertheless its ideas and the values it gave rise to, have become important in various categories of modern and contemporary art (Stamberg, S.2006).
Some
of the few Dadaism artist:
The Dada Group at Cafe
Voltaire in Zurich
·
Jean Arp
·
Marcel Duchamp
·
George Grosz
·
Francis Picabia
·
Man Ray
·
Christian Schad
Characteristics
·
Dada had only one rule: Never
follow any known rules.
·
Dada is corrosive, confrontational and
provocative
·
It uses elements of automatism and chance
·
It is highly satirical
·
It aims to offend rather than to impress
·
It was more of a protest movement than an art style
·
It used physical elements from the real world,
such as newspapers, advertisement, and junk to relate its artworks to reality.
·
It believed that the idea behind art is more important
than the physical results of the artwork itself (led to conceptual art).
Dadaism:
Past Art work versus Post-modern art
Marcel
Duchamp's urinal art, Fountain. 1917.
Marcel Duchamp/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York/ADAGP, Paris/Succession Marcel Duchamp
The artwork above is called “Fountain”.
It was created by an artist named Marcel Duchamp’s, the artwork was perhaps one
of the most widely known and controversial of all Dadaist artefacts. This
artwork was undoubtably a work influenced by the Dadaist art movement as it
raised serious questions such as “what exactly is worthy to be called art?”. The
artwork scene basically consisted of only a urinal that would generally be used
in public toilets but was otherwise turned into art. The urinal is made from
white porcelain and had been bought from a plumbing supplier. In terms of how
the scene is set up the artefact is set on the floor on its back neatly with
the urinal side facing frontwards with some visible marks that it had been used
in its previous purpose but nevertheless has been cleaned. The urinal is then
written with a black marker, initials (R. MUTT) and the date (1917) when this
picture was taken or rather the artwork was made. The aim of this work of art
was again in the spirits of challenging what is deemed or defined as artwork in
society, if whether something had to be colourful or beautiful looking to be
considered art. This artwork was another “chance-based procedure using
unorthodox material”, but still managed to push the word across (Linde, S.2018).
Christie Inc, “Ketchup on
Canvas”. 2005.
This artwork was created by
Christie and according to her was supposed to symbolize the legendary ‘Bachus’ Roman
god of wine (Fairs, M.2009). The artwork is influenced by postmodern art style
movements including “neo-expressionism” and has a Dadaism feel to it as well.
Christie designed this painting because she believes that “red is not only the
colour of wine, but the colour of food, and that this artwork encompasses both
the sensual pleasures and violence”. The artwork consists of red catch-up
deliberately painted all over a canvas board with no consistent pattern or recognizable
shape nor planned design to it. This art was made to deliberately confuse
people into a temporary decision-making process state, if whether to accept or
reject this visual work as “art”. As its shown, this usage of “unorthodox material
and chance-based procedure artwork” closely resembles what a 2-year-old child
would do if they were left with a bottle of ketchup on their own, thus influentially
relating to Dadaism characteristics (www.humanarefree.com.2018).
Reference
list
Dan,2018. The Dada Art Movement (Or Anti-Art Movement if
you Prefer). emptyeasel.com
S, Stamberg.2006. Dada on
Display at the National Gallery of Art.
M, Fairs. 2009. Competition: win a Capellini S-Chair by Tom Dixon.
dezeen.com
S, Esaak.2017.What
Is Dada?. ThoughtCo.
S, Linde. 2018. What is Surrealism? - Definition, Art &
Characteristics. Study.com
Comments
Post a Comment