8.1 — Dada and Surrealism
Dada erupted during World War I with anti-war, anti-art irreverence—embracing chance, collage, and nonsense. Surrealism followed, turning to dreams and the unconscious to unlock new forms of imagination through automatism, juxtaposition, and psychic exploration.
Dada: Anti-Art Rebellion
In Zurich, New York, Berlin, and Paris, Dadaists mocked rationality and bourgeois culture, using spontaneity and provocation.
- Hugo Ball & Emmy Hennings: Cabaret Voltaire sound-poems and performances.
- Tristan Tzara: Dada manifestos that celebrate chance and contradiction.
- Hans (Jean) Arp: Collages arranged “according to the laws of chance.”
- Hannah Höch: Photomontage critiquing gender and politics in Weimar Germany.
- Marcel Duchamp: Readymades like “Fountain” redefine authorship and context.
Definition: Readymade
An everyday object designated as art by the artist, challenging notions of craft, originality, and value.
Surrealism: Dreams and the Unconscious
Led by André Breton’s 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, artists sought to merge dream and reality (sur-réalité) via automatism, free association, and unexpected juxtapositions.
- André Breton: Theorist of automatism and psychic freedom.
- Max Ernst: Frottage, grattage, and collage forests of uncanny creatures.
- Salvador Dalí: Paranoiac-critical method; melting clocks in “The Persistence of Memory.”
- René Magritte: Deadpan puzzles of language and image (“Ceci n’est pas une pipe”).
- Joan Miró: Biomorphic signs, playful constellations of color and line.
- Leonora Carrington & Remedios Varo: Alchemical, feminist inflections of Surrealist narrative.
Methods and Materials
- Automatism: Drawing or writing without conscious control to tap the unconscious.
- Collage & Photomontage: Combining found images to create disjunctive narratives.
- Frottage/Grattage: Rubbing or scraping to reveal unexpected textures and forms.
- Exquisite Corpse: Collective drawings or texts assembled sequentially, embracing surprise.
Note: Politics and Exile
Surrealists engaged Marxist and anti-fascist politics. World War II dispersals carried Surrealist ideas to the Americas, influencing Abstract Expressionism and later avant-gardes.
From Dada to Surrealism
Dada’s skepticism cleared space for Surrealism’s deeper dive into psyche and desire. Both movements destabilized logic, authorship, and medium boundaries—principles that echo through conceptual art, performance, and contemporary media practice.
Looking Ahead
Next, Chapter 8.2 explores Abstract Expressionism, where scale, gesture, and color field painting redefine the center of modern art in postwar New York.