The Anti-War Art Movement

Right: Hannah Hoch - Cut with the Kitchen Knife Through the First Epoch of the Weimar Beer-Belly Culture, 1919.

The piece on the right by Hannah Hoch epitomizes the Dada attitude towards war: That it is chaos. That the world has gone mad. That war itself is craziness incarnate destroying humanity.

Dada was many things, but it was essentially an anti-war movement in Europe and New York from 1915 to 1923. It was an artistic revolt and protest against traditional beliefs of a pro-war society, and also fought against sexism/racism to a lesser degree. The word "dada" was picked at random out of a dictionary, and is actually the French word for "hobbyhorse".

The most widely accepted account of the movement's naming concerns a meeting held in 1916 at Hugo Ball's Cabaret (Café) Voltaire in Zürich, during which a paper knife inserted into a French-German dictionary pointed to the word "dada".

The European movement was started in 1915 in Zurich by sculptor Hans Arp, film-maker Hans Richter, and poet Tristan Tzara.

By the end of World War I, Dada was very popular in the German cities Berlin, Cologne and Hanover, expressing the view of many Germans at the time that the war was folly. The artists included: Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, Max Ernst, Kurt Schwitters, Otto Dix, and George Grosz (Dix and Grosz later became part of the Neue Sachlichkeit movement). The German artists released the issued Dada publications: Club Dada, Der Dada, Jedermann sein eigner Fussball ("Everyman His Own Football"), and Dada Almanach.

The New York art movement arose almost independently. The movement was centered at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, "291," and at the studio of the Walter Arensbergs. Its leaders were: Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Francis Picabia. The New York counterpart tended to be more whimsical and less about the violence that was happening overseas.

Picabia founded a Dada periodical called "391" in Barcelona and introduced the Dada movement to Paris in 1919. Most notable among the French Dada pamphlets and reviews was 'Littérature' (published 1919-24), which contained writings by André Breton, Louis Aragon, Philippe Soupault, and Paul Éluard. The Paris Dada movement later evolved into Surrealism by 1924.

For a listing of major artists, artworks and dates of the Dada and Surrealist Periods, click here.

Born 3 October 1897 in Paris. Poet and Writer. Active participant in the DaDa movement, and later became a surrealist.

Born 16 September 1887 in Straßburg (or Strasbourg), died 1966. Sculptor, painter and poet. Visited Paris in 1904 and was deeply impressed by the modern paintings. Went to Weimar and attended courses at the academy under Professor Ludwig von Hoffmann from 1905 to 1907. Spent some time at the Julian Academy of Paris in 1908. After that, he went to Weggis, Switzerland, where he worked for some years in solitude. Met the painters W. Gimmi, W. Helbig and Oskar Lüthy with whom he founded the "Moderner Bund" ("Modern League") in 1911. Was one of the organizers of the first exhibition of "Der moderne Bund" in Lucerne, showing works by Amiet, Arp, Friesz, Gauguin, Gimmi, Helbig, Hodler, Lüthy, Matisse, and Picasso. Visited Kandinsky in Munich in 1911, who requested his (Arp's) collaboration on the book "Der blaue Reiter" ("The Blue Rider"). Took part in the second "Blauer Reiter" exhibition in Munich in 1912, and at the second "Moderner Bund" exhibition in Zurich in 1913. Contributed drawings to the Berlin periodical "Der Sturm" ("The Storm"). Took part in the "First German Autumn Saloon" at "Der Sturm" gallery in Berlin in 1913. Met Apollinaire, Arthur Cravan, Max Jacob, Picasso, and Modigliani in Paris, in 1914, the latter drawing his portrait.

After the declaration of war, he returned to Switzerland. Exhibited his first abstract works (rectangular forms), collages, and tapestries, together with worrks by Otto and Mme. van Rees, at the Tanner Gallery, Zürich, in November 1915. During this exhibition he met Sophie Taeuber, whom he later married.

Co-founder of the Zürich DaDa movement in 1916. Illustrated Tristan Tzara's "25 Poems" and Huelsenbeck's "Fantastic Prayers," the latter with woodcuts which he called "Studies in Symmetry." In his reminiscenes, "Dadaland," Arp writes, "I met Tzara and Serner at the 'Odeon' and the 'Café Terasse' in Zürich, where we were writing a cycle of poems called 'Hyperbole of the Crocodile-Hairdresser and the Walking-Stick.' This kind of poem was later called 'Automatic Poetry.'" In 1917 he created his first abstract wooden reliefs. Exhibited at the first Zürich DaDa exhibition.

