Dada

'Dada is what you can make out of yourself ' Hausmann 1968

Dada

The Dada movement was born in Europe at the time when the horror of World War 1 was being played out in what amounted to citizens front yards. It was created as a movement of protest in Zurich that began in 1916. This movement was influenced by ideas and innovations from several early avant-gardes, Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism and Expressionism its output was wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting and collage. Places like Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New York and Cologne were influenced by this movement. The Dada movement was arisen by the avant-garde painters, poets and filmmakers. The interest of this movement was to rebel against what they saw as cultural snobbery, bourgeois convention and political support for the war. For three years Dada’s events, including spontaneous readings, performances and exhibitions were taking place at Hugo Ball’s cabaret Voltaire. Tristen Tzara has invented the word Dada, in his Dada manifesto of 1918, even Richard Huelsenbeck said that he found that name by plunging a knife at random into a dictionary. The word ‘Dada’ also echoes the first word of a child that looks childish that appealed to the group. Typography, photomontage, negative white space, layout, letter spacing and line spacing has played a significant role in the development of communication design. The most prominent visual artist was Marcel Duchamp that joined the Dada movement and Cubism had influenced his analysis of subjects as geometric planes, while futurism inspired him to convey time and motion.

John heartfield

John Heartfield worked closely with the collegues George Grosz, Raoul Haismann and Hannah Hoch. Heartfield pioneered the method of photomontage, photographing collages assembled from magazines, newspapers and other media cuttings and printing the final works in their own political Dada publications. Heartfield used art as a weapon against the government’s authority.

Hannah Hoch

Hannah Hoch was known for her political collage and photomontage works. Hoch used images and text from the mass media to criticise the Weimar German Government. Hannah Hoch made the collage work from the inspiration of the work of Pablo Picasso. Hoch focused her critist for works such as Das schone Madchen (The beautiful girl) 1920.

Kurt Schwitters

Schwitters was best known for his collage and assemblage works in which he transformed appropriated imagery and text from print media into dynamic and layered compositions. In 1918 he began making assemblages from materials found discarded on the streets of his city. 

Posters of today inspired by Dada:

References:

Dada Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story. 2014. Dada Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.theartstory.org/movement-dada.htm. [Accessed 02 November 2014].

John Heartfield Biography by Grandson, John J Heartfield. 2014. John Heartfield Biography by Grandson, John J Heartfield. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.johnheartfield.com/John-Heartfield-Exhibition/helmut-herzfeld-john-heartfield/biography-german-artist-heartfield. [Accessed 02 November 2014].

Hannah Höch | 9 Artworks, Artist Biography | Artsy. 2014. Hannah Höch | 9 Artworks, Artist Biography | Artsy. [ONLINE] Available at:https://artsy.net/artist/hannah-hoch. [Accessed 02 November 2014].

Kurt Schwitters Biography - Infos - Art Market. 2014. Kurt Schwitters Biography - Infos - Art Market. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.schwitters-kurt.com/. [Accessed 02 November 2014].