1: Dada as pre-conceptual art response
to a changing reality
Presented by Louisemarié Rathbone
& Nicholas Allen
Lecture
Topic
B
Konseptuele kuns as spel met die werkliheid
Conceptual art toying with reality
1
Eerste impulse: Dada as voor-konseptuele
kunsrespons op ‘n veranderende werklikheid
First impulses: Dada as pre-conceptual art
response to a changing reality
Konseptuele kuns en die verdwyning van die
kunswerk as objek: Waarheen nou?
Conceptual art and the disappearance of the
artwork as object: Quo vadis?
Kuns as proses in die postmoderne wêreld: Die
werklikheid is vloeibaar (performances,
happenings en dies meer)
Art as process in the postmodern world: Reality is
liquid (performances, happenings and the like)
‘n Ander soort skilderdoek, ‘n ander werklikheid:
Die aarde, die galery, die nie-funksionele
Another type of canvas, another reality: The earth,
the gallery, the non-functional
2
3
4
Date
Thursday
4th June
Leonardo da Vinci:
Mona Lisa (1503).
Oil on poplar panel.
77 x 53cm.
Louvre. Paris,
France.
$ 1000 million
Stephen Sauvestre:
Eiffel Tower (1889).
Steel construction built
for 1889 Universal Exhibition
and Centennial of the French
Revolution. Contracted by
Gustave Eiffel and
engineered by
Maurice Koechlin and
Emile Nouguier.
Height: 300.51 meters.
Cass Gilbert:
The Woolworth Building (1913).
Height: 241 meters.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Great Western (1837).
The first steamship in regular transatlantic service.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Great Western (1837).
The first steamship in regular transatlantic service.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Great Eastern (c.1860s).
The first steel ship to carry passengers on the North Atlantic routes.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Great Eastern (c.1860s).
The first steel ship to carry passengers on the North Atlantic routes.
Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson: Mauretania (1907).
The RMS Titanic leaving Queenstown (Cobh ) 11 April 1912.
The sinking of
the Lusitania,
7 May 1915.
The Rumpler Taube Aircraft (c. 1911)
The Zeppelin (c. 1914)
The Mark 1 Tank (c. 1915)
WWI USA Propaganda:
Enlistment Poster
WWI German Propaganda:
Enlistment Poster
WWI British Propaganda:
Enlistment Poster
WWI British Propaganda:
Anti German Poster
WWI USA Propaganda:
Enlistment Poster
WWI British Propaganda:
Enlistment Poster
WWI USA Propaganda:
Enlistment Poster
 The term: “Dada” was coined in Zurich
 Richard Huelsenbeck & Hugo Ball
 Russian: Yes -Yes
 Romanian: Yes - Yes
 German: There -There
 French: Hobby Horse
 Universal: Baby talk
in 1916
Origins of Dada
 French
/ German Sculptor: Jean Arp
 Romanian poet & activist: Tristan Tzara
 Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich
 Romanian Sculptor: Marcel Janco
 German painter and film-maker: Hans Richter
 German artist & activist: Hannah Höch
 Dutch poet: Theo van Doesburg
Other Pioneers
 Morton
Livingston Schamberg (1881 - 1918)
 Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitsky) (1890 –1976)
 Emmy Hennings (1885 – 1948)
 Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
 Francis Picabia (1879-1953)
 Max Ernst (1891-1976)
 Paul Éluard (Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (1895 –1952)
 Andre Breton (1887-1948)
 Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)
Richard Huelsenbeck
1892 - 1974
En avant Dada.
Die Geschichte des Dadaismus
(Forward Dada.
The History of Dadaism) (1920).
Birribum
Hugo Ball
1892 - 1974
For us, art is not an end in itself ...
but it is an opportunity for the
true perception and criticism
of the times we live in.
Hugo Ball
Hugo Ball performing at
the Cabaret Voltaire c. 1916
Hugo Ball performing at
the Cabaret Voltaire c. 1916
Karawane (1916).
Tristan Tzara
Samuel Rosenstock
1896 - 1963
DaDa1 (1917).
Cover of the first edition
of the publication Dada.
Science says we are the servants of nature: everything is in order,
make love and bash your brains in.
Carry on, my children, humanity, kind bourgeois and journalist virgins …
I am against systems, the most acceptable system is on principle to
have none.
To complete oneself, to perfect oneself in one's own littleness,
to fill the vessel with one's individuality, to have the courage to fight for
and against thought, the mystery of bread, the sudden burst of an
infernal propeller into economic lilies....
Every product of disgust capable of becoming a negation of the family is
Dada …
Dada; a protest with the fists of its whole being engaged in destructive action:
Dada; knowledge of all the means rejected up until now by the shamefaced
sex of comfortable compromise and good manners:
Dada; abolition of logic, which is the dance of those impotent to create:
Dada; of every social hierarchy and equation set up for the sake of values
by our valets:
Dada; every object, all objects, sentiments, obscurities,
apparitions and the precise clash of parallel lines are
weapons for the fight:
Dada; abolition of memory:
Dada; abolition of archaeology:
Dada; abolition of prophets:
Dada; abolition of the future:
Dada; absolute and unquestionable faith in every god that
is the immediate product of spontaneity:
Another characteristic of Dada is the continuous breaking off
of our friends. They are always breaking off and resigning.
