Dada
A call for action with art
Dada is the world of philosophies, psychology, poetry, and politics. Not only this movement involves painting and two dimensional work, but also sculptural work with unconventional material, known as “Ready-mades”. Regardless, this movement pushed the idea of what is “art” and challenged museums, their acceptance of art and the movement’s art.
Image by History.com
The Dada movement
Like mentioned before, the Dada movement was not just two dimensional art work. Starting in 1916, it was a response of the coming dark times of World War one, many artist at the time thought art could prevent war, hence the philosophies, psychology, poetry, and politics of the Dada movement 1. It’s also because of this time the last two movements covered within Modern Art of Modern Minds came into existence, this will be discussed later on.
Image by widewalls
Nude Descending Staircase,1912
Reflecting back, Cubism was the art of changing our perspective of the subject matter, then this piece marks the beginning of the ideas of the Dada movement of challenging the subject matter and its presentation. Just before the infamous “ready-mades” made its mark on the art world, Duchamp who was considered the leader of the Dada movement made this piece in hopes to dismantle the conventional ideas of how art is made and how one precedes art 2. The figure of the nude is nearly unidentifiable, but the bleak and dark colors are a huge contrast from the previous movements up until now. The piece, regardless of the colors and the mood, seems alive with movement where the viewer is descending the stairs itself from the sprawling action it showcases.
Nude Descending the Staircase, 1912 from Google Images
The Elephant Celebes, 1921
This next piece, still within the world of two dimensional artwork, is still expanding the ideas of the Dada movement. Max Ernst piece: The Elephant Celebes 1921, is more personal than any other work within the movement, after serving four years in the first world war, he turned to art to express the events the war had on him. The Elephant Celebes is an amalgamation of the confusion and horror of war, by using things that the mind’s eye to help aid the memory by using figures and images to represent the things Ernst would see in war; for example the tank represents the Elephant 3. This piece is an example of the psychology of people who have been affected by the war, Ernst being a guiding example of using art as a way to cope and to warn people of this effect of war like what many people tried to do with the Dada Movement.
The Elephant Celebs, 1912 Image from Google Images
Image from San Fransisco Chronicle (Nov, 11, 1918)
Conclusion
The Dada movement will continue to have it’s unique path within the art world, and eventually would go on to branch off into other art movements such as the De Stijl movement and the Surrealist movement. This movement’s goal when trying to stop wars with art may of not succeed like they hoped, but the result is amazing documentation of the times of war and post war times captured what a camera couldn’t: the mind of those who were touched by war.
-
William, Rubin. Dada, Surrealism, and their heritage. The Museum of Modern Art: Distributed by New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, Conn. , 1968.
-
William, “Dada, Surrealism, and their heritage”.
-
William, “Dada, Surrealism, and their heritage”.