Dada at Yale
The Yale Art Gallery’s celebration of Dada’s centennial
It started in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916, right in the middle of World War I, as artists from all over Europe who were disgusted with the state of things converged in a concerted effort to give the art world an in-your-face provocation. The result was the Dada movement, questioning the values and traditions of European society and radically exploring new possibilities. They put on shows with dance, puppetry, and poetry, forming the basis for contemporary performance art. They used everyday, highly un-aesthetic materials—a toilet bowl, newspapers, a bare light bulb—and called it art! They changed the rules and borders of creating art, spawning new movements, such as Surrealism, and giving the modern era a whole new direction. Where would Pop Art be without Dada? Street Art? Someone had to light the fuse.
You probably have heard the names of the pioneers—Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, George Grosz, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, Beatrice Wood; now you can see some of their greatest work. Last spring, the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut, celebrated the birth of Dada’s centennial with an exhibition, “Everything Is Dada,” of masterpieces from their collection and a series of provocative events. Here are some of the highlights.
