Dada and Surrealism

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Dada and Surrealism

During the days of World War I, a search began for new and fantastic subject matter, and so this brought together a number of young men. The writer, Hugo Ball, the painter, sculptor and poet, Jean Arp and the painter Hans Richter, as well as many others, all began this search of new and exciting styles that brought on the movement called Dada. This movement was largely a reaction to the destruction, hysteria and madness of the war. The Dadaists felt that reason and logic had resulted in war, and so, they wanted to move away from this and explore different principals such as simultaneity and chance.

There were two main parts to Dada, Zurich Dada and New York Dada. Zurich Dada came about as a result of these men whose demonstrations, art exhibitions, poetry readings and noise concerts attacked Western Art and Culture. Jean Arp was one of the most prolific artists to emerge from Zurich Dada. He studied painting in the early years of the twentieth century but found that there was great conflict between his paintings and what he learnt. This uncertainty that he had, led him to spend years in various small towns in Switzerland where he was greatly influenced by the Swiss landscape. This resulted in many abstract works that were all based on nature and living organic shapes. He wanted to express the reality of the object itself in the most concrete terms as possible; hence he used a form of organic abstraction. This led him from painting to collage and then to relief and sculpture in the round.

A typical work is “Collage with Squares Arranged according to the Law of Chance.”




This work is a collage of torn squares of paper arranged in a random order. He produced many works in this vein and it is said that they were a result of his tearing up drawings with which he was not satisfied and, seeing the arrangement the papers made on the floor, he realized he had found the solution to his problem. It was actions such as this that showed Arp’s interest in “the laws of chance.”

Although Zurich dada had finished by the end of World War I, its influences were just beginning to spread, and it was then that New York Dada emerged. It began with the artists Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia arriving in New York and sharing similar ideals. Duchamp was disillusioned by the validity of art. He was influenced by Cubism, as is evident in his paintings, but he didn’t like the more formal ordered direction that it was taking. Another distinct influence was that of the futurists. Not on Duchamp alone but on the Dadaists in general. Although Duchamp used a lot of the Futurist principals, such as devices with the feel of machinery, his Dadaist art was an expression of disillusionment, whereas the Futurists’ art was much more optimistic. Duchamp’s works were often satirical especially when he attempted to re-interpret traditional themes however all of his works take on a brilliant construction of abstract forms. His works include, “The Passage from Virgin to Bride,” and “The Bride Stripped Bare of her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass).”

Duchamp was also the initiator of “ready-mades.” These were objects or paintings that were complete on their own, that Duchamp would just add to. A good example of this is “L.H.O.O.Q”. Here, he has taken a copy of the “Mona Lisa” and added a beard and moustache to it, and called it a work of art. Another example of a ready-made is a work entitled “Fountain” which is quite simply a urinal on which he has signed “R. Mutt.” Needless to say this caused a great stir when he tried to exhibit it in 117.

Duchamp was in some way trapped He wanted to destroy facets of art altogether, but his Dada works contained elements of his art that he truly hated. However, his primary motive was to show that he rejected the ideas and idols of society. This influenced the “tone” of his paintings in a number of ways. His willingness to use just anything as art, especially the ready-mades brought up the question, “What is Art?” and this is exactly what the Dadaists wanted. However, Dada wasn’t all wild, mad humor aimed at annoying the middle class man. It had a purpose that of re-examining and exposing the conceptions of order and beauty.

Surrealism however, deals with a different kind of reality, a super-reality that exists in our subconscious. The surrealists believed that the reality of dreams was superior to that of waking reality. They were not influenced as much as the Dadaists were by war but by the theories of Sigmund Freud. Up until then, the subconscious was still undefined and they wanted to expand and explore themes involving the subconscious aspects of life.

One of the characteristics of Surrealism was an element of chance, just as was used by the Dadaists. Accidental blots, textures and signs were incorporated into paintings to add to the effect that they wanted to create; where no attempt would be made to define the works or make them understandable. Surrealism has been defined as “the state of mind where there is no difference between the past and the present, between life and death, high and low, real and unreal.” This is exactly what the Surrealists tried to portray even though all the surrealist styles were very different.

The chief Surrealists were Max Ernst, Miro, Magritte and Dali and although their styles were all very different they all had common aspects such as a vision of totally new subject matter and individuality and isolation as artists. Much like the Dadaists they wanted to explore something new and completely different. They also propagated revolt against society and tradition just as the Dadaists did and their works, and also created great controversy because of the subject matter involved.

Salvador Dali epitomizes the Surrealist artist, not only in his art, but also in his lifestyle. He was greatly influenced be De Chirico, Carra and by the writings of Sigmund Freud, and moved to Paris in 1 to join the Surrealists.

Dali tried to recreate his dream world and attempted to make it more real than everyday, accepted reality. His paintings were extremely precise, in complete contrast to many of the Dadaist works in the way that they were almost photographic, as can be seen in his “Basket of Bread.” His works are often very contradictory where mechanical objects are soft or organic. Objects often disintegrate, melt and metamorphosis. An example of this is “The Persistence of Memory” where there are several melting clocks and foreign objects. There are many dissolving and transforming images in his works. Images are doubled, juxtaposed and repeated constantly, however, his paintings were painted in a very realistic style with very fine brushwork with a very gentle and delicate use of colour. He stuck with a very realistic technique instead of painting in the ways of the Cubists and Impressionists. The Dadaists, however, were influenced by the Cubists, as can be seen in many of Duchamp’s works. In his works there is traditional use of line that is neither abstract nor decorative which is, however, seen in Dadaist works. His paintings often have eerie, haunting allegories and phobias often that populate his work.

“I do not know when I start to pretend or when I tell the truth.”

“How do you expect the public to understand the meaning of the images that I transcribe, when I myself, who is the one who makes them, don’t understand them any longer when they appear in my pictures?”

“Beauty should be edible or not at all.”

-Salvador Dali



Another Surrealist artist is Max Ernst. Ernst’s paintings often include machine monsters that show the Dadaists preoccupation with mechanization and automatism. His interest in metamorphosis and double identity of objects led him onto Surrealism and he began painting in a new style that still dealt with realism but in a fantastical way, just like Dali. Ernst’s painting also dealt with Nightmares, dreams and the subconscious with fantastic creatures such as elephants, as seen in “The Elephant Celebes.” His works also include many birds and dream landscapes as seen in “Two Children are Threatened by a Nightingale.” He is said to have created the “surrealist vocabulary” and unlike some of the Dadaist works, they are never totally abstract.

Both Dadaism and Surrealism were extremely dynamic and interesting movements. They rebelled against the conformities of society, began to explore completely different subject matter and although were different in many ways, they were the start to a completely new outlook on art and culture of the 0th century.



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