Our history and culture today are extensively a product of movements that occurred throughout yesteryear. These movements took place in almost all work segments, be it art, architecture, engineering, trade, merchandise, and all industries. One such movement that reformed art, challenged the visuals, and introduced to us what we call modern art is the Dada Movement. Dadaism art movement was, however, refused to be titled as a movement but was said to be an ‘anti-movement’ by the Dadaists. The word ‘Dada’ is traced back to Zurich in 1916; however, the reform was on fire in Europe, the USA, and the UK alike. The word Dada has no actual meaning in reference to art or movement. In Russian, it means Yes-yes and there-there in German, and hobbyhorse in French. It was picked by the poet Richard Huelsenbeck (1892-1927) and painter musician Hugo Ball (1886-1927), who describes it as a non-sense word. The Romanian poet and demonic Activist Tristan Tzara (1896-1963) and Jean Arp (1887-1966) were added to the team and founded Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich which was an early center of Dada events and protests. Many other artists from Zurich too joined in as the movement started to spread like a wildfire. It had worldwide impacts, most commonly observed in Zurich, Berlin, Cologne, New York, Paris, etc.
The Dada movement was questioning reality with art that had no visual sense. Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain was an art piece in the art movement dada. It was nothing but a factory mass-produced urinal placed upside down with the pseudo name ‘R. Mutt’ painted on it. This exhibit was widely criticized in the name of art. However, the artist claimed his intention was solely to puzzle and provoke the viewers. Hereafter, his exhibits followed objects from mass production. Duchamp’s exhibits questioned the meaning of art altogether. Duchamp’s Fountain exhibit was rejected by the Society of Independent Artists Exhibition in Paris in 1917. The committee untitled it as the art which brought about a rage among the Dadaists and led to the resignation of Duchamp from the board of Independent Artists. In 2004, this readymade exhibit ‘Fountain’ was voted as the most influential artwork of the 20th century by more than 500 artists. Marcel Duchamp rejected paintings, ‘All paintings are made for the eye and not for the mind’, he said. All Dadaists were practicing and performing the ‘away from reality’ style of art. Stephane Mallarme, a French poet, composed out of syntax poems, Arnold Schoenberg’s music started losing its hold on the traditionally stereotyped tunes, and Pablo Picasso was contributing to Dadaism by introducing new human anatomy. In 1916, Hugo Ball, German author and poet, recited a poem at Cabaret Voltaire “Gadji beri bimba / glandridi lauli lonni cadori…”. The poem did not make sense in any known linguistic communication. A Romanian artist Tristan Tzara titled Hugo’s performance at the Cabaret Voltaire as ‘explosions of elective imbecility’. All art forms were going bizarre under the Dada movement.
The Dada artists refused to call it a movement, rather stated it was an ‘Anti-art Movement’. The nihilistic artists associated or the Dadaists used modes of derisive humor, stage plays, poem recitations to link art in wordplay. The whole Dada Movement was centered on the ideology of the edict establishments that brought about world war. The anarchists were bringing about unorthodox political reformation in all sectors of art, directly targeting the war. The movement was not violent or one with drastic measures, but was sure a very impactful one. Picasso and Braque’s Cubist art was one of the key factors that drove fire leading into the Dada. Although the Dada movement was short-lived, coinciding with World War I, it successfully changed the perspective towards art. The Dada movement aimed towards negativity; anti-art, anti-political, and anti-social ideologies. Dada activists used cabaret performances, meetings, and riots to support and spread their movement across.
The Dada Art Movement lasted for only a decade. Its last display was held in Paris in 1920 where all renowned names associated with Dada took the stage. By this time, the Dada has already begun to fade in but took its own time to die out. It preceded new concepts to the post-modernist art forms. In the mid-1900s, the name ‘Dada’ resurfaced again. American artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg described their piece of work as a ‘Neo-Dada art’ style. After this, the phrase Neo-Dada was seen and heard scarcely but kept the moment alive. The ‘anti-aesthetic’ artwork such as abstract art or modern art continues to associate with the Dadaism style of work and continues to emblaze the impacts of the Dada art movement in all fields of art.
