Dada, Surrealism and Dali

During the 20^th century new art styles began emerging, Dada and Surrealism. Dada begins around the time of World War I, later Surrealism develops after the war. These new art styles challenge the definition of art and artist. Dada and Surrealism differ in form, content and the concept of art.

            Dada was a way for artists to respond to the fall of Bourgeois culture.

Artists were responding to ignorance and the destruction caused by WWI. This was the first time people were exposed to this extent of destruction, during WWI new weapons of mass destruction are introduced; machine guns, fighter planes, tanks and worse. Dada’s form was much different than any art that had ever been created thus far in history. Art was being created from “readymades,” massed produced objects that were either found or bought from a store. The content of Dada art is humorous, meaningless, and useless much like the name Dada, which was said to have been picked out randomly from a dictionary. Dada has a wide range of definitions, in a sense Dada means everything and nothing at all. Dada embraced the concept of art being nonsense; it was more about the thought behind the artwork. Artists were pushing the boundaries on what could be considered art. The art work embraced irrationality to be critical of Europe and rational thought.  Art is even left to chance. In some cases people question the artist-genius in relation with Dada, asking does it really take an art to create art from chance, and random found objects. I would argue yes, because there is still an interest in the thought behind the work.

            Soon after Dada was establish as an art style, surrealism developed. Surrealism was a way to move forward from bourgeois values and order. Artists used forms that were biomorphic, organic and sometimes even disturbing. Surrealism art also consist of real life objects in unreal situations. The content of this work has influences from Marxism, creating a social revolution. Surrealism is also influenced by Sigmund Freud, a physiologist, who was interested in society, sexuality, cultural values and the subconscious. The main concept for surrealism was the subconscious, artists were very interested in the dream like state; they would use automatism which was a way to release subconscious images. Artists were so focused on creating dream like images that some would use drugs to access their subconscious.

            Salvador Dali was a Surrealist artist; in 1934 he painted Metamorphosis of Narcissus. At first glance, this painting appears very dream like and it does not seem to make any coherent sense. In the foreground there is a rock sculpture that appears to a hand holding an egg that is hatching a flower. Then the left there is another sculpture that resembles the other rock sculpture, nearly a mirror image. It is coming out the water, the egg seems more seed like, and there is hair flowing from the crack. Between the sculptures in the background there is a group of nude women posing, this could be a reference to Sigmund Freud’s study of sexuality.  On the right side of the painting there is what could be a dog eating something. Above the dog, there is a figure standing on a pedestal. Even though the painting is confusing, nothing appears to go together in any way, there is still a lot of talent behind this piece. Without all of the strange imagery, the painting could be a landscape. Just the landscape of this painting is done very well; there is atmospheric perspective to help describe depth. Overall, Surrealist art is very interesting to look at, or even to think about because of all the possibilities of one’s subconscious.

            Dada and Surrealism are very interesting art styles from the 20th century. The art produced makes the viewer think a lot more about the art itself. These styles were a way to push through the past, to seek irrationality, humor and nonsense.