Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Dada & Surrealism For Beginners
    Dada & Surrealism For Beginners
    Dada & Surrealism For Beginners
    Ebook189 pages1 hour

    Dada & Surrealism For Beginners

    By Elsa Bethanis, Peter Bethanis and Joe Lee

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    What kind of artists put a mustache on the Mona Lisa? Enter a urinal in an art competition? Declare their own independent republic? Hijack a ship?

    Dadas!

    And what happens in such a movement? With Dada, many of the artists declared their own “Pope” and continued their journey (with no destination) into Surrealism, creating burning giraffes, “amoebic” dogs, and lobster telephones – some of the most imaginative and intense works of art of the 20th Century. In Dada & Surrealism For Beginners, you’ll get a colorful overview of these two movements, and develop a sense of the turbulent, wild, and unapologetically mad mood and tone of the Dada and Surrealist movements. Whether you’re an artist, would-be artist, or someone seeking the marvelous, you’ll find the courage and originality of the movements inspiring, and you’ll gain an understanding of their long-term (and current) influences on contemporary art and culture – everything from performance art to pop art to the abandoned train ticket you find in the street.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFor Beginners
    Release dateAug 21, 2007
    ISBN9781939994028
    Dada & Surrealism For Beginners
    Author

    Elsa Bethanis

    Elsa Bethanis is a writer and former editor whose work has also appeared in a number of literary journals. She resides in Indianapolis with their daughter Katie.

    Related to Dada & Surrealism For Beginners

    Related ebooks

    Art For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Abstract Expressionist

      Oct 25, 2018

      The Abstract Expressionist
      2 min read

    • Article

      Truth SEEKER

      Nov 23, 2021

      Truth SEEKER
      3 min read

    • Article

      Journey Of discovery

      Sep 1, 2020

      Journey Of discovery
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Addictive Sketcher

      Nov 27, 2020

      The Addictive Sketcher
      1 min read

    • Article

      Looking for Transcendence

      Dec 10, 2019

      Looking for Transcendence
      7 min read

    • Article

      Robert Mapplethorpe

      Apr 21, 2020

      Robert Mapplethorpe
      2 min read

    • Article

      AESTHETICS OF drawing

      Aug 7, 2020

      AESTHETICS OF drawing
      4 min read

    • Article

      Interior VISIONS

      Mar 4, 2019

      Interior VISIONS
      3 min read

    • Article

      Art + Social Media

      Aug 21, 2019

      Art + Social Media
      3 min read

    • Article

      An Artist of Our Social Age

      Sep 1, 2022

      An Artist of Our Social Age
      10 min read

    • Article

      Triptych by Sonia Delaunay

      May 6, 2020

      Triptych by Sonia Delaunay
      1 min read

    • Article

      Art And The Album Cover

      Apr 29, 2022

      Art And The Album Cover
      4 min read

    • Article

      Lithograhy

      May 8, 2020

      Letterpress is a relief process; gravure is a recess process and lithography is a planographic process, where the printing surface is essentially flat. Originally, that surface was a smooth chunk of limestone, which has two properties: porosity and a

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Essential Duchamp

      Aug 21, 2019

      The Essential Duchamp
      3 min read

    • Article

      Sigmund Freud And The Play On The Burden Of Representation

      Oct 25, 2018

      In 1989 American Conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth created the installation Zero & Not on occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sigmund Freud’s death. It marked the beginning of the Sigmund Freud Museum Contemporary Art Collection featuring outstanding i

      1 min read

    • Article

      When The Art World Became The Art Market

      Sep 17, 2019

      Michael Shnayerson traces the shift toward big business in “Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art.”

      3 min read

    • Article

      No/20 Art Of The Home

      Jun 3, 2019

      No/20 Art Of The Home
      1 min read

    • Article

      David Hockney

      Apr 18, 2017

      David Hockney
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Purist

      Apr 1, 2021

      The Purist
      8 min read

    • Article

      Celebrity Culture And The Mechanics Of Fame

      Jun 20, 2019

      It’s the interactions of media, publics, and stars that create celebrity culture, and those interactions are dynamic and unpredictable. The post Celebrity Culture and the Mechanics of Fame appeared first on The Millions.

      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Dada & Surrealism For Beginners

    3.5/5

    4 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      A very informative and interesting history of Dada and Surrealism.

    Book preview

    Dada & Surrealism For Beginners - Elsa Bethanis

    Then you may be ready to be a Dada or Surrealist.

    To get started, let’s assume the right mood, which requires some adjustment of your modern approach. So we will head to Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916.

    WHAT’ HAPPENING?

    Elsewhere in Europe, World War I is raging and Europe is a mess. So Zurich is filled with soldiers, refugees and revolutionaries, and people are frightened. Devastation of the war surrounds Switzerland, as does unimaginable suffering, and though it is safe for now, Zurich is terribly tense.

    Now let’s head down the street to the Dada’s hangout,

    JUST WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

    The Dadas may or may not introduce themselves, depending on how bourgeois they find us, so here’s an introduction:

    HUGO BALL (German), the founder of the Cabaret Voltaire. A former theater director, he’s seen the war (although he did not fight; he was rejected from military service on medical grounds), and hates it. A conscientious objector, he’s an idealist and doesn’t stay with the group long.

    TRISTAN TZARA (Romanian), a student of literature and philosophy, whose adopted name means sad in country.

    EMMY HENNINGS (German), actress, dancer, cabaret singer, expert forger, and Ball’s companion.

    RICHARD HUELSENBECK (German), a medical student who was drafted and fled to Switzerland to study medicine.

    HANS ARP (Alsatian) a painter, sculptor, and poet who later became a Surrealist. The author Gale writes that Arp gained some notoriety for a painting at a girls’ school that was considered corrupting to the students.

    MARCEL JANCO (Romanian). Friend of Tzara and a student of architecture, he becomes known for his Dada masks.

    And that’s the original group. This is Ball’s venue, and he’s promoting a Dada happening for this evening.

    The Dadas enjoyed hijinx, irony, and paradox—they posed the question of whether Dada is art or fire insurance, nothing or everything, art or anti-art?

    Ball’s the one who’s set up the cabaret, which has been going on for about three months now.

    The Dadas claimed to know all about Enlightenment ideas—Reason. Rationality. Morality. The arts ennoble people—the arts are supposed to make people better human beings, right? But the Dadas looked around Europe and saw death, destruction, and inventions designed for the purposes of death and destruction.

    Tzara’s reaction is a state of mind that was common: many international youths and artists recognized this irrational response to the turbulent politics and war of the time.

    The Dadas are young, passionate, and angry. They have a point: all this reasonable rational talk from the nice normal middle class buzzes around them while people are hung, hurting and still dying horrible deaths. The middle class is talking about God and country, flags and churches, while the devastation rages around them. It’s crazy. But the middle class, if they know anything about Dada, think it’s nonsense.

    So, if a group of clearly irrational

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1