:::Dada to Pop:::

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Dada
Officially the history of dada begins on the fifth of February 1916 when the German writer, artist and cabaret performer Hugo Ball and his wife Emmy Hennings opened the Cabaret Voltaire in the restaurant Die Meierei at the Spiegelgasse in Zurich. Unofficially dada started earlier. In 1912 and 1913 the French artists Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, the American photographer and artist Man Ray and the American photographer and galery owner Alfred Stieglitz organized activities that may well be labelled as dadaist. They publish magazines, organize expositions and soirees and mingle in a very conspicuous manner in the cultural life of New York.

Still the cradle of dada stands in Zurich. There dada got its name. Uncertain is how. Probably the term 'dada' is randomly picked from a dictionary, but around 1915 their existed a soap brand Dada which might given the dadaists inspiration. Other explanations are that dada is a combination of the affirmative Russian outcry 'da' or that 'dada' is the first word uttered by babies. The reason Zurich grew from the sleepy, provincial town into an important cultural meeting point is the First World War. Because of the violence Zurich became a safe haven for pacifists, semi-pacifists, left radicals (Lenin lived in the neigbourhood of Cabaret Voltaire), writers (James Joyce), artists, poets, dancers (especially Laban's dance school became famous in those times) and weapon dealers. Ball started the Cabaret Voltaire but the real protagonists of dada in Zurich became the Rumanian poet Tristan Tzara and the German writer Richard Huelsenbeck. Striking is the fact that these ambitious artists never got the international artistic acknowledgement they persevered. More important than their poems and their novels was the profound influence both artists had on the cultural life of metropolis like Paris and Berlin.

Huelsenbeck went in 1918 to Berlin, the capital of the loser of World War One. At the time it was a complete anarchistic city, where extreme wealthy merchants dined in expensive restaurants while starving war invalids begged on the sidewalk. Huelsenbeck writes on this period in his autobiography En Avant Dada: "In Zurich the international profiteers sat in the restaurants with well-filled wallets and towy cheeks, ate with their knives and smacked their lips in a merry hurrah for the countries that were bashing each other's skulls in. Berlin was the city of tightened stomachers, of mounting, thundering hunger, where hidden rage was transformed into a boundless money lust, and men's minds were concentrating more and more on questions of naked existence". It is not surprising that dada in Berlin developes itself to a strongly political tainted movement. Al the ludicrous actions were harsh and aggressive; they provoked evenly harsh and aggressive reactions from the Berlin police and the German army and marines. When Tzara went to Paris in 1920 on the invitation of the future pope of surrealism AndrŽ Breton the atmosphere there was completely the opposite. In the triumphant passion that suites a winner Paris greeted dada with great enthusiasm. The soirees the dadaists held attracted crowds of thousands. Dada became the darling of the public.

The end of dada is mystified as its beginnings. When Tzara declared dada dead in the dada convention at Weimar in 1922, he could not know that a year later the Netherlands would be stricken by the dada campaign of Van Doesburg and Schwitters. [John Heartfield - Hitler] In Berlin dada went down under the political violence and the internal rows between anarchists and communists. Georg Grosz emigrated to the United States. John Heartfield went on protesting against the ascending nazism with his famous political-satirical photo collages until he had to flee. In Paris Breton became the pope of the surrealism. This art movement is often seen as the result of dada, but should be seen as the result of the decline of dada in the triumphant city of Paris. Surrealism was to programmatic for dadaists. The movement clearly left no place for the by chance and circumstances determined dadaist diversity.

