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Dada Student Guide
Dada Student Guide
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STUDEN
T GUI DE
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R E A D E R A L E R T ! T H E N A M E S O F C I T I E S N O T E D O N T H E S I D E O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S W I L L H E L P Y O U F I N D O BJ E C T S I N T H E D A D A E X H I B I T I O N A S Y O U W A L K T H R O U G H I T W I T H T H I S G U I D E
(Small Dada Evening), 1922/1923,
Schwitters?), detail, poster and
London
The beginnings of dada
were not the beginnings of an art,
but of a disgust.
TRISTAN TZARA
D
tion, and the roles assigned to men and women — had
failed to prevent the war and its unparalleled destruction.
AT
TI
TU
DE
H A NN O V E R
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DADA JOURNALS
Dada journals were the lifeblood Every product of disgust capable
of the movement, enabling of becoming a negation of the
dadaists to exchange ideas and family is Dada; a protest with
images among themselves and the fists of its whole being
to convey them to the public, engaged in destructive action:
Z UR I C H
their subversive content—but tion set up for the sake of val-
many reappeared soon after ues by our valets: Dada; every fig. 3
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sonal” art that did not rely on artistic skill and did not
Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919,
fig. 4
and was often considered the domain of women — was
viewed as a lesser form of art. But Taeuber and Arp framed
Marcel Duchamp’s graffiti-like embroideries and hung them on the walls like paintings.
defacement of a Mona Lisa repro-
duction is the most famous of
They also jointly made a series of abstract geometric “duo-
Dada’s many attacks against the collages” [fig. 5] that had roots in Taeuber’s textile designs.
traditions of high art. In French,
the letters “LHOOQ” sound like
the French phrase, which in loose
translation would be, “She’s hot.”
Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber,
Z UR I C H
fig. 5
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AN OPERATION.
ing one of a duel between two Dada artists); issuing Dada
T R I S TA N T Z A R A
Arp experimented with “auto-
matic drawings” inspired by nat-
ural forms such as roots and
twigs. Rather than copying what
he saw directly, he would give
free rein to his brush and imagi-
Hans Arp, Unt it led (Plant Ha mmer),
c. 1917, painted wood relief. Lent by
fig. 6
Hans Arp, Unt it led (Aut o matic
Z UR I C H
fig. 7
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TAKE DADA
DILETTANTES,
SERIOUSLY, EVERYBODY DADA IS
RISE UP
IT’S CAN DADA POLITICAL
AGAINST ART
WORTH IT!
DADA FAIR
▼
▼
▼
Dada Fair, 1920. Standing (left to right):
▼
Margarete Herzfelde, George Grosz,
Raoul Hausmann, Otto Burchard,
Opening of the First International
▼ ▼
besitz/Art Resource, NY
fig. 9
▼ ▼
▼
BERL I N
BERL I N
George Grosz, Gallery of German John Heartfield and Rudolf George Grosz and John Heartfield,
Manly Beauty, Prize Question: Schlichter, Prussian Archangel, The Middle-Class Philistine Heart-
“Who is the Most Beautiful?” 1919. 2004 (reconstruction of lost field Gone Wild (Electro-Mechanical
Fan-shaped photomontage 1920 original), mixed media. Tatlin Sculpture), 1988 (reconstruc-
attached to Otto Dix’s montage Neue Galerie New York tion of 1920 original), mixed media.
painting, War Cripples (45% Fit Berlinische Galerie-Landesmuseum
for Service). See fig. 11. für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und
Architektur
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Nationalgalerie
fig. 10 fig. 11
BERL I N
the Skat Players, 1920 [fig. 10], in which grossly disfigured
and limbless war veterans play cards in a café. The work
also violated traditional artistic categories by including In addition to newspapers, Dix This four-page periodical ridi-
used several other collage mate- culed the German socialist
collage elements in an oil painting. rials in this work. The blue uni- government’s cooperation with
Dada photomontage, one of the movement’s form of the figure at the right is the military in violently sup-
most innovative assaults on traditional art, often used press made of woven paper used for pressing the workers’ movement.
