Dada and Surrealism

Dada:

Dada is the German word indicating naivety. It is French for ‘hobby-hors’ and Romanian for ‘yes, yes’. The name was chosen by a group of emigrant friends of German Hugo Ball in Zurich in 1916. They gathered at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, where Dadaist performances were held. Ball wrote the Dada manifesto in that same year. 

This was during World War 1. Dadaists were strongly anti-war and against the values that they believed led to the war. It was anti-establishment and believed in; Anarchy, The primitive and The irrational. The group was out to shock in various fields of the arts. It strove to eradicate the old in favor of the new. It was an anti-art movement. One of the main principles behind Dadaism is meaninglessness. Dadaism challenged the norms and values of traditional art like for example using; everyday objects, ready-mades and objets trouvees. 

Collage with Squares Arranged according to the Laws of Chance – Jean (Hans) Arp – 1916-17

After the war, Dadaism spread from Zurich to Cologne, Berlin, Hannover and later New York and Paris. Other artists included Marcel Duchamp which teamed up with Man Ray, Rrose Selavy, Francis Picabia, Morton Schamber and Hannah Hoch.

Hannah Hoch – Cut with the Kitchen Knife – 1889-1978

Around 1921, Dadaism established itself firmly in Paris in the circle of the and critic Andre Breton. The Dada group lasted until 1922 when it was dissolved. Many artists of the group such as Man Ray became Surrealists. Its characteristics of freedom, disrespect and experimentation influenced subsequent movements.

Surrealism:

It was Andre Breton who launched Surrealism in 1924 through its first manifesto. Surrealism emerged out of the chaos and spontaneity and anarchy of Dadaism. Breton described Surrealism as “Thought expressed in the absence of any control exerted by reason, and outside all moral and aesthetic considerations”, “Nothing but the marvelous is beautiful.” 

Surrealism was indebted to the poetry of Lautreamont. According to him, things marvelous were "As beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and umbrella." It was also indebted to the techniques of Dada and the painting of Giorgio De Chirico, also to Sigmund Freud especially.

Giorgio De Chirico – The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street - 1914

Giorgio De Chirico – The Song of Love - 1914

Surrealists wanted to change the way that people think. They broke boundaries down;
- Male and Female, man and animal.
- The Conscious and unconscious.

- The Inner and outer words.
- Fantasy and reality.

Salvador Dali – Persistence of Memory – 1931

This seems to be melting; a clock is normally solid but it has also been represented as something melting away. There is duality between solid and melt, it related to the aspects of death. They wanted to paint images contained in the unconscious and dreams. Surrealism wanted to free people from the rational world that had been responsible for war and hardship in the past.

Salvador Dali – Lobster Telephone – 1936

They used chance and oddly associated things. 

Photography became a good medium for Surrealism. Why?

- Darkroom manipulation
- Close ups
- Juxtapositions (to place something on top of the other)

References:

Dada:

- Art History (About.com), 2014, What is Dada?, [ONLINE] Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm [Accessed at 14 January 2014]

- MoMa, 2014, World War 1 and Dada [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/dada [Accessed at 14 January 2014]

Surrealism:

- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2013, 'Photography and Surrealism' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phsr/hd_phsr.htm [Accessed at: 14 January]

- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2013, 'Surrealism' [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm [Accessed at: 14 January 2014]

-  A+E Television Networks, LLC, 1996-2013, Giorgio De Chirico Biography [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/giorgio-de-chirico-9246949 [Accessed at 15 January 2014]