Dada was a literary and artistic movement that originated in Europe during the time World War I was up close and personal.  Many artists, writers and intellectuals took refuge in Switzerland.  They were very upset that Modern Europe had “allowed” the war to happen, and began protesting.  This group of people founded the Dada movement to go against European society and its artistic traditions.  They decided to become “non artists” and create “non art” since they believed art had no real meaning anyways.   Anything they could do to go against the current society that encouraged the war was their goal.

The word Dada has conflicting interpretation.  One that I think makes the most sense is that Dada comes from the Russian translation of “yes, yes” or “yeah, yeah” as in “yeah, whatever”.   Dadaists thrust mild obscenities, scatological humor, visual puns and everyday objects (renamed as “art”) into the general public.  The public was, of course, disgusted by this new “art”, which in turn made the Dadaists even more driven.   People caught on to this type of protesting, and the Dada movement was born.

Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel (Paris, 1913) , is a classic example of Dada art.  It is said Duchamp mounted the wheel just to watch it spin.  Two years after creating this piece he coined the phrase “Readymades” to explain found everyday objects he chose and presented as art.  One of his most notorious pieces is Fountain (1917), the urinal that shocked the art world.

I chose this piece because I found it silly and entertaining.  I feel that there is a good portion of art that seems silly, and people are willing to pay lots of money for things I could dig up in my neighbor’s backyard.  I like that the Dadaists found it clever and humorous to take random everyday things and jokingly call it art, only for it to truly become such a thing.  Who knew?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp