Dadaism is an artistic and literary movement that emerged during World War I as a form of protest at the dominant aesthetic canons. The term has its origins in the French Dadasme.
Art historians name Tristan Tzara as the first driver of this movement that mocked artistic manifestations and intended to destroy the conventions of the established order.
However, the cultural movement as such is believed, by many other historians and artists, that it was created proper by the German writer Hugo Ball. The year 1916 and the Cabaret Voltaire in Switzerland are thus considered the time and place where the birth of the one took place, which would revolutionize the art world in general.
Dadaism transcended the artistic avant-garde and criticized the values in force during World War I and beyond.
This revolutionary pretension makes Dadaism often known as anti-art. Its members appealed, for example, to unusual materials for the making of artistic works.
Absolute freedom, the immediate, the contradiction and the spontaneity of Dadaism sought to overthrow the laws of logic, motionless thought, abstract concepts, the universal and the eternity of principles. The Dadaists proposed chaos over order and called for breaking the boundaries between art and life.
Many were the authors who were part of Dadaism and who left their deep imprint on it and art in general. This would be the case of Marcel Duchamp, a French artist who is known for such unique works as “The Fountain” (a urinal), or the American Man Ray, who has among his most emblematic works “The architecture of your bones”.
The German painter Kurt Schwitters is another of the relevant members of Dadaism, a current within which he stood out for carrying out collages where the main material he used and that became the protagonist was the paper used. However, we could also highlight Hans Richter or Richard H.lsenbeck.
Although the origins of the movement’s name are unclear, it is believed that Tzara chose such a nomination for the first babbles made by a child (“given”). The movement sought to create a new art form from scratch, just as a child begins his way through life.
However, for other authors, and based on what several illustrious figures of the aforementioned Dadaism commented as would be the case of the Franco-German poet Jean Arp, the name of this cultural movement was obtained by Tristan Tzara from a dictionary. It is said that, looking for the name that defined that, he opened a dictionary and sought the most absurd word. In this case, he found it and employed it. We are referring to the French word Dada which can be translated as a wooden horse.
The influence of Dadaism makes it still debated about what art is and what creations should be considered artistic. The absence of fixed rules and conventions enacted by Dadaists still apply to many artists.