Chapter 26
Dada, Surrealism, and
Developments in the
U.S.
Artist: n/a
Title: Hugo Ball Reciting the
Sound Poem “Karawane” at
the Cabaret Voltaire
Date: 1916
Movement: Dadaism
1916-1923
The word Dada in German
signifies baby talk, in French
it is a child’s hobbyhorse, in
Russian it translates to “yes,
yes”, in the Kru African
dialect it is “the tail of a
sacred cow.”
nihilism – (philosophy)
an extreme form of
skepticism: the denial of
all real existence or the
possibility of an objective
basis for truth.
Marcel Duchamp, Nude
Descending a Staircase, No.
2, 1912.
The First
Ready-Made
Bicycle Wheel, 1951
(third version, after
lost original of 1913),
Metal wheel mounted
on painted wood
stool, 51 x 25 x 16
1/2"
Ready-Mades
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1963 replica
of 1917 original. Porcelain, 14” high.
In Advance of the Broken Arm, August 1964 (fourth
version, after lost original of November 1915), Wood
and galvanized-iron snow shovel, 52" (132 cm) high
Ready-Made-Aided
Marcel Duchamp, Replica of
L.H.O.O.Q., 1919, Color
reproduction of the Mona Lisa
altered with a pencil, 7 3/4" x 5".
Alternate version
Marcel Duchamp, To Be Looked at (From the Other Side of the Glass) with
One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour, 1918. Oil paint, silver leaf, lead wire,
and magnifying lens, 22" high.
Giorgio de Chirico, Place d'Italie, 1912. Oil on canvas, 18 1/2" x 22
1/2". Coll. Jesi, Milan, Italy. Scala/Art Resource, NY. © 2005 Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome. Image 26.7
Chirico hated music, and jeered at music-lovers who would sit and
listen for hours in a concert hall. He suggested that they should be
made to spend a similar period of time examining a master painting
through opera glasses. Any one of his works would have stood up to
Man Ray - Dadaist first; (later joined Surrealists)
Man Ray, Indestructible Object (or Object to
be Destroyed), 1964, replica of the original of
1923. Metronome with cut-out photograph of
an eye on a pendulum, 8 7/8" x 4 3/8" x 4 3/8"
Man Ray, Le Cadeau (The
Gift), 1921, Iron and nails
Man Ray, Untitled, c.1922.
Rayograph (Photogram)
Man Ray, Le Violon d'Ingres, 1924.
Photograph.
Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931, o/c; 9 1/2” x 13”
“Everything we see hides another thing, we always
want to see what is hidden by what we see.”
~ René Magritte
Rene Magritte, The Treason of Images (This is not
a Pipe), 1928, oil/canvas, 55 x 72cm.
René Magritte, Time Transfixed, 1938. Oil
on canvas, 4' 9 5/8" x 3' 2 3/8"
René Magritte, The False Mirror, 1928. Oil on canvas, 21 1/4" x 21 7/8"
Joan Miró, Dog Barking at the Moon, 1926. Oil on canvas, 28 1/4" x 26 1/4".
Frida Kahlo, Thinking About
Death. 1943, Oil on canvas;
17 1/2” x 14 1/2”
Alberto Giacometti,
Large Standing Woman III, 1960.
7' 8 1/2" high
Alberto Giacometti,
Nude in Profile,
etching, 1955, 30.8 x
5.6 cm (image)
Henry Moore, Reclining Figure, 195758. Roman travertine, 16' 8" long.
UNESCO Building, Paris.
Two views of Reclining
Figure, 1951, Kew Gardens,
London