DaDa

DaDa Movement 

The DaDa movement was an art movement which came about during world war one and started in Zurich, Switzerland but then spread all across Europe and the rest of the world to cities such as Paris, berlin and even cities like New York. It was movement which reacted and retaliated to the horrific nature of the war and the things which had led to the war, things such as nationalism. It was a movement which was influenced by many other art movements such as cubism, futurism and expressionism but aside from art movement it was mainly influenced and motivated by the environment the artists were living in and a reflection of their reality. the movement came to public's notice around 1916 and ended around 1924, because it was a retaliation against the war it was very likely that it would be at its most popular during this time but once the war had ended the art movement hadn’t completely disappeared, it went on to become very influential and powerful movement and influenced movements such as surrealism and Avant garde. It also influenced many different artists at the time. One of the reasons they influenced so many artist was because they reached a lot of audiences due to the many different outlets such as photography, literature, sculptures, poetry, paintings and most famously collages. One of the reasons it went on the influence surrealism and Avant garde is because it was one of the first movements of art which didn’t focus on the looks and the aesthetics of the art but rather focused on the message behind it.

(1)(2)(3)

Hannah Hoch 

Hannah Hoch was an artist born in Germany on November the 1st, 1889. Her first experience with art was at the school of applied arts in Berlin, where she did a course in glass design but was then interrupted by the first wold war; she enrolled again at the school in 1915 and then studied painting and graphic design. Just after this in 1918 she met Austrian artist Raoul Hausmann who then introduced her DaDa circle in Berlin. She was the only woman in the Berlin DaDa circle and was most well known for her photomontage works which involved perceptions of gender and different ethnicity's.

Hannah Hoch - Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the beer-belly of the Wiemar republic (1919)

(4)

Cut with the Kitchen Knife was a piece of work created in 1919, it was a piece of work which was a photomontage that reflected Hannah Hoch's political and social views at the time of Germany's transition just after world war one. In this piece of art you can see that one of the subjects she has focused on is the subject of gender, for example you can see she has used words like "kitchen knife" and "beer-belly", these are words which were associated with typical gender stereotypes at this time. i think she has also used the words "beer-belly" as a way to point out the German army who were very highly focus on in the media at this time. I feel like she has made the image so it has a very negative effect on the audience because of the dullness and the lack of bright vibrant colours used in it, the only colours which are used are browns, beige and the colour is blue which usually represents things like sadness. In the image she has placed text in various parts, she has used the name of the art movement 'DaDa' in it I think to make sure that everyone is clear with what the image is trying to represent and that there is more than the aesthetics of the image and a story behind it.

Hannah Hoch - Bouquet Of Eyes (1930)

(5)

Bouquet Of Eyes was a piece of work created by Hannah Hoch in 1930, it was a collage which included eyes being placed in the shape and format of a bouquet of flowers. I think in this image there are a lot of messages she is trying to get across, one of the reasons I think is that there is a lot of focus on people and I think that she is emphasising that people are looking at other people to be a certain way and conform with the world and it would be noticed if anything you did was wrong of different. I think she has softened this as well and tried to tell people other things because of the colours used in the background, we can see a very calming orange at the top of the image which transfers into a slightly darker orange at the bottom, which I think makes the viewer look on into the image rather than just looking at it. Another point I think she is trying to make is that everyone is equal, I think she has done this with the eyes, some she has the eye and the surroundings of it and some are just images of the eye-ball, I think she has done this to represent that we are all equal because you can’t tell where there eye belongs to someone of a specific gender, race, sexual orientation, religion or nationality, but in this image I think she has focused in gender because of the shape the eyes are in which is a bouquet and would be more associated with women.

Raoul Hausmann 

Raoul Hausmann was a artist who moved to Berlin at a young age, his first experience with art came from his dad who taught him how to paint, his first professional experience with art came from his work with a magazine called "Der Sturm", up until 1917 he worked with many different magazines in many different sections such as literature, in 1917 he discovered Dadaist thinking in a magazine called "Cabaret Voltaire", because he was very inspired by Dadaism and was a big fan of expressionism he would then go on to be inspired to make the group called "Club DaDa" along with fellow artists such as Hannah Hoch, Andre Breton and Francis Picabia. During this club he along with the other artists involved instead of concentrating on traditional types of art involving paint and oil paints they would concentrate on things like photomontages poster poems and collages which were a combination of a lot of types of art, because this was done at this time many people were shocked which conformed with what they were trying to get a cross in the art I think.

Raoul Hausmann - The Art Critic (1919)

(6)

The Art Critic is a piece of work created by Raoul Hausmann in 1919, it’s a collage which contains a poem poster that was created but Raoul Hausmann. in this image we can see there is a cut out of two people (one is the body and other the head) in the foreground which is made to be the main focus, in the main focuses hand we can see a sharp object and i think because it’s called "the art critic" I think the object is there to emphasize the disapproval of certain pieces of art. in the background we can see a money bill just behind the main focus on his shoulder, I think this is there because it relates to when people say you have an angle and a devil on your shoulder telling you what to do, in this image I think it shows that money is his main focus and that’s all he’s listening to. In the background we can see that there is writing, rather than this meaning something I think it’s there to draw the viewer’s eye to the back of the image so they can see all the different layers.

Raoul Hausmann - Tatlin at Home (1920) 

(7)

Like a lot of other DaDa pieces Tatlin at Home by Raoul Hausmann is a photomontage, it was created by Raoul Hausmann in 1920 while DaDa was very popular. in this piece of work we can see a man in the image called Taltin, this is a message in the art aimed at and against Vladimir Tatlin who was a painter and architect who was into the constructive movement and believed that art had to have a reason and had to be rationalized, whereas Raoul Hausmann was a big fan of using his art to send a message and tell a story, because of this an artist like Tatlin was a perfect main focus to use. in this image there are a lot of dark and negative colours used such as dark reds, blacks and grey, I think Raoul Hausmann has used these specific colours to excaudate how much he doesn’t think art needs a reason behind it and can be used as a way to express and tell stories. In this image we can see Tatlin who’s the main focus with a lot of machinery and non-natural things in his head I think he has done this to stick with the theme that art needs a reason and needs to be justified, I think he has done this to say that its natural to show emotions and feeling in art and that reasoning and rationalization comes from a mechanical mind that’s been built by things that have been taught to us throughout our life.

bibliography

(1)-http://www.designhistory.org/Poster_pages/images_posters/Hausmann1924.jpg

(2)-http://www.dada-companion.com/hausmann/images/1920_200px_tatlin.jpg

(3)-http://www.artvalue.com/image.aspx?PHOTO_ID=1952813

(4)-https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/Hoch-Cut_With_the_Kitchen_Knife.jpg

(5)-https://armtaste.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/elramo.jpg

(6)-http://www.dada-companion.com/hausmann/images/1919_200px_critic.jpg

(7)-https://utopiadystopiawwi.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/hausmann-tatlin-at-home-1920.jpg?w=195&h=300