DADAISM

This blog is for academic purposes in the partial fulfilment of ACHG 200 Assignment 1 at the Design Department, Pearson Institute of Higher Education.

History

Dada means 'hobbyhorse' or the exclamation "Yes-Yes" (Artyfactory, 2017).
It all started in February 1916 at a city's Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich where a group of artists that were opposing the cultural values that led to the World War 1 (David K., 2015).
There were a number of artists associated with this movement and there were:-
-Hugo Ball
-Tristan Tzara
-Marcel Janco
-Richard Huelsenbeck
-Jean (Hans) Arp
-Raoul Hausmann
-Hannah Höch
-John Heartfield
-Kurt Schwitters
-Johannes Baargeld
-Johannes Baader
-Max Ernst
-George Grosz
-Hans Richter
-Francis Picabia
-Man Ray
-Marcel Duchamp.

Dada challenged the political, social and cultural values of that time, the elements of music, art, dance among others were embraced. It created a climate in which art values were unrestricted hence anti-art.Dadaists had automatism, chance, photomontage and assemblage as their techniques. It then later influenced the development of Surrealism, Action Painting, Pop Art, Installations, Happenings and Conceptual Art (Artyfactory, 2017).

Historical painting

MAX ERNST (1891-1976)
'The Chinese Nightingale' 1920 (photomontage)

The above image is a photomontage called the 'The Chinese Nightinggale' and was done by Max Ernst in 1920. Ernst created a visual poetry from unconscious associations of juxtaposed images (Artyfactory, 2017). So basically his style was more of a collage whereby he combined human limbs  of a woman, with a fan and a bomb below them, a terrified eye   hence he communicating something. So his main intention with this image was defusing  the natural fear of bombs as seen in above.

Modern painting

Victoria Rick, 2014.

The above image is by Victoria Rick and is a photomontage.You can see that it was cut out of different pieces to come up with a story for example, the people in the bottom left side of the image are sitting on a street bench, then there is a library being left side, the center shows ancient buildings likely to be in London and a man walking. According to me, this image what happens in London as a city.

Conclusion

In seeing what this movement did, it has helped me as a designer to be able to communicate my artwork in a strong and very effective  way for example use of a collage to come up with what I feel and can be seen and understood by the viewers.

Sources

David Koenig, 2015. The Dada Movement. Online. Available

https://www.dadart.com/dadaism/dada/020-history-dada-movement.html

Accessed on 16/04/2017

Artyfactory, 2017. The Dadaism. Online. Available

http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm
Accessed on 16/04/2017

Victoria Rick, 2014. Playing with dimensions. Online. Available

https://victoriarick.wordpress.com/category/photomontage/
Accessed on 16/04/2017