Dada
Nonsense as aesthetic
Dada was an early 20th-century art movement that embraced absurdity, anti-logic, and rejection of conventional aesthetics.
Born in Zurich during World War I, Dada artists created deliberately nonsensical works to mock bourgeois culture and the rationalism they blamed for the war's horrors.
The name itself—meaningless baby talk—embodied their anti-art stance.
Marcel Duchamp's urinal and Hugo Ball's sound poems exemplify Dada's irreverent spirit. (Lowercase dada is baby talk for father.)
- Marcel DuchampUrinal-as-art provocateur
- Man RayAvant-garde photographer, Dadaist
- Max ErnstDada and Surrealism pioneer
Assembled mixed-media artwork
- photomontageCombined image artwork
- assemblageCollected group of things
- readymadePrepared in advance
- cut-upHabitual joker or clown
automatism · typography · found object · bricolage · montage · frottage · sound poetry · performance art
Rejection of conventional aesthetics
- absurdityWildly illogical quality
- nihilismRejection of objective meaning
- anarchyDisorder from absent authority
- provocationAct that triggers response
irony · satire · randomness · nonsense · subversion · irreverence · protest · parody
Swiss financial center
Meaningless words or actions
- illogicalContrary to valid reasoning
- irrationalLacking sound judgment
- paradoxSeemingly absurd truth
- chaosComplete disorder and confusion
gibberish · meaningless · incoherent · random · chance · arbitrary · purposeless · futile
Testing new methods
- radicalRoot-indicating symbol
- revolutionarySeeking fundamental systemic change
- unconventionalDeparting from standard practice
- groundbreakingIntroducing radical new ideas
pioneering · innovative · rebellion · dissent · defiance · resistance · disruption · critique
Tristan Tzara
- Marcel DuchampUrinal-as-art provocateur
- Man RayAvant-garde photographer, Dadaist
- Max ErnstDada and Surrealism pioneer
collage
Assembled mixed-media artwork
- photomontageCombined image artwork
- assemblageCollected group of things
- readymadePrepared in advance
cut-up · automatism · typography · found object · bricolage · montage · frottage · sound poetry · performance art · nonsense verse
anti-art
Rejection of conventional aesthetics
- absurdityWildly illogical quality
- nihilismRejection of objective meaning
- anarchyDisorder from absent authority
provocation · irony · satire · randomness · nonsense · subversion · irreverence · protest · parody · chance
Zurich
Swiss financial center
nonsense
Meaningless words or actions
- illogicalContrary to valid reasoning
- irrationalLacking sound judgment
- paradoxSeemingly absurd truth
chaos · gibberish · meaningless · incoherent · random · chance · arbitrary · purposeless · futile · pointless
experimental
Testing new methods
- radicalRoot-indicating symbol
- revolutionarySeeking fundamental systemic change
- unconventionalDeparting from standard practice
groundbreaking · pioneering · innovative · rebellion · dissent · defiance · resistance · disruption · critique · dreamlike
- art formspainting, drawing, sculpture, photography, music
- art worldartist, painter, painting, paintings, sculpture
- contemporary artconceptual art, contemporary art, digital art, contemporary artists, modern art
- French LiteratureVictor Hugo, Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Dumas, Jules Verne
- Modern Artcubism, Cubism, Fauvism, surrealism, Surrealism
- absurdist comedyabsurdity, non sequitur, nonsense, paradox, incongruity
DadaNeoclassicism
Revival of ancient aesthetics
Renaissance art · Realism · Baroque · Bauhaus · Beaux-Arts
Dadatraditionalism
Adherence to inherited customs
conservatism · Victorian art · Pre-Raphaelites · orthodoxy · institutionalism
Dadadidacticism
Art prioritizing instruction
allegory · rationality · coherence · logic · propaganda art