Max Ernst Johannes Theodor Baargeld, Kurt Schwitters, George Grosz, Otto Dix, Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann John Heartfield, Man Ray Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Beatrice Wood and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.
Major and minor branches were created in Barcelona, Berlin, Cologne, New York, Paris, Latin America, Japan, Croatia and the Tyrol. These were the important centers and the artists who made up the DADA movement.
The Berlin group was much more political and used Dada to fight the government.
Hannah Höch, a gifted political collagist took over Dada to use in texts and invents the photo montage.
Raoul Hausmann – John Heartfield – Otto Dix – George Grosz
Max Ernst – Johannes Theodor Baargeld
Both Rejected the tradition of painting and experimented with assemblages of found objects and montage.
Ernst constructed a dreamlike world of juxtapositions that prefigured surrealist practice.
Man Ray wrote a letter to Tristan Tzara June 1921—” Dada cannot live in New York. All New York is Dada and will not tolerate a rival-will not notice Dada. He also wanted a new way of showing things. He wrapped up his mothers sewing machine. Even though it was wrapped you could still identify what it was or it was left to the imagination. He also abandoned the camera and only using light on photographic paper showed a new method for photos it was called Rayographs.
Everything begins with the first International Exhibition of Modern Art at the Armory Feb 1919
Francis Picabia shows his machines are human beings drawings
Marcel Duchamp shows his canvas Nude. Descending A staircase heralding the European avant- garde then in April 1917 Duchamp showed a ready made Object that became the 20th century’s most influential work – The Fountain an inverted urinal.
Beatrice Wood gave manifestations of Dada and defended Marcel Duchamp. She worked with found objects. Often called the Mama of Dada – she was an inspiration for the 101 year Rose DeWitt Bukater in the film Titanic.
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
Her bizarre costumes, and her radical performances with which she appeared on public streets established the field of performance art. Her early ready mades – on the way to getting married she discovered an iron ring on the street – a found object that she declared an artwork, entitled “Enduring Ornament” and here we must mention that latest research suggests that the idea behind the upturned urinal, signed R.Mutt did not come from Marcel Duchamp, but from her. Her visual poems, her tendency to play with gender roles truly made her a figurehead of the avant-garde. She took one of the most provocative positions of her time.She left America in 1923 and returned to Germany.
Was not accepted by the Dada group in Zurich group and went back to Hannover and launched his one man movement “MERZ”.
May 27th – 1920
Dada is dead. It ends in Paris with a fight between Breton and a poor poet Pierre de Massot who has his arm broken by Breton who hits him with a walking stick. That event ended Dada in Paris and at the same time the hour of Surrealism’s birth. New York Dada ended in 1921 when Duchamp and Man Ray left for Paris.
Surrealism 1924, Constructivism, Lettrism, Situationism, Fluxus, Pop and Op Art, Conceptual Art, Minimalism and most twentieth century art movements have traced their roots to Dada.
Once you think Dada, most of the artists you know and love, all derived that Dada vision and expanded on it till today.
The thought that anyone could be an artist and that anything could be art along with the desire to tear down the media propaganda of our consumer society and politics is as strong as ever.
And along side came . . .
- The Beat Generation
- Saint Germain des Pres
- The Viennese activists movement
- Punk sub-culture and you might as well throw in Tattoos!
- Performance art stronger than ever
- All critically subversive strategies that live on in current counter cultural practices.
- NEO DAA
1916 – till 1920 . . . till now