So what is a dadaist? Duchamp was a member of New York dada and was in Paris in the period dada evaded the light city. But was he a dadaist? Did he make dadaist art? He will be remembered as one of the most enigmatic en misunderstood people at the beginning of the twentieth century. He finally abjured art for the more intellectual stimulating play of chess. Schwitters was an odd character that always walked with its nose in the direction of the side walk, seeking for snips of paper, threads, tram tickets and other stuff that he could use in his collages. He invented his own sort of dada and called it Merz. Picabia started as an impressionist and is now admired by postmodernists for his complete lack of style during his art life. He was a rich man. His arrival in Zurich meant for Tzara and his fellow dadaists an evening filled with drink and drugs in the more fancy hotels of Zurich. Picabia was also one of the most self critical dadaists, as you can see in the ending part of his dadaist manifesto. Dada, lui, ne veut rien, rien, rien, il fait quelque chose pour le public dise: 'nous ne comprenons rien, rien, rien'. Les Dadaistes ne sont rien, rien, rien, bien certainement ils n'arriveront å rien, rien, rien. Francis PICABIA qui ne sait rien, rien, rien. Dada, on the other hand, wants nothing, nothing, nothing, it makes the public say 'We understand nothing, nothing, nothing'. The Dadaists are nothing, nothing, nothing and they will surely succeed in nothing, nothing, nothing. Francis PICABIA who knows nothing, nothing, nothing. Van Doesburg was the driving force behind the Stijl. That he, under the name I.K. Bonset was busy composing typographical and sound technical poetical experiments was in 1924 only known by the happy few. And Arthur Cravan? It is hard to classify him. Poet, boxer - he fought Jack Johnson in Europe for money - globe-trotter, but above all provocateur. Dadaist from blood, without the afterwards recognized artistic production. Yet all five of them are important dadaists. Because they were not afraid for the crowd that violently insulted them of stupidity. Because they, just like Jack Johnson, found in that violence the inspiration to press their artistic, cultural beliefs, against all norms and values of that time. They taught the public in Zaal Rosehaghe their future life style.

http://members1.chello.nl/~m.woestenburg/dada/articles/lifestyle6.html

Bauhaus

The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by an architect named Walter Gropius. [Gropius] Gropius came from the Werkbund movement which sought to integrate art and economics, and to add an element of engineering to art. The Werkbund movement was unable to achieve this integration, but the founding of the Bauhaus saw the solution that had previously been overlooked. The Bauhaus was founded by the combining of the Weimar Art Academy, and the Weimar Arts and Crafts School. Students at this new school were trained by both an artist and a master craftsman, realizing the desires of Gropius to make "modern artists familiar with science and economics, [that] began to unite creative imagination with a practical knowledge of craftsmanship, and thus to develop a new sense of functional design," (Bauhaus 1919-1928 p. 13). [cathedral drawing] Ideologies The school had three aims at its inception that stayed basically the same throughout the life of the Bauhaus even though the direction of the school changed significantly and repeatedly. The first aim of the school was to "rescue all of the arts from the isolation in which each then found itself," (Whitford p.11) to encourage the individual artisans and craftsmen to work cooperatively and combine all of their skills. Secondly, the school set out to elevate the status of crafts, chairs, lamps, teapots, etc., to the same level enjoyed by fine arts, painting, sculpting, etc.. The third aim was to maintain contact with the leaders of industry and craft in an attempt to eventually gain independence from government support by selling designs to industry. With these at its basis the Bauhaus began and influenced our lives immensely in ways that most people probably take for granted. Innovations and Acheivments [development of [A]] Since the school tried to combine art with engineering and craftsmanship, innovation ran rampant through the Bauhaus resulting in a multitude of advances affecting the most basic aspects of life. "Everyone sitting on a chair with a tubular steel frame, using an adjustable reading lamp, or living in a house partly or entirely constructed from prefabricated elements is benefiting from a revolution in design largely brought about by the Bauhaus;"(Whitford p.10) getting up from this chair looking at the lamp on my desk, and the dry wall in front of me, I feel a new respect for the work of the Bauhaus. The practical innovations developed by the Bauhaus have profoundly effected designs favored by industry as shown by the desks and chairs that fill offices, lobbies, and lounges across America, not to mention the portable classrooms that seem to be favored today, delivered on trucks, propped up and bolted together and filled with those ubiquitous tubular steel and plastic chairs. The effects of the Bauhaus stretches beyond our furniture and light fixtures, into the realms of architecture, theater, and typography. where the designs and style of the Bauhaus are still spoken of today.

