Why Dada artists were rebels?

Rebels of a new generation

Anyone studying the history of Western art will notice that almost every art movement springs out from an artistic rebellion against the conventional art of its time. That was the case, for example, with Neoclassical art, Impressionist art or Cubist art. The Dada artists however did not arrive to rebel against conventional art, but art itself! They called on the viewers to cease calling their trash art, theirs was anti-art. A mockery of art! With a grim sense of humor, irrationality and anti-aesthetics, they broke art standards and ridiculed contemporary society. They even refused to call their movement a movement, and it was not one. There were no formal characteristics or a particular philosophy to unite their works. They refused to adopt an “ism” and opted for an absurd, childish name: Dada.

They did not create “pretty pictures” like the Impressionists or the Post-Impressionists. They rejected German Expressionist emphasis on emotions and calm analysis of the modern, hostile society. They also rejected Cubism with its geometric experiments in form or clever collages. Nonetheless they found inspiration in Cubist collages but when they reintroduced them, they were made grotesque, disturbing and nonsensical.

They were inspired by the ongoing abstraction of art and the Futurist obsession with technology. However, they certainly rejected the Italian Futurist celebration of the Machine Age. Dada could be seen as left-wing anarchist, while Futurism is right-wing proto-fascist. Dada owes its genesis to a group of artists who were self-exiles during WWI. Meanwhile, the Futurists were actually celebrating the horrific WWI and the technology that facilitated the wholesale slaughter.

The Dada artists are best known for their rebellion against the centuries-old medium of the canvas. They incorporated any “rubbish” they could find including fabrics, pieces of metal or paper, newspaper clippings and pieces of old machines. Originality in art creation was meaningless to them. There was no one main medium of choice.

One of the great ironies in art history is that Dada works are now displayed in museums, some of which are considered among the most important icons of Western art. Their non-organized movement had a lasting effect on art in the Western world throughout the 20th century, starting with Surrealist art. Even though Dada is not postmodern, Post-modern art and Post-modernism’s roots belong to Dada’s revolutionary ideas which was summed up in one of their many declarations as follows:

Dada knows everything. Dada spits on everything. Dada says nothing. Dada has no fixed idea. Dada does not catch flies. The cabinet has been overthrown. By whom? By Dada. Futurism has died. Of what? Of Dada. Dada runs everything through a new sieve. Dada is bitterness laughing at everything that has been accomplished, sanctioned, forgotten in our language, in our brain, in our habits. Dada says to you: Here is Huamnity and the beautiful absurdities that have made it happy up to its present advanced age.