Overview

Subversive, irreverent and fiercely anti-authoritarian, Dada made the radical suggestion that anything could be art and anyone an artist. Emerging in the middle of the First World War, Dada writers and artists attempted to dismantle traditional values, norms and codes of communication and thus to deconstruct contemporary culture. They pioneered experiments in interventionist collage, assemblage, performance and the inclusion of the industrially produced readymade. A decisive influence on the development of art during the twentieth century, most of the movements that followed have traced their roots to Dada. This volume presents a rich selection of the Dadas experimental visual and literary works. Covering not only Western Europe and America but also Central and Eastern Europe, Japan and later Neo-Dada, eminent scholar and Director of the International Dada Archive Rudolf Kuenzli gives a lively, accessible and comprehensive assessment. Linking visual art, performance and literature, this is a fresh treatement of Dada as its artists and writers saw it. Survey Rudolf Kuenzli surveys Dada in its historical context and examines its significant impact and resonance in art and culture today. Works provides an extensive colour plate section with extended captions for every artwork, organized chronologically and geographically around major explosions of Dada activity. From its inception in Zurich we follow Dada to New York, Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, Paris, Central and Eastern Europe, and Japan, finally looking at Neo-Dada across the globe. It is a roll-call of the avant-garde: Hugo Ball at the Cabaret Voltaire and Hans Arp s Automatic Drawing; Marcel Duchamp s readymades and Man Ray s assemblages; Francis Picabia s paintings linking machine and human form; collage with political comment from Raoul Hausmann and Hannah Hoch; Kurt Schwitter s all-encompassing concept of Merz; Max Ernst; from the East, the graphics of Lajos Kassak and El Lissitzky; Okada Tatsuo s constructions and fireworks attached to the cover of Mavo magazine. A look at Neo-Dada includes Robert Rauschenberg s Erased de Kooning and the Happenings of Hi Red Center. Documents collects original Dada writings, researched at the International Dada Archive and sourced from around the world. Poetry, manifestos and statements are presented together with letters between Tristan Tzara and Marcel Duchamp; Beatrice Wood describes The Richard Mutt Case (the first exhibition of a urinal) to her readers of The Blind Man in 1917; and in more recent interviews artists such as Allan Kaprow and Arman relate their Dada inheritance.

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9780714861135

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'traces the progression and development of one of the most revolutionary movements of the 20th century, and what is unusual - if not unique - in a book on this subject, it seeks to show how Dada has influenced contemporary artists and art theory. ..a comprehensive study. ' The Art Newspaper i'1/2Lavishly oversized and impressively illustrated, DADA, will probably serve as the definitive study of the movement for some time now.i'1/2 ARTimes i'1/2Phaidon and Kuenzli offer a rich foundation with which to dive deeper into a study of not only dada practices and art but also to European art movements of the 20th century. Big illustrations, rich explanatory notes and references make this another must-have from Phaidon press.i'1/2 Slug i'1/2This latest edition to Phaidoni'1/2s i'1/2Themes and Movementsi'1/2 series follows hot on the heels of the 2005 exhibition catalog and succeeds in adding depth to the existing survey literature.i'1/2 Library Journal

'traces the progression and development of one of the most revolutionary movements of the 20th century, and what is unusual - if not unique - in a book on this subject, it seeks to show how Dada has influenced contemporary artists and art theory. ..a comprehensive study. ' The Art Newspaper, January 2007 US quotes 'Lavishly oversized and impressively illustrated, DADA, will probably serve as the definitive study of the movement for some time now.' ARTimes, Jan/Feb 2007 'Phaidon and Kuenzli offer a rich foundation with which to dive deeper into a study of not only dada practices and art but also to European art movements of the 20th century. Big illustrations, rich explanatory notes and references make this another must-have from Phaidon press.' Erik Lopez, Slug, March 2007 'This latest edition to Phaidon's Themes and Movements series follows hot on the heels of the 2005 exhibition catalog and succeeds in adding depth to the existing survey literature.' Library Journal, March 15, 2007

Author Information

Rudolf Kuenzli is Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of Iowa. He is also Director of the International Dada Archive at the University of Iowa. His previous publications include Dada Artifacts (Iowa Museum of Art, 1978) and contributions to Artforum, Muttersprache and Diacrtitics. Kuenzli has also edited Dada Spectrum: The Dialectics of Revolt (with Stephen Foster, Coda, 1979), New York Dada (Willis Locker & Owens, 1986), Marcel Duchamp: Artist of the Century (with Francis Naumann, MIT Press, 1988), Andre Breton Today (Willis Locker & Owens, 1989), Surrealism and Women (MIT Press, 1991) and Dada and Surrealist Film (MIT Press, 1996). Kuenzli is co-editor, with Mary Ann Caws (author of Phaidon's Surrealism, also in the Themes and Movements series) of the journal Dada/Surrealism.

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