Surrealism and Dada Essay
During the days of World War I, a search began for new and fantastic subject matter, and so this brought together a number of young men. The writer, Hugo Ball, the painter, sculptor and poet, Jean Arp and the painter Hans Richter, as well as many others, all began this search of new and exciting styles that brought on the movement called Dada. This movement was largely a reaction to the destruction, hysteria and madness of the war. The Dadaists felt that reason and logic had resulted in war, and so, they wanted to move away from this and explore different principals such as simultaneity and chance.
There were two main parts to Dada, Zurich Dada and New York Dada. Zurich Dada came about as a result of these men whose demonstrations, art exhibitions, poetry readings and noise concerts attacked Western Art and Culture. Jean Arp was one of the most prolific artists to emerge from Zurich Dada. He studied painting in the early years of the twentieth century but found that there was great conflict between his paintings and what he learnt. This uncertainty that he had, led him to spend 3 years in various small towns in Switzerland where he was greatly influenced by the Swiss landscape. This resulted in many abstract works that were all based on nature and living organic shapes. Read more…