The first to tender his resignation from the Dada movement
was myself.
Everybody knows that Dada is nothing.
I broke away from Dada and from myself as soon as I
understood the implications of nothing.
Like everything in life, Dada is useless.
Perhaps you will understand me better when I tell
you that Dada is a virgin microbe that penetrates
with the insistence of air into all the spaces that
reason has not been able to fill with words or
conventions.
Marcel Janco
1895 - 1984
We had lost confidence in our
culture. Everything had to be
demolished. We would begin again
after the "tabula rasa". At the
Cabaret Voltaire we began by
shocking common sense, public
opinion, education, institutions,
museums, good taste, in short,
the whole prevailing order.
Marcel Janco
Les tablettes (1918).
Lithograph.
15.5 x 19.5 cm.
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Apollinaris
de Kostrowitzky
1880 - 1918
"Salut monde dont je suis
la langue éloquente que
sa bouche O Paris tire et
tirera toujours aux allemands."
Theo van Doesburg
1883 - 1931
Poster for a Dada
soirée (c.1923)
Kurt Schwitters
1887 - 1948
Anna Blume, Dichtungen (1919).
Described as “a parody of a love poem,
an emblem of the chaos and madness
of the era, and as a harbinger of a new
poetic language.”
First line reads:
"Oh Du, Geliebte meiner 27 Sinne"
(Oh, thou most beloved of my 27 senses)
Merz Bau (c. 1919 -1937).
Construction built within eight
rooms in his house at
No. 5 Waldhausenstraße.
Hannover, Germany.
Destroyed during WWII.
Merz Bau (c. 1919 -1937).
Construction built within eight
rooms in his house at
No. 5 Waldhausenstraße.
Hannover, Germany.
Destroyed during WWII.
Merz Bau (c. 1919 -1937). Construction built within eightrooms in his house at
No. 5 Waldhausenstraße. Hannover, Germany. Destroyed during WWII.
Raoul Hausmann
1886 - 1971
The Art Critic (1919).
Collage – photomontage.
Mechanical Head
(Spirit of Our Age) (c. 1920).
Hairdresser’s wigmaking
dummy, crocodile wallet,
ruler, pocket watch
mechanism and case,
bronze segment of
old camera, typewriter
cylinder, segment of
measuring tape, collapsible
cup, the number “22,”
nails and bolt
32.5 x 21 x 20 cm,
Centre Pompidou,
Paris,
France.
Self-portrait of the Dadasopher
(1920).
Collage – photomontage.
Tatlin At Home (1920).
Collage - photomontage.
Dada Cino (1920).
Collage – photomontage.
Dada Conquers (1920).
Collage – photomontage.
Hanna Höch
1889 - 1978
Cut with the Dada
kitchen knife through
the last Weimar
beer-belly cultural
epoch in Germany 1(1919).
Collage of pasted papers.
90 x 144 cm.
Staatliche Museum, Berlin.
Jean Arp
Hans Arp
1886 - 1966
Collage with Squares Arranged
According to the Laws of Chance,
1916-17,
Torn-and-pasted paper on
blue-grey paper,
48.5 x 34.6 cm.
Shirt Front and Fork,
(1922).
Painted wood.
National Gallery of Art,
London,
United Kingdom.
Francis Picabia
1879 - 1953
Machine, tournez vite (1916).
Tempera on paper.
49 x 32 cm
Parade Amoureuse (1917).
Oil on cardboard.
95 x 72 cm.
Private collection.
Portrait de Cézanne (1920).
Mixed media.
Marcel Duchamp
1887 - 1968
I believe that the artist doesn't know
what he does.
I attach even more importance to
the spectator than to the artist.
Marcel Duchamp
Landscape at Blainville (1902).
Oil on canvas.
61 x 50 cm.
Private collection.
Portrait de joueurs d'echecs
(1911).
Oil on canvas.
108 x 101 cm.
The Philadelphia Museum of
Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Nu descendant un escalier
No.2. (1912).
Oil on canvas.
147.5 x 89 cm.
The Philadelphia Museum of
Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Le Passage de la Vierge à la
Mariée (1912).
Oil on canvas.
59 x 53.5 cm.
The Museum of Modern Arts,
New York, NY, USA.
Mariée (c. 1913).
Oil on canvas.
89.5 x 55.25 cm.
The Philadelphia Museum of
Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Neuf moules mâlic (1914-15). Oil, lead wire, lead foil on glass
between two glass plates. 64 x 102 cm. Private collection.
Broyeuse de chocolat no. 2
1914,
Oil and thread on canvas.
65 x 54 cm.
The Philadelphia Museum of
Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA
La Grande Verre
(The bride stripped bare by her
bachelors, even)
(1915/23).
Oil, varnish, lead foil, lead wire
and dust in two glass plates
mounted with aluminum, wood
and steel frames.
272.5 x 175.8 cm.
