Dada

DADA

Dada is a movement that peaked between 1916 - 1922 and mainly involved visual arts, literature, poetry and graphic designs. Beginning in Germany in 1916, it was a collaberation between artists of several nations, including Germany, France and Switzerland. It was seen as an anti war movement and the early Dada works produced were of protest art. The movement chose the name “Dada” by inserting a slip of paper into a French dictionary and choosing the word it landed on, which happens to mean a hobbyhorse or child's toy.

The image above is called Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch by Hannah Hoch. in Germany, 1919.

According to its proponents, Dada was not art, it was "anti-art." For everything that art stood for, Dada was to represent the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend. Through their rejection of traditional culture and aesthetics, the Dadaists hoped to destroy traditional culture and aesthetics.