Dada

This international "anti-movement" of radical young artists claimed that virtually anything could be art.

c. 1913 - 1920

Beginner's guide

Dada was short-lived and difficult to define, but it continues to have a major impact on art today.

videos + essays

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Max Ernst,  <em>Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale</em>
Max Ernst, Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale

Nightingales, nightmares, Freud and WWI — Max Ernst and Dada

Marcel Duchamp and the Viewer
Marcel Duchamp and the Viewer

Exploring how Duchamp's art challenges viewers is essential to understanding his creativity and much of the art of the last century. 

Hannah Höch, <em>Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany</em> 
Hannah Höch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany 

What initially might seem like random images is actually Hannah Höch’s comment on Weimar Germany’s culture and politics.

Dada’s “Approximate Man”: A <em>Portrait of Tristan Tzara</em> by Marcel Janco
Dada’s “Approximate Man”: A Portrait of Tristan Tzara by Marcel Janco

This mask is a rare document of the Dada movement and an embodiment of the so-called “approximate man.”

Dada Performance
Dada Performance

“Every word that is spoken and sung here says at least one thing: that this humiliating age has not succeeded in winning our respect.”

Dada Readymades
Dada Readymades

The purpose of the readymade is fundamentally conceptual. Any objection that the object is not beautiful, or did not require any skill to make, misses the point.

Dada Politics
Dada Politics

The Dadaists were effective in creating devastating social and political criticism in postwar Germany.

Dada Collage
Dada Collage

Collage was in many ways a perfect medium for Dada iconoclasm and social protest.

Dada Pataphysics
Dada Pataphysics

Science and technology made dysfunctional or absurd.

Dada Manifesto
Dada Manifesto

Dada is nonsense, but very carefully produced nonsense.

Raoul Hausmann, <em>Spirit of the Age: Mechanical Head</em>
Raoul Hausmann, Spirit of the Age: Mechanical Head

A century before democracy was tested by social media gone rogue, Hausmann understood the dark side of technology.

Francis Picabia, <em>Ideal</em>
Francis Picabia, Ideal

Though Picabia borrows from the popular machine aesthetic, nothing about his apparatus is functional.

Selected Contributors