Dadaism

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Dadaism
Dadaism or Dada is a product of the turbulent and
cynical post-World War I period. It is an
anti-art movement that celebrates the irrational,
the absurd, the nihilistic and the nonsensical.
It is also opposed to the cruelty of the
wars. Dadaists rejected traditional aesthetic
standards and submitted that all concepts of
beauty should be abandoned and a whole new art
form should be created. The Dadaistic paintings
are consisting of abstract, wired or even
dull symbols.
Dadaism probably began in the Cabaret Voltaire in
Zurich in 1916 and then prevailed in western
society. Dadaistic works often illustrate
absurdity through painting of purposeless
machines and collages of discarded
materials, expressing their cynicism about
conventional ideas of form and their rejection of
traditional concepts of beauty.
The reproduction of the Mona Lisa adorned with a
mustache is a famous example. It is a famous work
by Marcel Duchamp. He is a major figure
in Dadaism who refused to follow a conventional
artistic path. Duchamp penciled a moustache and a
goatee over Mona Lisa's upper lip and chin,
and re-titled the artwork. The title L.H.O.O.Q
roughly translates as she has a hot ass.
Duchamp begins with the representation of an
iconic masterpiece that he takes down from its
basis by playfully debunking it. In endowing
the Mona Lisa with masculine attributes, he
alludes to Leonardo's homosexuality. By
challenging the very notion of what is art, his
works sent shock waves across the art world that
can still be felt today.
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Jean Tinguely is another influential Dadaist. A
self-destroying sculpture titled Homage to New
York is his best-known work. He was asked in 1960
to produce a work to be performed in the
Sculpture Garden of the Museum of Modern Art in
New York. This homage to the energy of a city
keeps rebuilding itself time after time is a
wonderful example of the different and
sometimes conflicting conceptions of artists and
engineers on how machines should work.
Dadaism incorporates the environment and
spectators as active and important ingredients in
the production of random events. It also has a
great influence in later movements including
Surrealism and Fluxus.
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