http://people.ucsc.edu/~gflores/bauhaus/history.html

DeStijl

Theo van Doesburg tried from 1915 to 1917 to bring in new members for an alliance of Dutch [composition XI, 1918] artists. The purpose of the alliance was to stand up as a group instead of standing up as individual artists. In 1917 the first number of the magazine 'The Style' was launched. The idea for this magazine came from Theo van Doesburg. It was meant for explaining his own work as well as the work of the other members of the alliance. For them the magazine was an instrument to discuss new modern art and to spread their own ideas. Still there are several points of view about the origin of The Style. If we look at the date of foundation, the first World War, we can point out the endeavor of the society as base of the origin. At that time it was very chaotic in Holland. The people wanted peace, rest and harmony again. The members of The Style tried to reflect in their work what in the entire social development could not be achieved, The Ideal Harmony. If we look at the former art periods, The Style seems a logic outcome of the Cubist period (1907- 1914). The Cubist artists tried to order the reality. The result of ordering the reality often looks like a harmonious totality. The cubists however, still used identifiable figures and elements in their paintings; their paintings were still telling something. The Style carried the principal of ordering the reality through, by ordering the reality even further. The paintings made by members of The Style do not show identifiable figures at all. These paintings have a non-telling character, but are still understandable and reflecting something. The Style did not restrict itself to the art of painting. The members wanted to realize the principals of The Style in many different artistic areas, such as architecture, sculpture, design, etc. Theo van Doesburg actually wanted to call the magazine 'The Straight Line', but influenced by the other members the name became 'The Style' after all. The members thought that the word 'Style', preceded by the the word 'The' , suggests that it is the best, possibly even the only style, usable in the modern art and society. Although the purpose was to stand up as a group, the members Van der [simultaneous countercomposition, 1929] Leck and Van Doesburg started to use diagonals and and the color green. (1925) Everybody thought this would be the end for the alliance, but that was not true at all. Mondriaan and several other members started to experience with diagonals and other colors. By doing this they stood up as a group again and saved one of the basic principals of the alliance The Style. The Style ended in 1931 when Theo van Doesburg started a new alliance, called 'Abstraction-Creation" and therefor ended his membership with The Style. With Van Doesburg ending his membership, the magazine 'The Style' died also. The Style however did not end completely. In some way, the other members continued carrying out the principals of The style, but individually in stead of as a group. This meant the ending of the essence of the alliance. The Style was such an important movement that it still inspires the art and architecture. The Style is everywhere: Clothes, curtains, furniture, carpets, packing, etc. In all you can find elements of The Style. People copied the principals of The Style or were influenced by it. The principals of The Style [composition XXII, 1920-1922] The Style is a variation of the abstract art, witch is characteristic for the opinions about art of the modern times. This modern art had to be non-illustrative and non-telling in contrast to the former art movements and it's opinions. The modern art had to be able to stand on its own and had to be understandable without referring to the concrete world. So it did not have to reflect something identifiable to be understandable. The Style is recognizable by the use of straight horizontal en vertical lines as well as the use of the primary colors red, yellow and blue. They also used the colors black, white and gray. The result of it all seems an almost technically constructured totality. It was not the intention to tell something concrete, but to show the world the ideal harmony. The Style went back to the fundamental elements of the art: color and form, level and line. With these elements the artist developed new sculptural language and with that the placed the ideal world opposite the reality. Most of the artist used closed and open forms, density and space, color and form. By using these elements within one painting, the ideal harmony could be reached. All elements have their own function in the totality. The lines are the borders and make the open or closed forms. The lines are also used to create a certain space. The border of the painting is not the end of the painting. We can use our fantasy to fill in the rest; to let it grow as big as we want, as big as we can imagine. By using only the primary colors, the artist could create a 3-dimensional effect. The colors attract immediate attention. Therefor the rest of the painting seems to go to the background. It looks like the white forms are further back than the colored forms. That is how the artists created a front and a back in their paintings, witch is held in harmony because of the use of different sized forms. So the ideal harmony could only be reached by using the perfect proportion between: * the size of the colored forms * the colored and uncolored forms * the closed and open forms By the use of ideal proportions, the artists were able to create peace and balance in their work, witch reflects the ideal harmony in the most perfect way. The members of the alliance saw art as the bridge between reality and harmony. If harmony was reached in reality, art would lose its function.

