DADAISM VS NEO DADAISM

DADAISM VS NEO DADAISM

Artist

• Neo Dadaist Artists, similarly to Dadaist's Duchamp, re-contextualised mass symbols and draws the function out of the ready-made objects, confronting the audience to view something differently .
• Neo-Dadaists were able to control and redefine the purpose of art by changing the context of these popular culture symbols and objects.
• As a homosexual, Rauschenberg commented on the oppression of sexuality through the use of a bed as a canvas.

World

Audience

• A consumerist, industrialised, modern society. - Neo Dadaist respond to the waste of their society by using the readymade and recycling throw away objects.
• "Society revealed itself in what they threw away" - Robert Hughes
• Reflecting the cold war climate, Neo Dadaists, such as Rauschenberg resorted more covert methods to provoke the audience e.g. dripping paint and
• dicontextualising objects.

• Shock factor, contrasting to the formal elements and spirituality of Abstract Expressionism - is this "junk" really art?
• Neo Dadaists caused a shift in the role of the audience - rather than the intention of the artist defining the meaning of the artwork, Neo
• Dadaists encouraged the audiences' interpretation
• of the artwork defined the meaning.
• (chance, found objects, mass media -
• taking away the control and
• intention of the artist.

'Bed' - 1955

The WORLD

Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt and sheet on wood supports

• Germany was at war with many European countries, France & England from 1914 - 1918
• Nazi Party
• Hitler founded the German Worker's Party after frustration of defeat in WWI
• It came into full political power in 1933; people were convinced of his intentions due to his speeches that blamed the Jews ("master race")
• The German Communist Party tried to reveal the Nazi Party's true interest in capitalist financial power to the exclusion of the interests of the working class
• 1939 WWII

Robert Rauschenberg

The AUDIENCE

Adolf The Superman: Swallows Gold and Spits Junk

CHARACTERISTICS of Dadaism

• Capitalists vs. Communists
• Shock value
• Response to politics
• People were confused/afraid, in terms of wanting to agree or join Heartfield but knowing it was of the wrong
• Or, people were disgusted to see a perspective be against

• New forms of visual art, performance and poetry
• "to destroy the hoaxes of reason and to discover an unreasoned order"
• Experimental
• Provocative
• Using unorthodox materials
• Worked in spontaneity
• Collages, photomontages; scissors, glue

John Heartfield Posters

July 17, 1932

Berlin, Germany

Rotogravure: 38 x 27 cm

WORLD of Neo Dadaism

WORLD of Dadaism

• 1958 - 1962
• Post Abstract Expressionism
• From New York, where Abstract Expressionism was booming and the American artists were focusing on the conceptual, spirituality and human emotion.
• Neo Dadaism caused a shift towards challenging conventions through the use of different mediums: the use of the ready-made - carrying on from Dada.

The ARTIST

• Emerged during WWI
• From 1916 through to mid 1920's
• Loss of human life; destruction; death; technological advances
• Decline in social morals = violence, corrupt politics
• Artists all from Europe, New York
• "The beginning of Dada were not the beginnings of art, but of disgust"

• Robert Hughes - Society revealed itself in what they threw away > The Neo Dadaists reflected the
• consumerist, wasteful culture of the modern
• world by using the ready-made and throw
• away objects. "the secret language
• of junk" - Hughes

• The photomontage allowed for Heartfield to portray this irony by combining different photographs
• Metaphorically conveys the X - ray as Hitler's hidden interest in financial power; the dangers this led to
• Heartfield was a communist vs. the capitalist society
• Communists saw this as contradictory to his speeches

CHARACTERISTICS of Neo Dadaism

• Chaos - reflecting the wasteful, consumerist nature of the modern industrialized world.

• Radical - Rauschenberg's combines created through the blending of different methods & materials

• Rebellion - shifting away from the emotionally charged artworks of abstract expressionism to challenging what constitutes art - can trash be art?

Ruby & Vivian