Subversive, irreverent and fiercely anti-authoritarian, Dada made the radical suggestion that anything could be art and anyone an artist. Emerging in the middle of the First World War, Dada writers and artists attempted to dismantle traditional values, norms and codes of communication and thus to deconstruct contemporary culture. They pioneered experiments in interventionist collage, assemblage, performance and the inclusion of the industrially produced readymade. A decisive influence on the development of art during the twentieth century, most of the movements that followed have traced their roots to Dada.

This volume presents a rich selection of the Dadas’ experimental visual and literary works. Covering not only Western Europe and America but also Central and Eastern Europe, Japan and later Neo-Dada, eminent scholar and Director of the International Dada Archive Rudolf Kuenzli gives a lively, accessible and comprehensive assessment. Linking visual art, performance and literature, this is a fresh treatement of Dada as the Dadas saw it.

Survey Rudolf Kuenzli surveys Dada in its historical context and examines its significant impact and resonance in art and culture today.

Works provides an extensive colour plate section with extended captions for every artwork. Organized chronologically and geographically around major explosions of Dada activity, from its inception in Zurich we follow Dada to New York, Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, Paris, Central and Eastern Europe, and Japan, finally looking at Neo-Dada.

It is a roll-call of the avant-garde: Hugo Ball at the Cabaret Voltaire, Hans Arp’s Automatic Drawing; Marcel Duchamp’s readymades and Man Ray’s assemblages; Francis Picabia’s paintings linking machine and human form; collage with political comment from Raoul Hausmann and Hannah Höch; Kurt Schwitter’s all-encompassing concept of Merz; Max Ernst; from the East, the graphics of Lajos Kassák and El Lissitzky; Okada Tatsuo’s constructions and fireworks attached to the cover of Mavo magazine. A look at Neo-Dada includes Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning and the Happenings of Hi Red Center.

Documents collects original Dada writings, researched at the International Dada Archive and sourced from around the world. Poetry, manifestos and statements are presented together with letters between Tristan Tzara and Marcel Duchamp; Beatrice Wood describes ‘The Richard Mutt Case’ (the first exhibition of a urinal) to her readers of The Blind Man in 1917; and in recent interviews artists such as Allan Kaprow and Arman relate their Dada inheritance.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Format: Paperback
Size: 290 x 250 mm (11 3/8 x 9 7/8 in)
Pages: 220 pp
Illustrations: 100 illustrations
ISBN: 9780714869407

Rudolf Kuenzli taught courses at the University of Iowa in contemporary theories, literatures and cultures of the 19th and 20th centuries, interarts, and the avant-garde. He has published books on Marcel Duchamp, Dada and Surrealist Film, André Breton, Surrealism and Women, and New York Dada. He served as the editor of Dada/Surrealism and the Director of the International Dada Archive at the University of Iowa.

"Traces the progression and development of one of the most revolutionary movements of the 20th century, and what is unusual - if not unique - in a book on this subject, it seeks to show how Dada has influenced contemporary artists and art theory... A comprehensive study."—The Art Newspaper

"Lavishly oversized and impressively illustrated, DADA, will probably serve as the definitive study of the movement for some time now."—ARTimes

"Phaidon and Kuenzli offer a rich foundation with which to dive deeper into a study of not only dada practices and art but also to European art movements of the 20th century. Big illustrations, rich explanatory notes and references make this another must-have from Phaidon press."—Slug

"This latest edition to Phaidon’s Themes and Movements series follows hot on the heels of the 2005 exhibition catalog and succeeds in adding depth to the existing survey literature."— Library Journal

"Phaidon's Themes and Movements series seeks to provide the late 20th-century art history books of the future."—Art Monthly