Dadaism
Started in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland, Dadaism is a movement in art, literature, and values that rejects the accepted norms of society. It attempts to emphasize the folly of conventional beliefs and perspectives in order to achieve a more realistic view of the world. This perceived world is largely chance and chaos reigns supreme. It began when Hugo Ball began hosting gatherings of people at his Cabaret Voltaire to discuss the art of Dada. The Dada movement was short-lived, declining in popularity by the mid-Twenties and making only one feeble comeback in the Fifties, when the movement’s particular brand of sorrow and confusion proved less than able to overcome the optimism following the close of World War II.
The horrors and injustices of war led many to believe that everything the human race had worked for up to that point, inventions, discoveries, and even arts, were all a waste of time. The idea behind Dadaism is to be the exact opposite of art. Often offensive, dada uses shock value to force the subject to reassess his views on the matter at hand. The cynical, “in-your-face” style popularized by the movement relied on nonsense, confusion, shock, and nihilism. This self-titled “anti-art” was more of an expression of dissatisfaction than an actual art movement. It allowed young, disgruntled artists to vent their frustrations and experiment, but most soon moved on to other forms.
- Started in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland
- Meeting held at Ball’s Cabaret Voltaire
- Soon spread to Germany, Paris, London, and then everywhere
- Opposite of art in every aspect
- Often random to the point of meaninglessness
- Commonly aesthetically and intellectually offensive
- Used more to display flaws in current expression that to promote a particular expression
- Interpretation of the art is based solely on the subject
- Perhaps due to extreme nature, burned out quickly, leading directly to Surrealism
- Thought to be the roots of Post-modernism