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Dada is an absurdist early-20th century Modern Art movement beginning in Zürich, Switzerland. Defined by its illogical, absurdist, anti-establishment art, theatre, and writings, Dada is highly conceptual and visually inspired by preceding movements such as cubism, and expressionism. Futurisms penchant for manifesto and political subject matter can be seen in Dada as well, most notable the Berlin sect's response to WWI. Dada challenges everything.
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Marcel Duchamp (Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven)
Fountain
Porcelain urinal
New York Fountain is a landmark challenge to the authority of traditional expectations of art. Duchamp's work reflects Dada's use of humor, vulgarity, and an adversarial attitude. Rejected from the Society of Independent Artists in New York, this urinal was made in a porcelain factory, but as readymade art it is elevated from object to art due to the context it is put within. -
Hannah Höch
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic
collage of pasted papers
45” X 35”
Staatliche Museen, Berlin At first glance the large college with an assembly of text and image seems chaotic, but upon closer observation are Wiemar republic figures and Dada members. Eyes and faces morph as the fourth wall is broken with text cut outs reading “anti-dada” This work shows response to the political and violent chaos of WWI and the years following. -
Surrealist artists stray from depictions of earthly logical realities into dream-like realms. Utilizing the unconscious world of the imagination for inspiration, this movement was significantly influenced by the psychology and writings of Sigmund Freud. Surrealism is a continuation of the absurdism of Dada, with juxtaposed and transformed images. Post-trauma of WWI, surrealists turned to the mind as a potential root for social liberation using techniques such as automatic drawings and writings.
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George Grosz
Pillars of Society
1926
O/C
78.74” x 45.52”
Neue Nationalgalerie - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Grosz's painting is an explicitly political critique of the bourgeoise and the Weimar Republic via Dadaist satire. There is a morbid use of color as the deformed faces of political figures are drinking, swollen, with their empty heads full of excrement. The puppet like figures signify a deeply corrupt power. -
Rene Magritte
Treachery of Images
(Ceci n’est pas une pipe)
O/C
23.75 x 31.94 in
LACMA Magritte's Treachery presents a seemingly contradictory honesty to the viewer, that the subject of the work, a pipe, is not a pipe at all. In this Magritte addresses a typically unrecognized fourth wall in the perception of artworks. This is not a pipe, this is an oil painting of a pipe on canvas. This juxtaposition challenges the viewers assumption of their role in the perception of the image itself. -
Meret Oppenheim
Object or Luncheon in Fur,
fur-covered teacup, saucer spoon,
MoMA Oppenheim's object shows us a somewhat disturbing juxtaposition of expectations. The smooth and delicate porcelain typically associated with the tea cup, covered in an animalistic fur, evoking a sense of disgust as nature aggressively confronts the domestic realm. Oppenheim's work often presents this combination of worlds with inversions of symbolic objects. Freudian inspiration one fetish objects. -
Max Ernst
The Fireside Angel (The Triumph of Surrealism)
Oil on canvas
114 x 146cm
Private collection This disorienting work depicts a multicolored and textured amalgamated creature shambling through an empty desert plane under a bright blue sky. This is an especially emotionally evocative image, and Ernst’s intention was influenced by his anxieties as fascists defeated the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. This dream like image has an uncanny mix of textures like flesh and fabric.