Dada & anti-war protest art
Dada artists felt the war called into question every aspect of a society capable of starting and then prolonging it – including its art. Their aim was to destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art to replace the old. As the artist Hans Arp later wrote:Revolted by the butchery of the 1914 World War, we in Zurich devoted ourselves to the arts. While the guns rumbled in the distance, we sang, painted, made collages and wrote poems with all our might. In addition to being anti-war, dada was also anti-bourgeois and had political affinities with the radical left.The founder of dada was a writer, Hugo Ball. In 1916 he started a satirical night-club in Zurich, the Cabaret Voltaire, and a magazine which, wrote Ball, ‘will bear the name ”Dada”. Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada.’ This was the first of many dada publications. Dada became an international movement and eventually formed the basis of surrealism in Paris after the war. Leading artists associated with it include Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia and Kurt Schwitters. Duchamp’s questioning of the fundamentals of Western art had a profound subsequent influence.
In this image, there’s a lot going on and yet these are all things that have happened in time. Theres people tied up and on the floor being treated horribly. Theres some racial tension here. We can see men in the middle making some kind of deal from one side to the other. art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. An artist speaking up about troubles of his time. Their aim was to destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art to replace the old. (tate)
He used a variety of scultpure, collage, sound poetry, cut-up writing, and sculpture. They were also experimental, provocatively re-imagining what art and art making could be. Using unorthodox materials and chance-based procedures, they infused their work with spontaneity and irreverence. Wielding scissors and glue, Dada artists innovated with collage and photomontage. Source: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/dada/
To me this image is a deal between men of different sides, wanting what the other has. Violence in exchange for “protection” and food/supply’s, and in exchange they can have the citizens of that country to use as slaves. War, food, death and deals. This is a lot to break down as there’s so much to reveal. To me this is a chaotic, and I really think this is what they were going for, for a message of chaos while looking chaotic and can make the mind overwhelmed and confused.
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