Dadaism Guide: Understanding the Elements of Dada Art

Dada was an artistic and literary movement in Europe and the United States that began in the early twentieth century in the midst of the cultural and social upheaval following World War I. Dadaism mocked and antagonized the conventions of art itself, emphasizing the illogical, irrational, and the absurd. Dadaist artists often utilized [collage](https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-a-collage), montage, and assemblage of disparate elements to create their art. These artists, who often had left-wing political views, created work that called every aspect of society and culture into question. Beginning with a group of artists working in Zurich, Switzerland, Dadaism quickly became an international movement that spread throughout Europe and the US, with many artists working in a Dadaist mode in Paris, Berlin, and New York City. The art, poetry, and performances created by Dadaist artists had a lasting impact on avant-garde art in Europe. The new ways of thinking and creating promoted by Dadaism would eventually become the basis for [Surrealism](https://www.masterclass.com/articles/surrealism-guide) and would influence countless other conceptual art movements like [Fluxus](https://www.masterclass.com/articles/fluxus-art-explained) and [Pop Art](https://www.masterclass.com/articles/pop-art-guide). Here is a brief overview of the origins of Dadaism. - __Early influences__: Dadaism drew upon several trends and artistic movements that occurred in Europe including Cubism and Expressionism. One of the first artists to be associated with the Dada movement was the French sculptor Marcel Duchamp. In the early 1910s, he coined the term “anti-art” to describe his [readymades](https://www.masterclass.com/articles/readymade-art-guide). These were prefabricated, mass-produced objects presented in a gallery as art in order to question the elitist nature of art itself. - __World War I displacement__: Over the course of World War I, many ex-pat artists flocked to neutral cities like Zurich, Switzerland to find a sense of creative community. As the war was raging throughout Europe, their art and writing became more dissident, experimental, radical, and irreverent. In 1916, poet Hugo Ball opened the Cabaret Voltaire, which became a haven for artists to stage spoken-word poetry, performance art, and other provocative avant-garde shows. - __Coining the term “Dada”__: There is some dispute over the definitive origin of the term Dada, but many art historians trace it back one night at the Cabaret Voltaire. The artist Richard Huelsenbeck and the writer Hugo Ball turned to a random page in a French-German dictionary and founded the word ‘dada,’ meaning ‘yes-yes’ in Romanian and ‘rocking horse’ or ‘hobby horse’ in French. They liked that it sounded like a nonsense word, and coined it to describe the kind of absurdist art that they and their contemporaries—like Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp, and Marcel Janco—were creating at the time. Dadaism eschewed the classical rules of art and defied conventions, but there are a series of recognizable characteristics of Dada art. 1. __Made from found objects__: Dada artists often incorporated found objects or images from mass media into their art through collage and readymades. The artist Marcel Duchamp famously created Dadaist readymade sculptures by manipulating found, prefabricated objects in a simple way, then presenting them in a gallery as art. Artist Hannah Hoch is famous for her use of collage. She pioneered photomontage, in which elements of different photos are pasted together to create a new image. 2. __Nonsensical__: Dadaist art is often characterized by irrationality, humor, and silliness. Marcel Duchamp famously painted a mustache on a postcard of Leonardo da Vinci’s *Mona Lisa* as a means of showing his irreverence for established artistic traditions as well as expressing his own sense of humor. 3. __Spontaneous__: Dadaist art was often spontaneous in nature, playing with the elements of chance and encouraging spur-of-the-moment creativity. At Dada shows, poems would be created by cutting words out of a single sheet of newspaper, scattering them on the ground, and then randomly organizing them onto a page. Here are five famous artists who were prominent in the Dada movement. 1. __Marcel Duchamp__: French artist Marcel Duchamp began his career in Paris in the 1910s, and fled to America following World War I. Duchamp was most famous for creating the first readymade sculptures including the 1913 sculpture Bicycle Wheel—which was a *bicycle wheel* mounted upside down on a three-legged stool—and the 1917 sculpture *Fountain*—which was a urinal turned upside-down and mounted on a pedestal. 2. __Hannah Hoch__: Hannah Hoch was a German photographer and artist known for her collages and photomontages. Her 1919 collage *Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic* is a series of disparate images cut from mass media to create a piece of art critiquing the Weimar German Government. 3. __Francis Picabia__: Picabia was a French printmaker and painter who created conceptual works that were often spontaneous. In his Dadaist self-portrait *Tableau Rastrada*, he collaged elements from found media to create an image depicting himself as a social-climbing playboy. 4. __Hugo Ball__: Poet and author Hugo Ball is often credited as one of the founding members of the Dada movement. Ball opened the Café Voltaire—a Dadaist haven—and allegedly gave the movement its name. 5. __Man Ray__: Man Ray was a Surrealist and Dadaist photographer who was famous for manipulating his photographs to create strange and surreal compositions. He lived and worked in Paris in the 1920s, and his work was exhibited in the first Surrealist exhibition. One of his most famous photos is *Ingres’s Violin*, which shows a seated nude woman pictured from behind who has the F-holes of violin superimposed on her back. Grab the [MasterClass Annual Membership](https://www.masterclass.com) and plumb the depths of your creativity with the help of modern artist Jeff Koons, abstract artist Futura, and stage designer Es Devlin. Our exclusive video lessons will teach you to do things like utilize color and scale, explore the beauty in everyday objects, and so much more. From Germany to the United States, artists of the Dada movement created conceptual art that emphasized the absurd and rejected the conventional.