In the Zürich DaDa-publications "Cabaret Voltaire," "Dada" (issues 1-3), and "391" (issue #8), he published illustrations; in "Dada" (issue 4/5) and "Der Zeltweg" he published illustrations and poems.

In 1919 he travelled to Cologne (Köln), and founded the Cologne DaDa group with Max Ernst and Johannes Baargeld. Contributed to the publication "Schammade," and created the "Fatagaga" pictures with Ernst. Short stay in Berlin, where he met El Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters and other DaDaists. Published "Die Wolkenpumpe" ("The Cloud Pump"), a series of poems, and "Der Vogel Selbdritt" ("The Bird Thrice with Itself"), a collection of poems and woodcuts. Collective publication of "Dada in Tyrol, Au Grand Air, Der Sängerkrieg."

In 1922 he married Sophie Taeuber. Collaboration with Kurt Schwitters on the latter's periodical "Merz" in 1923. Published, with El Lissitzky, "Isms in Art," in which he defined DaDa: "Dadaism has launched an attack on the fine arts. It has declared art to be a magic opening of the bowels, administered an enema to the Venus of Milo, and finally enabled 'Laocoon and Sons' to ease themselves after a thousand-year struggle with the rattlesnake. Dadaism has reduced positive and negative to utter nonsense. It has been destructive in order to achieve indifference." Participated at the first collective exhibition of surrealists at the Pierre Gallery, Paris, with de Chirico, Ernst, Klee, Man Ray, Masson, Miro, and Picasso.

Took an active part in the Berlin DaDa movement from 1918 to 1920. Was also known as the "Chief Dada" ("Oberdada") and "Dada Prophet."

German painter and poet. Founded the Cologne DaDa group together with Max Ernst. Gave up painting in 1921. Lost his life in an avalanche in 1927. Editor of the periodical "Der Ventilator" ("The Fan") and collaborator on a great number of DaDa publications ("Bulletin D," "Dada W/3," and others).

Born 22 February 1886 in Pirmasens, Germany, died 14 September 1927 in San Abbondio, Switzerland. Author, co-founder of the Zürich DaDa movement; joined the Max Reinhardt School of Dramatic Art in 1910, and was employed as stage director. The "Café des Westens" in Berlin became his meeting place with young poets: Johannes R. Becher, Georg Heym, Richard Huelsenbeck, Klabund, and others. Stage director at the Munich Chamber Theater in 1913, and at the same time collaborator on the periodical "Revolution" (Published by F.S. Bachmair, 1913) together with Seewald, J.R. Becher, Erich Mühsam. Soon after the outbreak of the war he emigrated with his wife, Emmy Hennings, to Switzerland. Both took employments - Ball as a pianist, his wife as a recitationist - in a variety group in the Niederdorf, the amusement quarter of Zürich. In February 1916 he founded the "Cabaret Voltaire" in the Spiegelgasse in Zürich. Met Arp, Janco, Tzara, and later Huelsenbeck and Serner. His intentions with regard to the "Cabaret Voltaire" he defined in the following words: "It is necessary to clarify the intentions of this cabaret. It is its aim to remind the world that there are people of independent minds - beyond war and nationalism - who live for different ideals." (from the contribution entitled "Lorsque je fondis le Cabaret Voltaire" ["Why I founded the Cabaret Voltaire"], in the publication "Cabaret Voltaire," Zürich, 1916)

Ball protested several times "against the humiliating fact of a world war in the 20th century." In light of this, all static values of culture appeared to him to be questionable. He composed sound-poems, or "verses without words." In 1917 he ceased to take an active part in the DaDa movement. Became co-editor of the newspaper "Freie Zeitung," in Bern, which demanded, editorially, a republic for Germany. Later he retired and went to live in the Ticino, where he was employed on a biography of Bakunin. From his DaDa period an unpublished novel exists, "Tenderenda, der Phantast." In his "Criticism of German Intelligence" (1919), he tried to present a profound analysis of the German state of mind (which may have foreshadowed Hitlerism).

One of his other significant works are the diary excerpts of his DaDa period published as "Die Flucht aus der Zeit" ("Flight out of Time"). This is highly recommended reading for anyone interested in 'documentation' of the DaDa movement in Zürich.

