Zurich Dada 1916 - 1918

Why Dada? to counter the logic that was used to justify the killing and mutilation of millions to show disgust with bourgeois values to create a better life after WWI through the irrational

Dada: What Is It? international movement in art and literature that used ridicule and nonsense to reflect what was considered to be the meaninglessness of the modern world anti-war, anti-art, and anti-bourgeois movement anarchistic movement that challenged traditional perceptions of art as well as provoked a reexamination of social and moral values

Founding of the Movement originated in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916 – Zurich was neutral territory, the place where many artists went to find refuge from World War I – Lenin, James Joyce, and Carl Jung were also in residence here founded by exiles other Dada cells located in Paris, Barcelona and New York

Aims originally, to express anger over the war later, to attack the art establishment which was aligned with middle class society to destroy those systems based on reason and logic and replace them with ones based on anarchy, the primitive, and the irrational

Anti-art Credo used shock, provocation, and irrationality as a weapon against the Establishment asked the question: what kind of culture would condone the industrialized murder of World War I? made fun of the "seriousness" and sanctity of traditional art believed that traditional art had to be purged and that this new movement was going to start culture from scratch created in a "child-like" manner believed that the value of art was located more in the act of making it than in the work produced

Characteristics of Dada Art elementary anonymous and collective spontaneous, random, and provocative toy-like primitive organic and biomorphic

Mythic Origins of the Word Dada first word a baby utters? "yes, yes" in Russian? "hobby-horse" in Rumanian? word found at random in the dictionary?

Founders of the Cabaret Voltaire In 1915, Hugo Ball (writer and theatre director) and his female partner Emmy Hennings (dancer and chanteuse) left Munich and moved to Zurich. I didn't love the death-hussars, And not the howitzers with girls' names, And at the end when the great days came, I went discreetly away.   Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings, Zurich (1918).

The Cabaret Voltaire founded on February 1, 1916, as an international literary cabaret located in a slightly disreputable neighborhood in Zurich, Switzerland, on the Speigelgasse venue for selling beer, sausage, and rolls Emmy Hennings sang songs while Hugo Ball played the piano; others recited non-sensical poetry and improvised

Hugo Ball in “cubist” costume reciting his poem “Caravan” at the Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, 1916.

Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara, and Hans Richter in Zurich (1918).

Fancy-dress costumes on a poem by Hugo Ball (1918).

Marcel Janco. Cabaret Voltaire (1916). “Total pandemonium. Tzara is wiggling his behind like the belly of an Oriental dancer. Janco is playing an invisible violin and bowing and scraping. Madame Hennings, with a Madonna face, is doing the splits. Huelsenbeck is banging away nonstop on the great drum, with Ball accompanying him on the piano, pale as a chalky ghost." (Hans Arp, 1916)

Cover of Cabaret Voltaire, a Dada literary magazine (15 May 1916)

Technique: Automatism The starting point of creation is the notion of vitality, the movement of the creative hand. There are no preconceived subjects. But as outlines contoured the surface, they provoked associations to plant, animal, and human life. The important thing is ambiguity—to suggest rather than to define forms.

Importance of Automatism helped to “overcome” their own painting culture challenged the inherited assumptions of style and habits of the hand suggested the possibility of evoking experience located in the unconscious

Hans (Jean) Arp. Automatic Drawing (1916). Brush and ink on gray paper.

The Automatic Process First, pencil outlines are drawn. Second, contours are filled in with black ink. Third, changing and adjusting these shapes. Fourth, eliminating shapes as the drawing was near completion. Hans (Jean) Arp. Automatic Drawing (1916). Brush and ink on gray paper.

Hans Arp. Geometric Collage (1916). Collage of pasted papers.

Hans Arp. Collage with Squares Arranged According to the Laws of Chance (1917). Collage of torn-and-pasted paper on blue-gray paper colored papers.

Hans Arp. Entombment of The Birds and Butterflies (Portrait of Tristan Tzara), 1916-17. Painted wood relief.

Hans Arp. Enak's Tears (Terrestrial Forms), 1917. Painted wood.

Hans Arp. Birds in an Aquarium (c. 1920).Painted wood relief.

Hans Arp. Mustache Hat from 7 Arpaden (1923). Lithograph published in a portfolio. arpaden is a made up word meaning “Arp things”

Hans Arp. The Navel Bottle from 7 Arpaden (1923). Lithograph in a print portfolio.

Hans Arp. Portfolio Cover from 7 Arpaden (1923) Hans Arp. Portfolio Cover from 7 Arpaden (1923). Letterpress with collage addition.

Sophie Taeuber and Hans Arp in their Zurich studio, with her puppets on the wall (1918).

Marionettes by Sophie Tauber-Arp

Sophie Taeuber-Arp. The Army (1917). Wood painted in oil.

Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Dada Head (Portrait of Hans Arp), 1918. Wood.

Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Dada Head (1920). Painted wood with glass beads on wire.

Hans Arp. Wool Rug (executed by Sophie Taueber-Arp), 1918.

Marcel Janco. Mask (1919). Cardboard, horsehair, wire, and cloth.

Marcel Janco. Study for Brilliant Empire Architecture (1918). Painted plaster relief.

Hans Richter. Macabre Portrait (1917). Oil on canvas.

Mary Wigman dancing (1919).

Tristan Tzara. Poster announcing Dada “Happening”.