Homework #6

Dada

The Dada art movement originally sought out to be anti-art. It began with the carnage of World War I, and the shock and protest that surrounded the war. The Dada writers and artists saw the horrors that the war had brought, and saw a new side of religion and moral codes. These artists thought that if they could reject tradition, they could experience true freedom.

        The movement started off as a literary movement, after poet Hugo Ball. Yet as time progressed, Marcel Duchamp, a French painter, joined and soon Dada spiraled into an art movement. To Duchamp, Dada represented how art and life could be so randomly selected, and he brought this idea of true freedom into his works. To Dadaists, they did not want to create art, but instead mock it. Many felt that society had become too sensitive to art, and life.  There were however, many artistic works that were meaningful and influenced graphic design. Some Dada artists, even created the technique of manipulating photographic images to create something else. Artists like Raoul Hausmann and Hannah Hoch were most known for these works.

          Dada artist Kurt Schwitters, from Germany, was most well known for his nonpolitical offshoot of Dada that he named Merz. These images were collages from printed ephemera and other random materials. Though, he was rejected from the movement since these images were simply nailed together. Schwitters began to focus on typography. One of his most well known works, included typographic forms being depicted as characters. Kurt and many other Dadaists, wanted to use their artistic activities to draw the public’s eye to the political problems during the time. Many hoped their art would promote social change and raise the public's consciousness.

          John Heartfield, was another Berlin Dadaist, that sought to use his art as a propaganda weapon. His main targets were the Weimar Republic and the Nazi party. He would attack their organizations in books, magazines and even posters. Heartfield would work with photographs and manipulate the image in many of his works. Eventually he had to flee Germany, yet he still continued his propaganda from Prague. Heartfield even produced photomontages protesting the Vietnam War.

          Dada was a revolutionary art movement. It began during a time of protest against the destruction of war, and continued past World War I. The movement’s sense of anarchy and freedom brought a new breath to art and writing. Though Dada died off by the end of 1922, artists like Schwitters and Heartfield produced amazing works that still exemplified the movement. ­­­­

Hannah Hoch collage, 1919

John Heartfield collage, 1920

Marcel Duchamp 1917