Born 18 February 1896 in Tinchebray, France. French critic, writer, and poet. At the beginning of World War I, he was a student of medicine and particularly interested in psychiatry. In 1916 he met Jacques Vaché, a legendary predecessor of dadaism. His first publications were influenced by Rimbaud. When Tristan Tzara came to Paris from Zürich in 1916, Breton joined the Paris DaDa movement together with his friends Paul Eluard and Phillipe Soupalt. The periodical "Littérature," of which Breton was co-founder, served the cause of the dadaists. Breton played an important part in the earlier DaDa publications in Paris. In 1921 he broke with Tzara and the Parisian dadaists. Published his "Manifeste du Surréaliste." Somewhat later, he was co-editor of the periodical "La Révolution surréaliste" (1924-29), and thus founded the school of literary surrealism, of which he became the most important theorist.

Born on 28 July 1887, in Blainville, near Rouen, France. French painter, poet, experimentator in films and chess player. He is the brother of Raymond Duchamp-Villon, the sculptor, and of Suzanne Duchamp, the poetess and a half brother of Jacques Villon. In 1911 he was a member in the painters' circle known as the "Golden Section", together with La Fresnaye, Léger, Metzinger, Picabia, and others. Influenced by cubism he painted the picture "The Chess Players" and the first studies for his "Nudes descending a Staircase". In the same year he created "The Coffee-Mill", important as regards to form and the part it played in the general development. Many problems of dadaism (mechanical drawings by Picabia, Max Ernst, etc.) and of surrealism were anticipated in it. In 1912 he painted one of his main works, "Nudes descending a Staircase", shown for the first time in October of that year at the exhibition of the "Golden Section". In 1913 it was the hit of the New York "Armory Show". In 1914—15 he confused the public with a series of works which he called center In 1914 he put his signature to a second-rate landscape reproduction by an unknown artist after adding a green and a red patch, calling the whole work "Pharmacy". "Ready-Mades" were banal objects of every-day use such as a bottle holder, a snow-shovel, etc., which he signed with his name after giving them titles totally unconnected with their functional use. In 1915 he went to the United States for the first time and soon became the center of the circle of painters round the "Stieglitz" gallery. That group had adopted an "anti-art" attitude and was thus a movement parallel to Zurich dadaism. In 1917 Duchamp sent a "work" called "Fountain" to the New York "Independent Show", signed with the name "R. Mutt", it was nothing but a common urinal. The "Ready-Mades" demonstrated his profound contempt for the bourgeois conception of art. Their descendants were in later years the "surrealist objects". In 1917 Duchamp edited the periodicals, "The Blind Man" and "Rongwrong", which had an unmistakably dadaist character. "La vierge", "Mariée", "Passage de la vierge à la mariée", etc., pictures painted in 1912 - some on glass and others on canvas - were the points of departure for his monumental work; (painted on glass): "La mariée mise à nu par ses cèlibataires" ("The married woman stripped nude by her bachelors"), at which he worked from 1915 to 1923 and finally left unfinished, to devote himself to chess-playing and to mechanical and optical experiments (films) etc. In 1934 he published 93 facsimile drawings etc. preparatory studies to his unfinished monumental work, a fascinating insight into the structure and evolution of this unique creation. In 1920 he published, under the pen name of Rrose Sélavy (arroser, c'est la vie), puns in No. 5 of the periodical "Littérature". With the same pseudonym he still signed lesser works. Together with Katherina Dreier he founded the "Société anonyme" for the propagation of modern art in America. Preference was given to anti-traditional, cubist, futurist and dadaist works. From 1942 to 1944, together with Max Ernst and André Breton, he edited the surrealist periodical "VVV", in New York. Through the charm of his personality and his works Duchamp has exerted great influence on young American artists.

French poet. At the beginning of his creative work he was linked with the Paris dada movement, later with surrealism. Editor of the periodical "Proverbe". Collaborated in numerous dadaist publications.

Born on 2 April 1891 in Brühl, near Cologne. Painter, poet. Studied philosophy at the Bonn university (1909 - 1911). Never had any formal artistic training. Exhibited at the First German Autumn Saloon "Sturm", Berlin, 1913 and in the same year went to Paris for the first time. There he came to know the work of Picasso and de Chirico. In 1914 he met Arp at the "Werkbund" exhibition, Cologne. Further exhibition at the "Storm" gallery, Berlin, in 1916. In 1919 he founded, together with Arp and Baargeld, the Cologne dada group and collaborated with Arp in the creation of the "Fatagaga" collages ("Fatagaga" = "Fabrication de tableaux garantis gazométriques" = "Manufacture of guaranteed gasometric pictures"). Co-editor of "Dada W3" and "Schammade". Organized the dada-exhibition in the "Brauhaus Winter", which was closed by the police as contrary to "morals". In 1920 first exhibition of collages at the "Sans Pareil" gallery, Paris. Took part in the dada-meeting in Tyrol 1921, together with Arp, Breton and Tzara. Contribution to "Dada in Tirol, Au Grand Air, Der Sängerkrieg". Went to Paris in 1922. Contributor to many dadaist publications. Took an active part in the founding of surrealism and became one of the leading surrealist painters. Moved to New York in 1942 and lived both there and in Sedona, Arizona, until his return to France in 1954.

