Dada Defined

A knowledge of dada is essential for anyone who has an interest in the arts and a desire to understand contemporary culture.



It is difficult to overstate the importance of this movement in the history of art and its impact on contemporary art discourse. Dada was the definitive avant-garde and probably the most shocking, perplexing, astonishing and revolutionary art movement in world art history. How does one account for a work such as Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ 1917, a porcelain urinal submitted for a prestigious exhibition in New York? Or a performance at the Cabaret Voltaire at around the same time in Zürich where an audience is goaded into a hostile reaction to nonsensical gibberish presented as artistic entertainment?


Originally designed as an introductory text for upper secondary art students, the book provides a framework and historical context for decoding the work of the dadaists. Key artworks with analysis are presented in context.