Dada Decoded: The Movement’s Untold Secrets

Dada, a movement known for its rebellion against logic and the conventional structures of art, flourished in the early 20th century across cities like Zürich, New York, Berlin, Cologne, Hannover, and Paris. The origins of its peculiar name, ‘Dada’, lie in a serendipitous moment at Hugo Ball’s Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich in 1916. A group of avant-garde artists and pacifists, including Jean Arp, Richard Hülsenbeck, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, and Emmy Hennings, stumbled upon the word ‘dada’ (French for ‘hobby-horse’) in a dictionary, which they felt perfectly encapsulated their disdain for bourgeois values and the despair wrought by World War I. Rejecting traditional artistic methods, Dadaists preferred collage, photomontage, and found-object constructions, thus avoiding conventional painting and sculpture​​.

The movement’s impact extended beyond Europe to the United States, particularly in New York, where figures like Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Morton Schamberg, and Francis Picabia led Dadaist expressions. Unlike their European counterparts, who were deeply engaged with the war’s implications, the New York Dadaists were more focused on critiquing the art establishment. Duchamp’s ready-mades, especially his ‘Fountain’ — a urinal turned art piece — sparked heated debates about the nature of art itself​​.