cloth during a shortage in post- Dadaists marched through
images as source material. Substituting scissors and glue war Germany. The mechanical Berlin’s working-class districts
for brushes and paint, and calling themselves monteurs, jaw of the figure at the right and distributed the periodical
is made of silver paper used to to the accompaniment of a brass
or mechanics, rather than artists, Berlin dadaists weeded
line cigarette packets. (Dix band playing patriotic military
through illustrated magazines and newspapers, cut out inscribed the paper “lower jaw songs before German police
images or fragments of images, and reassembled them to prosthesis brand Dix” and stopped the procession and con-
used a picture of himself as a fiscated the remaining copies.
make new art products. Their “remix” works often included
“logo.”) Real playing cards The title and the top photo-
press images of leading politicians in photomontages, are used. montage mock the government’s
which they would then reproduce in Dada periodicals promise of future plenty. The
top of the fan pictures German
accompanied by satirical text. The goal: to take back con-
President Ebert and five mem-
trol of the media, which seemed increasingly to control bers of his administration, while
them and society at large. In a front-page photomontage the lower portion features mili-
tary leaders.
in Everyone His Own Soccerball, 1919 [fig. 11], banned the
day it went on sale, George Grosz lampooned members
of Germany’s oppressive postwar government, arranging
their portraits in a woman’s fan under a beauty pageant
competition called: “Who is the Most Beautiful?”
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DADA, INC. A Bourgeois Precision Brain Incites a World Movement, 1920 [fig. 12],
The dadaists were shameless self-promoters, but where the movement’s global reach is humorously suggested
in promoting themselves they were also parodying by the word overlaid atop a world map and a soccer ball.
the new phenomenon of modern advertising Variations of the word were also adopted as a pseudonym or
and marketing. The word “Dada” was vital to this alter ego: Johannes Baader called himself “Oberdada”; Max
effort. Chosen from a French-German dictionary, it was Ernst, “dadamax”; and Raoul Hausmann, “dadasopher.”
short, rhythmic, and while sounding almost absurdly And Francis Picabia used it to designate new categories of
childlike, also had meanings in several European lan- anti-art, labeling his work and work by others,“Dada
guages (including “hobby horse” in French and “yes, yes” Picture” and “Dada Drawing.”
in Romanian). Dada’s branding succeeded more than that of
Dadaists treated “Dada” like a brand name, many commercial products. Endlessly repeated, Dada
as if it were a commercial product with a logo. They often quickly penetrated the world’s vocabulary and con-
employed eye-catching typography to help their cause, sciousness, even if its product — intellectual anarchy —
emblazoning the Dada name across Dada journals, Dada his- was not always embraced.
tories, Dada manifestos, Dada letterhead, and posters for
Dada performances. The word “Dada” was included in many
Dada artworks, such as Raoul Hausmann’s photomontage
New York
▼
BERL I N
fig. 12
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DADA PAPER PUSHERS personal diary. Calling his creations “Merz,” from the
Dada introduced a simple but revolutionary idea that has German word Kommerz (commerce), Schwitters’ works are
influenced art ever since: that art might be assembled from an accumulation and sampling of elements that he found
the stuff of modern life itself. With collage (and the closely in modern life. In his delicate and colorful Mz 460 Two
related assemblage, which is like collage with objects), Underdrawers, 1921 [fig. 13], Schwitters layered fragments of
the dadaists could use the new staples of culture—such as colored paper, paper printed with words, and fabric. Some
advertisements, newspapers, art reproductions—to represent of the papers are torn by hand and appear ragged, while
the chaos and fragmentation of contemporary life. Collage others have straight edges. The words on the advertising or
also fundamentally challenged the idea that an artwork packaging papers are almost always broken up, frustrating
should be a pure product of craftsmanship or require special- a viewer’s attempt to create a story from the collaged ele-
ized technical training. Instead, collage is assembled, rather ments. Yet there is something undeniably optimistic about
than created, by manipulating already existing materials. Schwitters’ collages, even if they embody a fragmented world
Dada collage took many forms and had many overrun with trash. For Schwitters was literally picking up
meanings. The grid-based duo-collage by Taeuber and Arp, the pieces of his defeated, war-ravaged country and, from
discussed earlier, suggested machinelike precision and these fragments, assembling a new kind of art for the future.
impersonality. The collages of Kurt Schwitters, by contrast,
were obviously made by hand and functioned like a chaotic
(ragged edges)
▼
1953
fig. 13
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10
fig. 14
C OLO GNE
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Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York
fig. 16
DADA REVERSE-COLLAGES
PA R I S
ments, Ernst suggests that an irrational, unconscious
world may be lurking behind the rational, knowable world
that is the object of scientific study.
