Zurich Dada
1916 - 1918
Why Dada?
• to counter the logic that was used to justify
the killing and mutilation of millions
• to show disgust with bourgeois values
• to create a better life after WWI through the
irrational
Dada: What Is It?
• international movement in art and literature that
used ridicule and nonsense to reflect what was
considered to be the meaninglessness of the
modern world
• anti-war, anti-art, and anti-bourgeois movement
• anarchistic movement that challenged traditional
perceptions of art as well as provoked a
reexamination of social and moral values
Founding of the Movement
• originated in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916
– Zurich was neutral territory, the place where
many artists went to find refuge from World
War I
– Lenin, James Joyce, and Carl Jung were also
in residence here
• founded by exiles
• other Dada cells located in Paris, Barcelona and
New York
Aims
• originally, to express anger over the war
• later, to attack the art establishment which
was aligned with middle class society
• to destroy those systems based on reason
and logic and replace them with ones based
on anarchy, the primitive, and the irrational
Anti-art Credo
• used shock, provocation, and irrationality as a
weapon against the Establishment
• asked the question: what kind of culture would
condone the industrialized murder of World War I?
• made fun of the "seriousness" and sanctity of
traditional art
• believed that traditional art had to be purged and
that this new movement was going to start culture
from scratch
• created in a "child-like" manner
• believed that the value of art was located more in
the act of making it than in the work produced
Characteristics of Dada Art
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•
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elementary
anonymous and collective
spontaneous, random, and provocative
toy-like
primitive
organic and biomorphic
Mythic Origins of the Word
Dada
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•
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first word a baby utters?
"yes, yes" in Russian?
"hobby-horse" in Rumanian?
word found at random in the
dictionary?
Founders of the Cabaret Voltaire
In 1915, Hugo Ball
(writer and theatre director)
and his female partner
Emmy Hennings
(dancer and chanteuse)
left Munich and moved to
Zurich.
I didn't love the death-hussars,
And not the howitzers with girls' names,
And at the end when the great days came,
I went discreetly away.
Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings,
Zurich (1918).
The Cabaret Voltaire
• founded on February 1, 1916,
as an international literary
cabaret
• located in a slightly
disreputable neighborhood in
Zurich, Switzerland, on the
Speigelgasse
• venue for selling beer, sausage,
and rolls
• Emmy Hennings sang songs
while Hugo Ball played the
piano; others recited nonsensical poetry and improvised
Hugo Ball in “cubist” costume
reciting his poem “Caravan” at
the Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich,
1916.
Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara, and
Hans Richter in Zurich (1918).
Fancy-dress costumes on
a poem by Hugo Ball (1918).
Marcel Janco.
Cabaret Voltaire (1916).
“Total pandemonium. Tzara
is wiggling his behind like
the belly of an Oriental dancer.
Janco is playing an invisible
violin and bowing and scraping.
Madame Hennings, with a
Madonna face, is doing the splits.
Huelsenbeck is banging away
nonstop on the great drum,
with Ball accompanying him
on the piano, pale as a chalky
ghost." (Hans Arp, 1916)
Cover of Cabaret Voltaire, a
Dada literary magazine
(15 May 1916)
Technique: Automatism
• The starting point of creation is the notion of
vitality, the movement of the creative hand.
• There are no preconceived subjects.
• But as outlines contoured the surface, they
provoked associations to plant, animal, and human
life.
• The important thing is ambiguity—to suggest
rather than to define forms.
Importance of Automatism
• helped to “overcome” their own painting
culture
• challenged the inherited assumptions of
style and habits of the hand
• suggested the possibility of evoking
experience located in the unconscious
Hans (Jean) Arp. Automatic Drawing (1916).
Brush and ink on gray paper.
The Automatic Process
• First, pencil outlines are
drawn.
• Second, contours are filled
in with black ink.
• Third, changing and
adjusting these shapes.
• Fourth, eliminating shapes
as the drawing was near
completion.
Hans (Jean) Arp. Automatic Drawing (1916).
Brush and ink on gray paper.
Hans Arp.
Geometric Collage (1916).
Collage of pasted
papers.
Hans Arp. Collage with Squares
Arranged According to the Laws
of Chance (1917).
Collage of torn-and-pasted paper
on blue-gray paper colored papers.
Hans Arp. Entombment of
The Birds and Butterflies
(Portrait of Tristan Tzara),
1916-17. Painted wood
relief.
Hans Arp.
Enak's Tears (Terrestrial Forms),
1917. Painted wood.
Hans Arp.
Birds in an Aquarium
(c. 1920).Painted wood
relief.
Hans Arp.
Mustache Hat from
7 Arpaden (1923).
Lithograph published
in a portfolio.
arpaden is a made up
word meaning “Arp
things”
Hans Arp.
The Navel Bottle from
7 Arpaden (1923).
Lithograph in a print
portfolio.
Hans Arp. Portfolio Cover from 7 Arpaden (1923).
Letterpress with collage addition.
Sophie Taeuber and Hans Arp in their Zurich
studio, with her puppets on the wall (1918).
Marionettes by Sophie Tauber-Arp
Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
The Army (1917). Wood
painted in oil.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Dada Head (Portrait of Hans
Arp), 1918. Wood.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Dada Head (1920).
Painted wood with
glass beads on wire.
Hans Arp. Wool Rug
(executed by Sophie
Taueber-Arp), 1918.
Marcel Janco. Mask
(1919). Cardboard,
horsehair, wire, and
cloth.
Marcel Janco. Study for
Brilliant Empire Architecture
(1918). Painted plaster relief.
Hans Richter. Macabre
Portrait (1917). Oil on
canvas.
Mary Wigman dancing
(1919).
Tristan Tzara. Poster
announcing Dada
“Happening”.