Dada Dadaism Analysis

881 Words2 Pages

Although brief, Richard Huelsenbeck’s manifesto “First German Dada Manifesto”

described a ground-breaking anti-establishment movement now known as Dadaism and how it

changed the art world significantly. Richard Huelsenbeck was a founding member of the Berlin

Dada group. In his manifesto, Huelsenbeck vividly describes some of the aims that the

movement worked hard towards achieving.

The aim of Dada art and activities was both to help to stop the war and to vent frustration

with the nationalist and bourgeois conventions that had led to it. Their anti-authoritarian stance

was a perfect way to create a movement as they opposed any form of group leadership or guiding

ideology. Dada was a revolt against the culture and values which had caused …show more content…

Dada’s aesthetic proved a powerful influence on artists in many cities, including Berlin,

all of which generated their own groups. Dada was the first conceptual art movement where the

focus of the artists was not on crafting aesthetically pleasing objects but on making works that

often upended bourgeois sensibilities and that generated difficult questions about society, the role

of the artist, and the purpose of art.

Huelsenbeck was quite critical about many styles of art. Dadaism did not provide any sort

of aesthetic towards life like other artwork does. It accomplished this by tearing the conventional

ethics, culture, and inwardness, according to Huelsenbeck.

Dada or Dadaism was a form of artistic anarchy. It despised social, political and cultural

values of the time. However, it did embrace elements of art, music, poetry, theatre, dance and

politics. Dada was not so much a style of art like Cubism or Fauvism; it was more a protest

movement with an anti-establishment manifesto. Artists from this movement are known for their

use of readymade objects - everyday objects that could be bought and presented as art with

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