Dadaism

Dadaism

Dada from French means indistinct childish prattle. Dadaism as cultural and social fact was people response to the end of the war. By that time social progress was unattainable. Anger that was close to despair awoke somewhere in Zurich this unusual phenomenon that gave the rise to the range of new kinds of arts.

Dadaism is far more known as an anti-war phenomenon. The main word to characterize it as a genre is the word “anti”, that make it possible to talk about Dadaists like nihilists. Is this kind of art serious? According to Barbara Rose (1963), it is at all possible to be serious. The thing that united their members was not only nonsense but far more: the form Dadaists covered their protest in. From that moment paintings were not just paintings, and poetry wasn’t simple words. They were active in their civic stand, and their works were closely related to their actions: demonstration, provocative public exhibitions and performances.  The best thing about Dadaism is clearness and simplicity as well. Being a child-like form of protest, it also considered art as a motive force for social change. And its outstanding feature is an opportunity of multiple treatments.

Dadaism was a first brick placed on the ground of abstractionism and surrealism art. It was the prelude of postmodern art as well. Things got changed, but the echoes of Dada are still to hear nowadays, and this time it doesn’t confine itself to Europe and their artists only. It is well known that postmodern art characterizes by fuzzy genre borders and compilation of art styles and techniques. It is pretty hard to define whether genres similar to Dada exist nowadays. Better to say the art of 21th century is Dadaism itself, the world collage, so to say. We have got both desire to create and experiment, and at the same time some dim deja vu that everything was seen and every art repeats itself.

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