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A devastating war that roped in many countries, causing untold destruction and death.
:All started with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.
:This war, in the context of art, also drastically changed the artists who became involved in it. Heavily altering their style to reflect their change in mental state.
:Dadaism, especially in Berlin and Paris, heavily criticized this war and its leaders and businessmen involved as well. -
An art movement that originated in Zurich, Switzerland, in the Cafe Voltaire.
:Anti-Art, Anti-Nationalism, this art movement was anti- everything to some degree.
:They used photomontage, live performances, readymades and other media forms in strange, irrational, and humorous ways to comment on everything in society.
:It spread to New York with Marcel Duchamp, and Berlin as well, where it took on a more political bend.
:Many Dadaist art pieces were labeled as Degenerate Art by Hitler. -
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917, Urinal, San Francisco MoMA.
:called into question what defines art as art.
: Brought the answer to be that it is the artist who defines the art piece.
:one of the first readymades, art pieces made of common day objects, some of which might be altered but was not necessary. -
Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919, readymade, 7.8x4.9 inches, Original was lost, but there are many reproductions in an assortment of collections.
: Critiqued Academic Art
:Critiqued Expectations of beauty
:Specifically, criticized our reverence for older art forms. -
Hannah Hoch, Cut With a Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany, 1919, photomontage,44.9x35.4inches, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
:Hoch was considered a proto-feminist, as many of her pieces were commentary on the condition of women and her desire for all to have voting rights.
: As she includes a small map in the bottom right corner that shows the countries of Europe where women are able to vote.
:Critiques the government with figures in odd poses. -
This art movement, potentially started by Andre Breton, focused on the subconscious, a concept developed by Sigmund Freud, and its messages.
:Along with dreams, they also featured many strange juxtapositions of familiar images.
:Also had surrealist films! One especially is very notorious.
:Surrealism focused on the importance of dreams, their images, and the unconscious as vehicles to revelations on human desire emotion.
Ironically Sigmund Freud hated Surrealism, despite being an inspiration. -
Salvador Dali, Great Masturbator,1929, oil on canvas, 43.3x59 inches, Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofia, Spain.
:Dali had an extensive list of phobias: grasshoppers, ants, and vaginas, which have representations for deeper themes in his works.
:Grasshoppers were representative of his sexual anxiety, ants were associated with death and decay.
:Vaginas were represented in many ways in his works, but this phobia comes from his childhood seeing a book of diseased genitals of his father's. -
Salvador Dali, Lobster Telephone, 1936; steel, plaster, rubber, resin and paper, 7x13x7 inches, Tate Museum, London.
: Made for collector Edward James.
:Apparently food also had sexual connotations in Dali's work? Though in some way that can be inferred as the lobster's genitals are aligned with the mouthpiece of the telephone. -
Rene Magritte, Empire of Light, 1953, oil on canvas, 76.9x51.6 inches, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy.
:Dark night streetscape, but bright daylight sky! Odd juxtapositions are a key characteristic of surrealist paintings
:It provides an uncanny feeling, somewhat anxiety inducing as the intensity of the dark contrasts to the light in the sky. -
Harris, Dr. Beth, and Dr. Steven Zucker. “Smarthistory – Marcel Duchamp, Fountain.” Smarthistory, 9 Dec. 2015, smarthistory.org/marcel-duchamp-fountain/.
Barber, Dr. Karen. “Smarthistory – Hannah Höch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany.” Smarthistory, 18 Aug. 2020, smarthistory.org/hannah-hoch-cut-kitchen-knife-dada-weimar-beer-belly-germany/. -
“L.H.O.O.Q.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Oct. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.H.O.O.Q.
Enger, Reed. “The Great Masturbator.” Obelisk Art History, 20 Sept. 2017, www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/salvador-dali/the-great-masturbator/.
Riggs, Terry. “‘Lobster Telephone’, Salvador Dalí, 1938.” Tate, Mar. 1998, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dali-lobster-telephone-t03257. -
Flint, Lucy. “René Magritte: Empire of Light.” The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/2594. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.