http://www.the-artfile.com/uk/styles/stijl/stijl.htm

Pop

Pop Art was a major reaction against the Abstract Expressionist movement that had dominated painting in the United States during the late 1940s and 1950s. Pop artists, who found Abstract Expressionism to be elitist, began using images from popular culture as the basis for their art. Comic books, mass produced items, celebrities and pulp photographs became the subject matter of the Pop artists. These artists emphasized contemporary social values: the sprawl of urban life, the transitory, the vulgar, the superficial, and the flashy -- the very opposites of those values cherished by artists of the past. Seeking cultural resources, pop artists reworked such industrial products as soup and beer cans, American flags, and automobile wrecks. They turned images of hot dogs and hamburgers into gigantic blowups or outsize vinyl monsters. Advertising provided numerous starting points, especially in product labels, posters, and billboards. Each artist used popular icons to express his/her own personal message. Andy Warhol used supermarket items like Campbell's soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles painted in endless repetitive rows presenting the things that he thought Americans found most important in the 1960s. From there he turned to other images worshiped by the masses, famous celebrities that had attained folk hero status like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Other artists used popular images to relay different ideas. Roy Lichtenstein painted images from comic strips blown-up to gigantic sizes. Lichtenstein showed these images of modern industrial America in a detached and impersonal matter.

http://www.umfa.utah.edu/?id=MjAy

Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg was born Milton Rauschenberg on October 22, 1925, in Port Arthur, Texas. He began to study pharmacology at the University of Texas at Austin before being drafted into the United States navy, where he served as a neuropsychiatric technician in the navy hospital corps in San Diego. In 1947, he enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute and traveled to Paris to study at the AcadŽmie Julian the following year. In the fall of 1948, he returned to the United States to study under Josef Albers at Black Mountain College, near Asheville, North Carolina, which he continued to attend intermittently through 1952. While taking classes at the Art Students League, New York, from 1949 to 1951, Rauschenberg was offered his first solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery. Some of the works from this period included blueprints, monochromatic white paintings, and black paintings. From the fall of 1952 to the spring of 1953, he traveled to Europe and North Africa with Cy Twombly , whom he had met at the Art Students League. During his travels, Rauschenberg worked on a series of small collages, hanging assemblages, and small boxes filled with found elements, which he exhibited in Rome and Florence. Upon his return to New York in 1953, Rauschenberg completed his series of black paintings, using newspaper as the ground, and began work on sculptures created from wood, stones, and other materials found on the streets; paintings made with tissue paper, dirt, or gold leaf; and more conceptually oriented works such as Automobile Tire Print (1953) and Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953). By the end of 1953, he had begun his Red Painting series on canvases that incorporated newspapers, fabric, and found objects and evolved in 1954 into the Combines, a term Rauschenberg coined for his well-known works that integrated aspects of painting and sculpture and would often include such objects as a stuffed eagle or goat, street signs, or a quilt and pillow. In late 1953, he met Jasper Johns, with whom he is considered the most influential of artists who reacted against Abstract Expressionism [more]. The two artists had neighboring studios, regularly exchanging ideas and discussing their work, until 1961. Rauschenberg began to silkscreen paintings in 1962. He had his first career retrospective, organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, in 1963 and was awarded the Grand Prize for Painting at the 1964 Venice Biennale. He spent much of the remainder of the 1960s dedicated to more collaborative projects including printmaking, Performance [more ], choreography, set design, and art-and-technology works. In 1966, he cofounded Experiments in Art and Technology, an organization that sought to promote collaborations between artists and engineers. In 1970, Rauschenberg established a permanent residence and studio in Captiva, Florida, where he still lives. A retrospective organized by the National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., traveled throughout the United States in 1976Ð78. Rauschenberg continued to travel widely, embarking on a number of collaborations with artisans and workshops abroad, which culminated in the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) project from 1985 to 1991. In 1997, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, exhibited the largest retrospective of RauschenbergÕs work to date, which traveled to Houston and to Europe in 1998.

http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_133.html

How much did technology influence these movements?

Would any of these movements have happened without the advent of new technoloies?

How much did this movement influence the world of design?

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