Dada: European artists deconstruct the art world in response to the debacle of the WWI

duchamp_fountain
Originally uploaded by williamcromar

The great symbol of Dada was the urinal exhibited in NYC in 1917 by Marcel Duchamp. He entitled it, "Fountain." By turning the urinal on its side, Duchamp shifted the focus of art from physical craft to intellectual interpretation.

Dada or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. It began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916, spreading to Berlin shortly thereafter, says Wikipedia.

Dada was born out of negative reaction to the horrors of World War I.

Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition.

The origin of the name Dada is unclear; some believe that it is a nonsensical word. Others maintain that it originates from the Romanian artists Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco's frequent use of the words da, da, meaning yes, yes in the Romanian language.

Its anti-war politics was expressed via rejection of the prevailing standards in art -through anti-art cultural works. In addition to being anti-war, Dada was also anti-bourgeois.

Dada influenced later avant-garde groups including the surrealists and, in the 1960's, pop artists.

"Everything for which art stood, Dada represented the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend," said Hans Richter.

A reviewer from the American Art News stated at the time that "Dada philosophy is the sickest, most paralyzing and most destructive thing that has ever originated from the brain of man."