Dada.
Artistic and literary movement launched in Zurich in 1916
but shared by independent groups in New York, Berlin,
Paris and elsewhere. The Dadaists channeled 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.
Torture-Morte (Still Death) , 1959 Painted plaster foot and flies on paper, in a wood and glass box 29.5 x 13.4 x 10.3 cm Dation, 1993 gallery 22 : Duchamp, Man Ray
Marcel Duchamp Allégorie de genre (George Washington) (Genre Allegory [George Washington]), 1943 Assemblage of colored gauze, absorbent cotton, and cut gouache paper on wood 54.8 x 42.7 x 7 cm
Man Ray, The Death of Marcel Proust
George Grosz, Three Human Beings
![Hans Arp, The Elements: Leaf Transformed into a Torso [Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan Museum of Art]](arp.jpg){kind=link}
