,Jenna Cole
EARLY
INTERNATIONAL
ART
MATRIC DADA
The major founder of Dada was Tristan Tzara.
ART NOTES
Artistic and Literary movement – widespread protest against all aspects of western culture. Mainly against
militarism & class discrepancies, during & after WW1. (1914-1918)
Inspiration for the surrealist movement.
Designed to shock & bewilder the public and to startle them into reconsideration of accepted
aesthetic values.
PRIMARY INFLUENCES OF DADA
Horror of a civilisation consumed by WW1
Marxist ideas.
DADA ARTISTS INTENDED TO DESTROY ESTABLISHED ART ATTITUDES AND CONVENTIONS BY
MOCKING THE ART PIECES ONCE PRAISED FOR CENTURIES.
ARTWORKS
Nude Descending Staircase, No 2 – Marcel Duchamp
This painting portrays continuous movements through a chain of overlapping cubistic.
, Jenna Cole
It uses cubistic figures and a futurist sense of movement through the symbolism of declining motions has
been interpreted as the decline of these art movements as well as the death of painting and the whole
tradition of the West.
Fountain – Marcel Duchamp 1917
This is a urinal turned onto its back and signed with “R.Mutt.”
Duchamp believed that spontaneous acts had more meaning & more sense than a rotten society.
Poor people couldn’t make traditional art because they could not afford the appliances and paints that they
needed.
The object is produced in a factory thus it challenges the notion of individual authorship of an
artwork.
Strips authority from the artwork
Lack of uniqueness challenges the notion of originality (concept so precious to the western world).
Expression of disillusionment through crude and satirical humor.
“R.Mutt” = Armud – poverty in German – Duchamp signed on behalf of the poor.
The Bride Stripped Bare by her Batchelors (1915-1923)
[ Medium – Oil & wire on glass]
The painting is a complex love machine full of sexual overtones that cumulates into a complex pattern of
sexuality and frustration.
Chocolate grinder and a bachelor machine – more elements. (bottom half)
Top section – bride & externally searated.
Bicycle Wheel – 1913
(Mocks technology – crude and sexual)
L.H.O.O.Q
Vandalised Mona Lisa post card – She is the pinnacle of Western art.
Symbolises civilisation which is originality.
L.H.O.O.Q means – “she has a hot arse”
Duchamp is against aesthetics.