Dadaism began between the time period of 1916 and 1924. The movement began after World War I as a protest against the brutality of the fighting. It included poetry, literature, theatre, and other arts, but used a rebellious approach rather than the traditional way. The founder of Dadaism, Tristan Tzara, once said, “Art needs an operation.” Tzara was a French writer who was originally born in Romania. He later went to the University of Zurich, in Switzerland, where he and his friends formed the movement. It is theorized that the word “Dada” originated when Tzara and his comrades used the words “Da, Da” often, which meant “Yes, yes” in the Romanian language. The other theory is that the group struck at a French-German dictionary at random with a paper knife and picked the name it landed on. Tzara later simply explains that, “Dada means nothing.” Dadaism was considered the “Anti-art” because it took all the standards of what art was during that time period, and contradicted it. The movement did this to represent their growing feelings of pessimism towards the world. The movement’s purpose was to surprise their spectators into self-awareness. It focused on meaninglessness and a lot of their artwork failed to make sense. After World War I, the world was looking for ways to express their emotions. Dadaism was an outlet for people to express confusion. In fact, some of the Dada artists were veterans from the war. One of these veterans, Hugo Ball, became a strong activist in the movement. After joining the army as a volunteer, he thought that the whole war was a mistake, and left. He was viewed as a traitor in his country, and had to leave to Zurich, where he joined the Dada movement. Many believed that these wars resulted from the world’s conventionality in society and in art. Because of this, these artists took hold of chaos and rejected logic. As I read these poems, I see anger, rebellion, and hope for change. I think that this movement was sick of seeing the same things over and over again. They felt that society needed something different, something a bit outside the box. Dadaism was brilliant by the fact of choosing a rebellious form of poetry to make a statement. During a time where the world was looking for reason and answers, Dadaism showed how there was no right reason for war. They knew that war didn’t make sense. It didn’t have to follow any rules. So in reaction to this, they created a type of poetry that resembled war. It was chaotic and it was irrational, and it was necessary to prove that the world needed new modifications to their old traditional ways.
WORK CITED
Dadaism. Allbuyart.com, 2006. Web. 1 Jun 2010.
"Dadaism Art." N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Jun 2010.
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