Dada
Art Movement
"Dada is a state of mind... Dada is
artistic free thinking... Dada gives itself
to nothing... ." So is Dada defined by
André Breton.
The beginnings of Dada
• The artists and writers of the time were
dismayed by the stupidity and horror of WWI.
• The conflict was new in history because of its
terrifying new weaponry.
• On average almost 900 Frenchmen and 1,300
Germans died every day between 1914-1918.
• All told ten million people were killed.
MYP Global Context
• FAIRNESS AND DEVELOPMENT
– What are the consequences of our common
humanity?
• Security and freedom, freedom of expression
• Justice, peace, and conflict management.
• KEY CONCEPT
– CHANGE – The Dada artists and writers wanted
change.
Vocabulary will will be defining
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Dada
Security
Peace
Collage
• Photomontage
• “Sound” poetry –
Onomatopoeia
• Frottage
Key Objective
• You will learn and understand how artists use
their art to protest what they do not think is
fair in their world.
• You will create a cover for your sketchbook
using the methods the Dada artists used.
You need to be able to answer:
• What was the Dada movement?
• Who were some of the Dada artists and what
they did to protest?
• How can you use the techniques of others to
create?
• How does a protest make others think about
what they are doing?
You will be graded upon
Criterion A: Knowledge and Understanding
– Do you have a thorough understanding of the topic being
studied. (Vocabulary and short answers)
Criterion B: Application –
• Proficiency of your finished piece.
Criterion C: Reflection and evaluation
• response to what you learned and the quality of your
product.
Criterion D: Artistic Awareness and Personal Engagement
• Did you actively participate, show initiative,
enthusiasm, nd commitment?
Citizenship during unit
• Are you following the classroom and school
rules of SRR?
Dadaism (1916-1923)
• Randomly open a dictionary, point to any
word, and call that an art movement.
• That is what a group of artists did when they
were trying to determine a name for their
group.
• DADA – Hobby horse.
Originated in Switzerland
• Spread to other parts of the world – Berlin,
Cologne, Paris, Netherlands, United States.
• Dada’s chosen weapon was art, but it was art
like the world had never seen.
• Spread to art, writing, poetry, theater, music,
and other art forms.
Boundaries were pushed
• Dada championed spontaneity, absurdity, and
free will.
• They ridiculed the artists we have all come to
love: Leonardo da Vinci, Paul Cezanne, etc.
Many creative forms developed
• Dada did not constitute an actual artistic style,
but the group favored collaboration, spontaneity,
and chance.
• Many Dadaists worked in collage, photomontage
(fragments of photographs with the written
word), found-object construction, rather than
painting and sculpture.
• With time, out of the chaos, grew an interest in
the dream world.
Some of the artists of the Dada
movement
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Hugo Ball
Hans (Jean Arp)
Marcel Duchamp
Man Ray
Francis Picabia
George Grosz
Max Ernst
Kurt Schwitters
Hugo Ball
(1886 – 1927)
• Co-founder of the Dada movement.
• He composed “sound” poems.
Jean (Hans) Arp
(1886 – 1966)
• Born in Strasbourg, France
• He showed work to artists such as Gauguin, Matisse,
and Picasso.
• By the time he was 25 he was an artist and poet of
distinction.
• He used collage and free form as his point of interest in
his work.
• While in Zurich he joined the Dada movement.
• 1925 joined the surrealists and spent most of his time
creating artworks done by methods of chance rather
than based on the subconscious.
Jean (Hans) Arp
• Started drawing at a young age but got tired
of drawing realistic things. To get relief he
started to write poetry.
• Went to Strasbourg School of Applied arts to
read poetry.
• On a visit to Paris in 1904 he came in contact
with Modern art and he loved it and got
involved with it again.
Jean Arp
Unreasonable Order
Hans (Jean) Arp
Collaged with Squares
Arranged by Laws According
to Chance
Collage Artists
• With collage the artists could use items such
as advertisements, newspapers, etc. to
represent their ideas.
• Sometimes the Dada collage is not a collage at
all, because it did not involve cutting and
gluing.
• One artist would cut out print material, and
paint over most of it, and leave a few sections
out.
Marcel Duchamp
(1887 – 1968)
• A French artist, Marcel had a significant
impact on Dada and the Surrealist movements
through his witty, humorous, and bold
approach to art.
• He refused to accept the norm. He was
interested in art that stimulated one’s mind.
• He examined “anti-art”, and challenged the
definition of art.
Marcel Duchamp
The Fountain
Marcel Duchamp
• He went further still.. He would buy common
manufactured items, and simply proclaim
them to be “readymade” artworks.
• He thought art should be about ideas rather
than beautiful objects.
Man Ray
(1890 – 1976)
• An American artist who was the founder of
the Dada group in New York.
• He boldly explored chance, surprise, and risk
through art, writing, painting, photography,
and mixed-media assemblages.
• His work contained hidden puns and
messages.
The rope dancer accompanies herself
with her shadows
Max Ernst
(1891 - 1976)
• German artist.
• In the 1920’s he experimented with the
automatist technique producing a series of
drawings called Natural History.
• These paintings are created by rubbing paper
with graphite over different surfaces.
• He called this technique “frottage.”
Frottage – adds texture
L’evade’
Francis Picabia
(1879 – 1953)
• Born in Paris, France
• Associated with Cubism, Abstract art, Dada,
and Surrealism.
Francis Picabia
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
(1874 – 1927)
• Born in Germany
• She was a Dadaist artist and poet who worked
for several years in Greenwich Village, New
York.
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
Berlin Dadaist Hannah Höch
• Indian Dancer, 1930
Hoch
• Became famous for her photomontage
techniques.
• Da-Dandy, 1919
Hoch – Cut with the Kitchen Knife
Dada ….
Hoch – German Girl, 1930
• Fusion of male and female
Photomontage
• The Dada artists who used this technique had
a goal, and that was to take back the control
of the media.
Far reaching effects
• Dada wanted people to wake up and look
critically at the world around them.
• Its preoccupation with the bizarre, irrational,
and fantastic was the beginning of the
Surrealism movement.
• The reliance of the accident were later
employed by the Abstract Expressionists.
Now we will create a piece of art using
some of the Dada methods.
• We will review the concepts and vocabulary
before you have the test.