DADA, and other early 20th Century modernist movements, were trying to formulate responses to the mechanization of life, and the brutal carnage of the First World War. They felt Western values themselves, of nationalism, militarism, religion, capitalism, and even the tradition of rational philosophy, had launched the world into the horrors of an utterly absurd war.
They were gasping for a way, a path, a technique, for art and other creative activities to deal with this broken world.
They essentially found three different methods, and these have dominated the creative fields of visual art and literature since that time.
The shorthand way to describe the first method, basically, is “the human condition has shown itself to be absurd, ridiculous, and chaotic. So we will make work that is deliberately absurd, ridiculous, and chaotic. By deliberately making work that, even from a distance, seems crazy, we will show that we understand this crazy world.” Out of this came an avalanche of artwork that most people perceived as meaningless, transgressive, and maybe even a Communist Plot. Examples include: Meret Oppenheim’s Object, which was a teacup and teaspoon lined with fur, the noisy chaotic theater events at the Cabaret Voltaire, and Marcel Duchamp’s “readymade” of a bicycle wheel mounted to the seat of a stool.
Object
Marcel Duchamp
A second method posits that the world is absurd, and the entire idea of content is exhausted and pointless. Consequently the only paths left for the artist to explore involve questions of form, and not content. Out of this impulse come the drive to abstraction in art, such as the paintings of Piet Mondrian, the cut-up writing of William S. Burroughs, and the plays of Samuel Beckett
The third method starts from the same basic idea that the world is meaningless and absurd. But it turns this on its head and wonders, “Look, life is ridiculous. Nothing means anything, really, when you get right down to it. Besides, we’re all going to die. We all know all that. But, can’t we have a little fun along the way?” This impulse has launched work as different as the novel Catch-22, the famous silent musical event that is John Cage’s 4′33,″ and the film comedy, Doctor Strangelove.”
Seeing a piece by Calder is always a fresh and delightful experience. His work is not really “around that much.” Unlike the work of some of the recent, super-popular artists like Warhol, or Koons, or Basquiat, whose work seems to show up every time you turn a page, or click a link, you sometimes go …
Mondrian’s work has been a big influence on me, and my approach to art. When I first encountered his paintings, I was struck by how spare, flat, and organized they were.
DADA
DADA, and other early 20th Century modernist movements, were trying to formulate responses to the mechanization of life, and the brutal carnage of the First World War. They felt Western values themselves, of nationalism, militarism, religion, capitalism, and even the tradition of rational philosophy, had launched the world into the horrors of an utterly absurd war.
They were gasping for a way, a path, a technique, for art and other creative activities to deal with this broken world.
They essentially found three different methods, and these have dominated the creative fields of visual art and literature since that time.
The shorthand way to describe the first method, basically, is “the human condition has shown itself to be absurd, ridiculous, and chaotic. So we will make work that is deliberately absurd, ridiculous, and chaotic. By deliberately making work that, even from a distance, seems crazy, we will show that we understand this crazy world.” Out of this came an avalanche of artwork that most people perceived as meaningless, transgressive, and maybe even a Communist Plot. Examples include: Meret Oppenheim’s Object, which was a teacup and teaspoon lined with fur, the noisy chaotic theater events at the Cabaret Voltaire, and Marcel Duchamp’s “readymade” of a bicycle wheel mounted to the seat of a stool.
Object
Marcel Duchamp
A second method posits that the world is absurd, and the entire idea of content is exhausted and pointless. Consequently the only paths left for the artist to explore involve questions of form, and not content. Out of this impulse come the drive to abstraction in art, such as the paintings of Piet Mondrian, the cut-up writing of William S. Burroughs, and the plays of Samuel Beckett
The third method starts from the same basic idea that the world is meaningless and absurd. But it turns this on its head and wonders, “Look, life is ridiculous. Nothing means anything, really, when you get right down to it. Besides, we’re all going to die. We all know all that. But, can’t we have a little fun along the way?” This impulse has launched work as different as the novel Catch-22, the famous silent musical event that is John Cage’s 4′33,″ and the film comedy, Doctor Strangelove.”
Dr. Strangelove
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