What is Dada? A nonsensical collection of sounds? A word in German, French or Romanian? Or an avant-garde art movement? The extensive new Dada Exhibition at the National Gallery attempts to provide an answer.
Although the origins of the name Dada are still debated, it is largely accepted as an avant-garde art movement that exploded onto the European and later the American art scene in 1916 in the midst of World War I. Originating in neutral Zurich, where the artists opposing the war were able to congregate in relative safety, an outrageous “anti-art” trend began to take form, though the Dadaists themselves did not want to be defined by a particular movement. Through this non-alignment they hoped to defy earlier artistic traditions and challenge the materialism and militarism of the contemporary society.
What makes this exhibition distinguishable is the way it showcases the different trends within the Dada movement. The 447 works of the exhibit allow even the most uninitiated visitor to explore the cities of Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Cologne, Hanover, New York and Paris.
The show, through its careful layout by curator Leah Dickerman, guides its viewer through the various stages of Dada in chronological order, making it simple to notice influences and connections of the cities.
The show is meant to be fun. Sitting in a side room, listening to a sound poem by Raoul Hausmann made up entirely of phonemes and random collections of letters such as “mmm” and “fmsbw,” it is impossible to not be amused. The iconic work by Marcel Duchamp, “LHOOQ,” which shows the “Mona Lisa” with a hand-drawn moustache and goatee, also contains a raunchy pun.
According to Roselee Goldberg, the reason Dadaists particularly hated the “Mona Lisa” was because they thought the painting had lost its point and become a meaningless picture. The one thing the Dada works do not lack is meaning and symbolism.
Each city of the movement sends out its own message. In Zurich, Sophie Taeuber’s wool needlepoints with their cubist motifs blur the boundary between traditional crafts and modern art.
Berlin artists’ works are highly political, reacting to the harsh Treaty of Versailles and the atrocities of the Great War. Otto Dix’s macabre “Skat Players” shows wounded and deformed soldiers, with their prosthetic limbs intertwined with the legs of the table. New York, not affected by the war directly, witnessed its main Dadaist, Marcel Duchamp, criticize the materialistic culture of America by posing everyday consumer items such as a wine rack or urinal as art.
The movement fused together in its Paris stage, where most of the artists working in their individual cities came together at the end of the war. The meeting of all the players in the movement meant a more shocking show for the audience, culminating in a Dada season in the mid ‘20s.
It is apparent the Paris room is the grand finale with the large expressive canvases standing out from the technical, earlier works. The show, through its juxtaposition of the lighthearted and the somber, seems to achieve exactly what the artists wanted to portray—a serious stance on the social climate of the post-war world.
It is an art event for both connoisseurs and newcomers because it provides the best overview of the trend and highlights the elements which influenced “modern art” ever since.
The Dada Exhibition runs at the National Gallery of Art until May 14, 2006
