Early Twentieth-Century Art

 

 

Introduction

Dadaism refers to a movement in literature and art grounded on deliberate negation and disavowal of traditional artistic values. The movement was established in the early twentieth century in Zurich and Switzerland. It was formed by artists who were against the modern capitalist society to express their discontent towards war, violence, and nationalism. They used the publication of literary/ art journals, demonstrations as well as public gathering. Artists Such as John Cage, Joseph Cornell drew a vast influence on their work from Dadaism. Inspired by Dada art, Dadaism proved to be one of the heroic revolutionary movements of the early 20th century.

Origin of Dada movement

Dadaism was started in response to World War I. The primary principle behind the Dada art movement was the modern age (Bigsby 56). Due to war, several intellectuals, artists, and writers, mostly from Germany and France, relocated to neutral Switzerland. Furious with the rise of capitalist culture, simultaneous degradation of art and war; the early 1910s artists started the exploration of new art commonly referred to as “anti-art” led by Marcel Duchamp. The idea of non-art was brought by the argument that art in society had turned meaningless. Avant-garde movements like Futurism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Constructivism also hugely influenced the Dadaism movement. The Dadaists sought the artistic medium as a way of demonstrating. To contemplate the art definition, the artist utilized the opportunity to experiment with the established object. The output of Dada art was miscellaneous, ranging from sculpture to painting, photography, collage, poetry, and performance art. Clever shots and humor supported the art. Besides, the artistic attitude of nationality and materialistic mockery proved a powerful inspiration for artists in several cities like New York, Berlin, Paris, Cologne, and Hanover. The question of the role of art in the modern age became more pertinent across the cities. Though the Dada movement was dissolved in the early 1920s, it significantly influenced many trends in the visual art field with the most popular one being Surrealism.

Influence of Dadaism on John Cage and Joseph Cornell Works

Dada and Surrealist movement put forth a significant influence on the music of the twentieth century, particularly on the New York-based avant-garde composers. The composers included John Cage and Stefan Wolpe, among others. Led by Cage, the composers cleared the way for the Dadaist artistic titled normative Dada, whose revolutionary portrayed a unique character from its European counterparts. As a result, Cage was influenced to initiate the Neo-Dada movement alongside Robert Rauschenberg and Merce Cunningham in the 1950s. The movement comprised of the American artworks between the 1950s and 1960s, serving as a reminiscent of the Dadaist’s artistic work. Neo-Dadaist like Cage used absurdist contrast and prevalent imagery as stout dada echoes of the 1950s and 1960s happenings. Also, Cage flagged several specific ideals like the artistic control of the art creation and definition as well as the role of chance in art creation, thus, defining the Neo-Dada (Bigsby 78). Cage inventive ideas on performance and composition influenced not only painters but also musicians and chorographers. He released a controversial, extremely spontaneous, and paradoxical work of art 4’33” in 1952, challenging the whole idea of music composition. Indeed, 4’33” followed the Dadaist tradition drawing on Dada poetry and Gertrude Stein influences. Other works of Cage included: X (1983), Theme and Variations (1992), Empty Words (1979), as well as M (1973). Successively, Cage created semi-coherent and evocative poetry with the assist of the computer. In other cases, he designed some pieces of performance, which went hand in hand with his music while reading them out loud.

Joseph Cornell, on the other hand, got inspired by several surrealist artists like Alberto Giacometti, among others. He began using his old books cuts illustration to create collages. In 1932, Cornell displayed his first exhibition “Objects by Joseph Cornell: Minutiae, Glass Bells, Coups d’Oeil, Jouet Surréalistes” at Levy Gallery (Reynes-Delobel and Mansanti 13). Cornell exhibited his work alongside the surrealists, who were a significant influence on the Dada movement. Also, Cornell’s participation in the New York Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism in 1936 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was enormously influenced by Dada (Reynes-Delobel and Mansanti 13). Just like Dadaists, his creation involved juxtaposition and poetic imageries. An example is the shadow boxes, which were best known as poetic theatres or memory of boxes. Cornell’s famous shadow of boxes comprised of an enigmatic arrangement of collagen elements, poetic objects. The ideas and themes in Cornell’s work included music, astronomy, seashells, birds, souvenirs of travel, and broken crystals. Cornell used his inspiration from the surrealist to expose his dark childhood past, which was bombarded with a series of violence and overtly sexual abuse through the use of iconography. According to Reynes-Delobel and Mansanti, his Untitled Soap Bubble Set, featured in MoMA, became the heart of Cornell’s massive installation of his work (14). It was dubbed The Element of Natural Philosophy.

The Role of Marcel Duchamp Dada Movement

Marcel Duchamp was a French-American writer, chess player, sculptor, and a painter. His work is associated with conceptual art, Dada, and Cubism. Though he was indirectly associated with Dada groups, he had a considerable impact on both the twentieth and the twenty-first century. Duchamp, along with Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, played a significant role in the definition of the plastic arts revolutionary developments in the early twentieth century. Those innovatory were useful in the developments of sculptures and paintings. However, Duchamp’s motive for using art was serving the mind rather than pleasing the eye. The different attitudes towards art saw Duchamp reject the work of his fellow artists by World War I. While Dadaists turned into the development of art supported by scattered humor, soft obscenities, and everyday objects, so did Marcel Duchamp. Among Duchamp’s creation was an outrageous mustache painting, with scribbled obscenities and placed on a copy of Mona Lisa (Shusterman 64). Duchamp, alongside Man Ray, contributed his humor and notions towards the New York activities concurrent with the creation of The Large Glass and his Ready-mades.

In 1917, Duchamp got a breakthrough in his artistic work. The fountain urinal emerged as Duchamp’s prominent example of his linkage with the Dada upon its submission for the 1917 exhibition to the Society of Independent Artists. The fountain was, however, rejected by the show committee as it was argued to be a non-art. The incident led to the resignation of Duchamp from the board of the independent artists (Shusterman 64). Eventually, Duchamp, alongside Beatrice Wood and Henri Roche, published a Dada magazine labeled The Blind Man, which was built in commentary, humor, literature, and art. Those events marked the end of Duchamp’s participation in the Dada group.

Conclusion

Dada’s movement inspired by Dada art remains the most prevalent, unique revolutionary movement of the early 20th century. Besides, the art influenced other artists in portraying their work through poetic imagery and juxtaposition, among other forms.

Works Cited

Bigsby, Christopher William Edgar. Dada & surrealism. Vol. 22. Taylor & Francis, 2017.

Reynes-Delobel, Anne, and Céline Mansanti. “Americanizing Surrealism: Cultural Challenges in the Magnetic Fields.” Miranda. Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone/Multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal on the English-speaking world, 2017.

Shusterman, Richard. Performing live: Aesthetic alternatives for the ends of art. Cornell University Press, 2018.