The Philadelphia Museum of
Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
La Grande Verre
(The bride stripped bare by her
bachelors, even)
(1915/23).
Oil, varnish, lead foil, lead wire
and dust in two glass plates
mounted with aluminum, wood
and steel frames.
272.5 x 175.8 cm.
The Philadelphia Museum of
Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
La Grande Verre
(The bride stripped bare by her
bachelors, even)
(1915/23).
Oil, varnish, lead foil, lead wire
and dust in two glass plates
mounted with aluminum, wood
and steel frames.
272.5 x 175.8 cm.
The Philadelphia Museum of
Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Note autographe pour Le Grand Verre:
la cravate devra son élégance…, (1912-15).
Untitled (1913). Ink and pencil on paper. Private collection.
The bride stripped bare by her bachelors even: (The Green Box) (1934).
Felt-covered cardboard box containing one colour plate and 94 paper
elements. Tate Gallery, London.
The Box of 1914 (1914). Photographic facsimiles of 16 manuscript notes and the
Drawing: To have the apprentice in the sun (1914), mounted on matboards, each c. 24
x 18cm, contained in a commercial photographic supply box. Edition of 5.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection
Rrose Sélavy:
Alter ego of
Marcel Duchamp.
Roue de bicyclette (1913).
Readymade: bicycle wheel.
diameter 64.8 cm, mounted on
a stool, 60.2 cm high.
Original lost. Replica.
Private collection.
Roue de bicyclette.
Egouttoir (Porte-bouteilles)
(1914/64).
Readymade: bottle rack made
of galvanized iron.
59 x 37 cm.
Original lost. Replica.
Private collection.
In advance of the broken arm
(1915).
Readymade: show shovel,
wood and galvanized iron.
121.3 cm.
Yale Center for British Art,
New Haven, CT, USA.
With hidden noise (1916).
Readymade: Ball of string
between two brass plates held
together by four screws.
12.9 x 13 x 11.4 cm.
The Philadelphia Museum of
Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
La Fontaine (1917/1964).
Readymade: porcelain urinal.
23.5 x 18 x 60 cm.
Private collection.
La Fontaine (1917/1964).
Readymade: porcelain urinal.
23.5 x 18 x 60 cm.
Private collection.
Tu m‘ (1918). Oil on canvas, with bottle brush, three safety pins, and one bolt.
69.8 x 303 cm. Gift from the Estate of Katherine S. Dreier (1953).
L.H.O.O.Q.,
1919,
Graffiti on Postcard of
the Mona Lisa and the
Caption: L.H.O.O.Q.,
19.64 x 12 cm.
Private Collection.
$ 66 million
L.H.O.O.Q.,
1920/42,
rectified readymade
(made by Francis Picabia),
23.8 x 18.8 cm,
Francis M. Naumann
Fine Art,
New York.
$ 1 million
Unhappy Readymade.
A set of instructions for exposing
a geometry textbook
to the elements
for a designated period of time.
Andre Breton
1887 - 1948
 54
rue du Chateau
 Andre Breton et al
 Poems
 Images
 c.1918 – 1925
 “Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.”
Cadavre Exquis
"The dormitory of friable little girls
puts the odious box right.“
"The Senegal oyster will eat
the tricolour bread."
The completely black light lays down day and night
the powerless suspension to do any good.
The anaemic young girl got the waxed mannequins turned red.
Monsieur Poincaré, if you want, kisses on the mouth,
with a peacock feather, in an ardour I never saw before,
the late Monsieur de Borniol.
The made-up shrimp hardly enlightens some double kisses.
Rue Mouffetard, love-shivering, amuses the chimera who shoots at us.
The very moved Pathos, thanks singing the bullet of
chopped vetiver between Line and Prâline.
Caraco is a beautiful whore: lazy as a doormouse
and glass-gloved for doing nothing,
she strings pearls with the turkeys of the farce.
Man Ray, Joan Miró, Max Morise
and Yves Tanguy:
Nude (1926-27).
Composite drawing of ink, pencil,
and crayon on paper.
André Breton, Max Morise,
Pierre Naville, Benjamin Péret,
Jacques Prévert, Jeannette and
Yves Tanguy:
Cadavre Exquis (1928).
Composite collage of
cut-and-pasted printed
paper on paper.
Man Ray
Emmanuel Radnitsky
1890 - 1976
The rope dancer accompanies herself with her shadows (1915–16).
Oil on canvas.132.1 x 186.4 cm. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.
Man Ray (assisted by Erik Satie):
Cadeau (1921).
Ready-made: Iron with 14
furniture tacks glued to its sole.
Original lost.
Max Ernst
1891 - 1976
Fruit of a Long Experience (1919).
Painted wood relief.
45.7 x 38 cm.
Private collection.
Family Excursions (c. 1919).
Oil on canvas.
36 x 26 cm.
Narodni Gallery,
Prague, Czechia.
Aquis submersus (1919).
Oil on canvas.
54 x 43.8 cm.
Städelsches Kunstinstitut
und Städtische Galerie,
Frankfurt-on-Main,
Germany.
Celebes,
1921.
Oil on canvas.