Word: dadaism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Dadaism was originally a movement formed in Europe to protest the horrors of World War I, but it spread to America during the teens and the twenties where it outraged its contemporaries, much as The Sex Pistols did. A sculpture entitled "fountain," no more than a toilet seat hung by a nail, drew special condemnation for its vulgarity. Another work--a print of the "Mona Lisa" with a moustache drawn over the famous smile and the phrase "L. H. O. O. Q." under it--was roundly criticized for its irreverence. The phrase, roughly translated, means...
...Dada artists had definite opinions concerning the way in which their works were to be exhibited. Dadaism sought to strip away the pretentious trappings surrounding art, and as such, the Dadaists objected to the institution of the museum. But at the same time, exhibitions provided the exposure necessary to reach the public. The solution was to display the works in a manner that would be as shocking as the ideas themselves. The following is a description of "Early Dada Spring," an exhibit held in the 1920s...
...commonly exhibit works from past periods without making historical connections, the situation here is different. The status of an institution of contemporary art that chooses to exhibit works that are now 60 years old is somewhat questionable; some reference to recent work would have proved that the spirit of Dadaism guides and inspires many contemporary artists...
Indeed, the wide-ranging ideas and intentions embodied in Dadaism have been adopted and reworked in different ways by artists in each subsequent decade. The social and political commentary of George Grosz's "End of the Day" (a sketch of factory workers making the dismal trek home) and satiric "Bourgeois Society" resurfaced in the Social Realism of Ben Shahn and other American artists working in the 1930s. Several years ago a scandal ensued when the Guggenheim Museum cancelled a show of photographs of tenement housing on the grounds that the art was too "political...
Even the titles of the publications bear an affinity to Dadaism. The 1910s and '20s saw the creation of Dead Serious, Dada and Cloudpump; in the 1970s and '80s we have Impulse, Slash, Damage and Fetish. The element of satiric humor remains: Dada's contents included, "Painting, Sculpture, Drawings...and Vulgar Dillentantism"; Fetish proclaims itself "The Magazine of the Material World...