Born 26 July 1893 Berlin. Painter, writer and caricaturist. Studied at the Dresden and Berlin academies. Contributed to satirical periodicals. Came to the Berlin dada movement in 1918. Edited the periodicals "Die Pleite" ("Bankruptcy") together with Wieland Herzfelde; "Jeder sein eigener Fussball" ("Everyman his own Football") with Franz Jung; and "Der blutige Ernst" ("In Bloody Earnest"), with Carl Einstein. On his dada period he wrote in his book "Art In Danger": "Civilian again, I experienced in Berlin the rudimentary beginnings of the dada movement, the start of which coincided with the 'swede' period of malnutrition. The roots of this German dada movement were to be found in the recognation that it was perfectly crazy to believe that the spirit, or anything spiritual ruled the world. Dadaism was the only significant artistic movement in Germany for decades. Dadaism was no artificially fostered movement but an organic product, at its origin a reaction to the cloudlike ramblings of so-called sacred art. Dadaism forced artists to declare openly their position .. . What did the dadaists do? They said that it did not matter whether a man blew a 'raspberry' or recited a sonnet by Petrarca or Shakespeare or Rilke, whether he gilded jack-boot heels or carved statues of the Virgin. Shooting went on regardless, profiteering went on regardless, people would go on starving regardless, lies would always be told regardless—what was the good of art anyway? In those days we saw the mad final excrescences of the ruling order of society, and burst out laughing. We did not yet see that there was a system behind all this madness." George Grosz was the most pitiless caricaturist of the German bourgeoisie and of German militarism. In 1925 he approached that type of realism designated as "new matter-of-factness". In the U. S. A., where he went in 1932, his pictures assumed romantic, idyllic overtones. Looking back on it all, he wrote in his autobiography "A Little Yes And A Big No": "Artistically speaking we were 'dadaists' in those days. If that meant anything it was a disquiet, a dissatisfaction, a delight in mockery, that had all been fermenting a long time already. Every defeat, every upheaval gives birth to such movements. In another period we might have been flagellants . . . Huelsenbeck imported dada to Berlin, and it assumed immediately political features. The aesthetical side was preserved, but got more and more supplanted by a kind of anarchist-nihilistic politics, chiefly propounded by the writer, Franz Jung."

Born on 12 July 1886 in Vienna. Painter, sculptor and writer. One of the founders of the Berlin dada movement, he was also called "Dada-sopher". Author of a number of dada publications, poetical whimsies, experimented also upon photo-montages. Editor of the periodical "Der Dada" in Berlin.

Took part in the dada movement in Berlin. Also known under the name of "Dada-Monteur" ("Dada-Fitter"). Considerable expert of photo-montages. One of the editors of the Berlin periodical "Der Dada." Was the main organizer of the "First International Dada Fair" in Berlin in 1920.

Born 17 February 1885 in Flensburg, Schleswig, Germany, died in 1948 in Magliaso, Ticino, Switzerland. Wife of Hugo Ball. Made his acquaintance in 1913 and went to Zurich with him in 1915, where she helped to found the "Cabaret Voltaire" and took part in its performances. The "Zürcher Post" wrote of her on 7 May 1916:

"The star of the cabaret however, is Mrs. Emmy Hennings. The star of who knows how many nights and poems. Just as she stood before the billowing yellow curtain of a Berlin cabaret, her arms rounded up over her hips, rich like a blooming bush, so today she is lending her body with an ever-brave front to the same songs, that body of hers which has since been ravaged but little by pain."

Emmy Hennings also published some poems and books.

Some of her poems include: 'Ätherstrophen', 'Gesang zur Dämmerung', 'Nach dem Cabaret', 'Morfin', 'Tänzerin'.

Brother of John Heartfield. Founded the "Malik" publishing house in Berlin, which brought out a number of dadaist publications.