After almost a century, is Dada still among us?

[Kire]

After almost a century, is Dada still among us?

By Alan Riding The New York Times

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2005
PARIS Viewed from almost a century later, Dada can be easily recognized as a short-lived but influential movement that expressed its revolt against World War I by challenging artistic and intellectual conventions. Yet magnified in a large exhibition at the Georges Pompidou Center, it risks being reduced to its component parts.

Of course, that may be how Dada intended things to be.

Certainly, from its birth in a Zurich club called Cabaret Voltaire in 1916, the Dada movement appeared eager to avoid classification. Its impact was immediately felt in New York, Paris and the German cities of Berlin, Cologne and Hanover, but in each city it expressed itself differently. Then, like many revolutions, its ardor waned. By 1924, if not earlier, Dada was over.

{snip}

But what is Dada? Legend has it that its bizarre name was chosen in a typically Dada manner: by chance. Using a paper-knife, the story goes, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp and others in Zurich arbitrarily selected a word from a French-German dictionary. Its meaning - hobbyhorse - was, well, meaningless in this context. It simply served as an empty vessel into which artists could pour themselves.

"It is the only art movement named not by critics but by the artists themselves," said Laurent Le Bon, the Pompidou show's curator.

Dada did have a purpose - to protest against society in general and the art world in particular.

More: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/13/features/dada.php

[stepnw1f]

1. It Never Died

Its a natural progression of art itself. Some elements of it become mainstream. You see it in design and art everywhere. It just isn't put in the spot light like commercialy significant forms are.

Dada will never die, but it will never be considered Dada because of its transient nature.

[Lubernaut]

2. "La peinture est pour les dentistes" - Francis Picabia

[StellaBlue]

3. I love Dada

It formed a big part of my masters degree. This was an interesting article, especially to me, right now, as I am getting back into art myself after about ten years of art-less living.