artnet.com: Resource Library: Dada

Services | The Grove Dictionary of Art


	Dada. Artistic and literary movement launched in Zurich in 1916 but shared by independent groups in New York, Berlin, Paris and elsewhere. The Dadaists channelled their revulsion at World War I into an indictment of the nationalist and materialist values that had brought it about. They were united not by a common style but by a rejection of conventions in art and thought, seeking through their unorthodox techniques, performances and provocations to shock society into self-awareness. The name Dada itself was typical of the movement’s anti-rationalism. Various members of the Zurich group are credited with the invention of the name; according to one account it was selected by the insertion of a knife into a dictionary, and was retained for its multilingual, childish and nonsensical connotations. The Zurich group was formed around the poets HUGO BALL, Emmy Hennings, TRISTAN TZARA and RICHARD HUELSENBECK, and the painters HANS ARP, MARCEL JANCO and HANS RICHTER. The term was subsequently adopted in New York by the group that had formed around MARCEL DUCHAMP, FRANCIS PICABIA, Marius de Zayas (1880–1961) and MAN RAY. The largest of several German groups was formed in Berlin by Huelsenbeck with JOHN HEARTFIELD, RAOUL HAUSMANN, HANNAH HÖCH and GEORGE GROSZ. As well as important centres elsewhere (Barcelona, Cologne and Hannover), a prominent post-war Parisian group was promoted by Tzara, Picabia and ANDRÉ BRETON. This disintegrated acrimoniously in 1922–3, although further Dada activities continued among those unwilling to join Surrealism in 1924.
	There are more than 45,000 articles in The Grove Dictionary of Art. To access the rest of this article, including the bibliography, subscribe to www.groveart.com. To find out more about this subject, click on a related article below and subscribe to www.groveart.com
	Dada Abstract art, §1: Origins and early experiments, to c 1913 Abstract art, §2: Pioneers, 1912–20 Apollinaire, Guillaume Fourth dimension Junk art Man Ray Mesens, E. L. T. Mobile Ready-made Reproduction of works of art, §2(iv): 20th century Richter, Hans Tzara, Tristan art forms Multimedia assemblages Assemblage Schwitters, Kurt collages Collage Ernst, Max, §1(ii): Life and work, 1914–24 Hausmann, Raoul collections Janis, Sidney Neumann, Morton G. films Experimental film objets trouvés Objet trouvé painting Picabia, Francis, §1: Early work, to 1913 Picabia, Francis, §2: From World War I to 1924: New York and Barcelona paintings France, §III, 5(iv): Painting & graphic arts, c 1814–c 1914: Realism and modern life France, §III, 6(ii): Painting & graphic arts, after c 1914: Dada, Surrealism and abstraction Germany, §III, 5(i): Painting and graphic arts, c 1900–c 1939 Grosz, George photomontages Photomontage sculpture Soft art commentaries Breton, André Hugnet, Georges exhibitions Société Anonyme periodicals Periodical, §II, 2(ii)(e): Cubism, Vorticism, Dada and De Stijl regional traditions Arp, Hans, §2: Dada period, 1916–20 Ball, Hugo Conceptual art, §1: Precedents Doesburg, Theo van Pound, Ezra Schlichter, Rudolf Australia Brown, Mike Brazil Brazil, §V, 2(iii): Painting, graphic arts and sculpture, 1931–60 France Crotti, Jean Delaunay (ii): (1) Robert Delaunay, §3: Representational paintings, 1914–29 Paris, §III, 7: Art life and organization, 1915–68 Performance art, §1(iii): Origins: Dada Picabia, Francis Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges Surrealism Germany Baargeld, Johannes Theodor Berlin, §II, 4: Art life and organization, c 1918–1944 Citroen, Paul Heartfield, John Huelsenbeck, Richard Modernism Performance art, §1: Origins of performance art Räderscheidt, Anton Switzerland Arp, Hans Bailly, Alice Eggeling, Viking Prampolini, Enrico Primitivism, §4: Spiritual content Rees, Otto van Schad, Christian Switzerland, §I: Introduction Tscharner, Johann von United States of America Arensberg Duchamp, Marcel, §1(iii): 1915–23 Stieglitz, Alfred, §1(iii): Photo-Secession, 1902–17

Reproduced by kind permission of Macmillan Publishers Limited, publishers of The Grove Dictionary of Art.
� Copyright 2000 Macmillan Publishers Limited.

artnet.com | artnet.de | artnet.fr

search artists: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z