·Conceptual/idea is more important than the finished art object.
·Colloquial French term for hobby horse, Dada means nonsense.
·Art movement in the 1960s, art made from the mid 1960 – mid 1970.
·Can be and look like anything – since the artist will think how they can best express
their idea. Can use whatever materials and whatever form.
oMarcel Duchamp – fountain
·International movement – Europe, North and South America.
·Stress on thought processes and method of production to determine the value the
work.
·Art forms were intentionally unfinished object – so work is not bought easily or to be
exhibited formally.
·Characterized by use of text, imagery and material (everyday use and found objects,
“ready-made” objects especially).
·Formless abstractions of language.
·Links with dadaism movement, although set in different times.
In Dadaism, the artist was seen as a provocateur and agitator, using their work to
challenge and subvert the dominant social order. In contrast, Conceptual Art often
sought to de-emphasize the role of the artist, emphasizing instead the importance of
the viewer's interpretation and interaction with the artwork.
·Started in 1924, Paris, inspired by Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
·Practicing automatic and drawing, wanted to reach unconscious parts of the mind.
·Reveal’s one true nature, discover hidden parts of human psyche, used drugs and
practiced hypnosis.
·Breton, medical student explored mental states. Obsessed with Freud theory, established
the philosophy of surrealism.
·“a pure psychic automatism”
·Thoughts with no control of mind
·Dreams = direct expression of unconscious, true desires, thoughts, and fears.
·Surrealism uses dreams as inspiration.
·Salvador Dali = Irrational mix of objects, symbolic meanings, sexual connotations
· Rene Magritte, Georgie de Chirico,
·Freud theories were to make people feel better, surrealists didn’t care about therapeutic
side. Freud didn’t want artistic adaptations of his theories. Freud was sceptical about
surrealism.
·No single point of view of objective, multi-faceted and diversity of perspectives.
·Surrealist wanted to give the psychoanalytic theory a poetic expression of art. Interest in
myth and primitivism.
·Primitivism = utopian style of art, represents physical world of nature and humanity’s
original state of nature.
·Beauty in the uncanny, unexpected, disregarded, and unconventional.
·Irreverent &Revolutionary art movement in the 20th century, response to modern age. 1914.
·It was conceived by radical avant-garde modernist as an opposition to the WW1, capitalism,
and the concurrent degradation of art in Zurich, Switzerland, where exiles took shelter and
intellects who opposed the war.
·As the war went on, the exhibitions at Cabaret Voltaire became more experimental, dissident
(opposing of the policies), and anarchic (no controlling rules or orders).
·Dadaism celebrates luck and irrationality rather than logic and calculations - it is nonsense,
play, provocation. It is Anti-Art.
·Contemplation of definition of art lead to laws of chance and found objects, therefore, using
ordinary objects separate from their mundane context.
·Readymade:
oMost iconic form to emerge.
oSculptural forms by Marcel Duchamp
oRepurposed factory-made objects into installations.
oDuchamp made fun of the art establishments while questioning how art is appreciated.
·Other art forms included:
oCollage – Jean Arp
oPhotography and Airbrushing – Man Roy
oLiterature – Hugo Ball – liberation in words, nonsensical syllables as form of poetry - poems
transferred to performances.
·This movement forced people to think what art is and what is considered art.
·Artwork produced during late 20th and early 21st century.
·Art produced after the Modern Art movement to present day:
oImpressionism
oExpressionism
oCubism
oFauvism
oDadaism
oSurrealism
·Not uniform, no precise description - artists approach work with a wide array of
media and materials to convey wide array of concepts, themes, and subject
matter.
·Influenced by one’s own interest and expressions, culture, politics, and trends.
·Common themes: identity, body, technology, globalization, migration, society,
culture, memory, passage of time, artistic critique of sociopolitical institutions.
·Grew along with modernism, now diverged. Emerged with pop art.
·Contemporary Art Society found in 1910, by Roger Fry and his colleagues in
London.