Dada Embraced Self-Expression, Impulse, Spontaneity and Imagination. Why Were These Particular Qualities Appealing to Dadaists as Artists and Social Commentators?
2. Dada embraced self-expression, impulse, spontaneity and imagination. Why were these particular qualities appealing to Dadaists as artists and social commentators?
Ciaran Bullen.
The World at War.
To appreciate Dada, one must first know the context of its time. To truly understand Dada, one must understand the deep pain of the artists, the ferocity of the disgust toward the bestiality of their supposedly modern world, and the deep longing for change at the hearts of its various contributors. During the onset of the first world war, many European artists were horrified at humanities bourgeois and violent nature, the nationalism that consumed its thoughts, and the authoritarianism that defined it. Early Dadaists were born out of opting for nothingness, silliness, self-expression and rebellion as a viable alternative for what they believed to be the downfall of the modern world; it’s self-assured seriousness. This reaction was the catalyst for the movement, which in essence was a backlash at the world at war and the mass slaughter that was to be its legacy. They rejected any leadership and their guiding ideologies, focusing the attentions of their hatred on the bourgeois’ sense of cultural superiority, their customs and their pro-war attitudes. They were outraged with how society had let, no, encouraged so much death to consume them. Doing all they could to escape the horror of war, Dadaist Jean Arp when approached for conscription took the paperwork given to him, wrote the date all over the gaps he was to fill out, underlined them, and added them up. He then took off all of his clothes and went to hand in his paperwork. He was ordered to go home, and would later find out that he was his own saviour. Later during 1916 the Battle of Somme claimed well over a million lives, and the war was just getting started. When it concluded, France and Germany would face over 3 million dead, as well as over 8 million wounded. The Dadaists’ homes and families would never be
Ciaran Bullen.
The World at War.
To appreciate Dada, one must first know the context of its time. To truly understand Dada, one must understand the deep pain of the artists, the ferocity of the disgust toward the bestiality of their supposedly modern world, and the deep longing for change at the hearts of its various contributors. During the onset of the first world war, many European artists were horrified at humanities bourgeois and violent nature, the nationalism that consumed its thoughts, and the authoritarianism that defined it. Early Dadaists were born out of opting for nothingness, silliness, self-expression and rebellion as a viable alternative for what they believed to be the downfall of the modern world; it’s self-assured seriousness. This reaction was the catalyst for the movement, which in essence was a backlash at the world at war and the mass slaughter that was to be its legacy. They rejected any leadership and their guiding ideologies, focusing the attentions of their hatred on the bourgeois’ sense of cultural superiority, their customs and their pro-war attitudes. They were outraged with how society had let, no, encouraged so much death to consume them. Doing all they could to escape the horror of war, Dadaist Jean Arp when approached for conscription took the paperwork given to him, wrote the date all over the gaps he was to fill out, underlined them, and added them up. He then took off all of his clothes and went to hand in his paperwork. He was ordered to go home, and would later find out that he was his own saviour. Later during 1916 the Battle of Somme claimed well over a million lives, and the war was just getting started. When it concluded, France and Germany would face over 3 million dead, as well as over 8 million wounded. The Dadaists’ homes and families would never be