DADA MANUFACTURING dehumanizing endeavor of the modern age, and it was closely
Dadaists questioned almost every step of the art-making tied to the destructiveness of the war. Associated with repeti-
process, especially in terms of materials and technique. tion, utility, mass production, and consumerism, industrial
Dadaists found one model particularly attractive for manufacturing was the antithesis of traditional fine art — and
mocking the art-making tradition: industrial thus a perfect weapon for Dada.
manufacturing. Manufacturing was the quintessential Several dadaists turned to industrial techniques
to make impersonal works. Man Ray, for instance, used
airbrush — a precise form of spray painting employed for
commercial art — to create compositions he called “aero-
graphs.” Francis Picabia, meanwhile, ironically elevated
mechanical drawing — the dry and impersonal visual lan-
guage of industry — to the status of fine art. Picabia’s
absurd “machine portraits,” such as Child Carburetor, c. 1919
[fig. 16], suggest the uneasy relationship between people
and machines in the modern era. With parts that look decid-
edly male and female, they can also be seen as humorous
metaphors for human sexuality.
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N EW Y O RK
N EW Y O RK
fig. 17 fig. 18
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BELLE HALEINE the photograph, and adding his/her signature [fig. 21] —
Like so many Dada works, Belle Haleine, 1921, is the prod- a contribution that challenges traditional ideas of the artist
uct of a collaborative effort between friends. Duchamp’s as a maker, rather than conceiver, of a work of art.
belief that art should be about ideas led him to ques- Duchamp was a fierce, if subtle, champion of indi-
tion what art is and who decides. Belle Haleine similarly chal- vidualism. In Belle Haleine, he questions received
lenges art’s unacknowledged rules. Packaged as a luxury ideas not only about art, but also about identity and
consumer product (perfume), it calls attention to how art, language. By adopting a female alter ego, named Rrose
too, despite its reputation as a special cultural creation, can Sélavy, Duchamp humorously challenged a fundamental
be seen as a mass-produced luxury product like any other, tenet of human existence — that we all have fixed identities
regularly bought and sold by people with money. determined at birth. Duchamp was raising questions
Making Belle Haleine required craftsmanship, but not about how gender determines, or is made to determine,
the traditional fine art kind; instead, it required making one’s role in life. By adopting an artistic female persona,
a mechanical reproduction (Man Ray’s photograph) and Duchamp makes us question what is fixed, and why, and
decorating the label, mostly with commercial lettering suggests a way to see individuals apart from constricting
(also by Man Ray). And if Man Ray took the photograph labels such as gender, class, or race.
and made the label, then Duchamp’s only contribution to Duchamp found in language, especially puns and
the work was coming up with the idea for it, sitting for double meanings, a model for contesting whatever
BELLE HALEINE
fig. 21 14
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Everything is incoherent.
are incoherent, but into
TRISTAN TZARA
challenge, he carves out a space for individual action
where there often doesn’t seem to be any. Like many Dada
works, Belle Haleine packs a big art punch in a small,
untraditional package.
fig. 22
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DADA DOSSIERS
For extended biographies,
go to: www.nga.gov/exhibitions/
2006/dada/cities/index.htm
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NOTES CREDITS
Check out the Education and The exhibition is organized by the Cover
Exhibition menu options National Gallery of Art, Washington, Raoul Hausmann, Mechanical
on the Gallery’s Web site — and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Head (The Spirit of Our Age),
www.nga.gov —for information in collaboration with The Museum c. 1920, mixed media. Centre
on high school studio work- of Modern Art, New York. Pompidou, Musée national d’art
shops, films, and music related moderne, Paris. Purchase, 1974
The exhibition in Washington is
to the Dada exhibition.
made possible through the
Mechanical Head is an unsettling
generous support of the Anna-
assemblage of measurement-
Maria and Stephen Kellen
related found objects—including
Foundation and the Catherine B.
a tape measure, clock innards,
Reynolds Foundation.
and camera parts—attached to
Additional support for the exhibition a wigmaking dummy. It was
in Washington has been provided intended to personify the empty
by the Annenberg Foundation and spirit of the artist’s post–World
Thomas G. Klarner. War I era.