Dada is a life style, not art

The dadaist

So what is a dadaist?

Duchamp was a member of New York dada and was in Paris in the period dada evaded the light city. But was he a dadaist? Did he make dadaist art? He will be remembered as one of the most enigmatic en misunderstood people at the beginning of the twentieth century. He finally abjured art for the more intellectual stimulating play of chess.

Schwitters was an odd character that always walked with its nose in the direction of the side walk, seeking for snips of paper, threads, tram tickets and other stuff that he could use in his collages. He invented his own sort of dada and called it Merz.

Picabia started as an impressionist and is now admired by postmodernists for his complete lack of style during his art life. He was a rich man. His arrival in Zurich meant for Tzara and his fellow dadaists an evening filled with drink and drugs in the more fancy hotels of Zurich. Picabia was also one of the most self critical dadaists, as you can see in the ending part of his dadaist manifesto.

Dada, lui, ne veut rien, rien, rien, il fait quelque chose pour le public dise: 'nous ne comprenons rien, rien, rien'. Les Dadaistes ne sont rien, rien, rien, bien certainement ils n'arriveront  rien, rien, rien. Francis PICABIA qui ne sait rien, rien, rien.

Dada, on the other hand, wants nothing, nothing, nothing, it makes the public say 'We understand nothing, nothing, nothing'. The Dadaists are nothing, nothing, nothing and they will surely succeed in nothing, nothing, nothing. Francis PICABIA who knows nothing, nothing, nothing.

Van Doesburg was the driving force behind the Stijl. That he, under the name I.K. Bonset was busy composing typographical and sound technical poetical experiments was in 1924 only known by the happy few.

And Arthur Cravan? It is hard to classify him. Poet, boxer - he fought Jack Johnson in Europe for money - globe-trotter, but above all provocateur. Dadaist from blood, without the afterwards recognized artistic production.

Yet all five of them are important dadaists. Because they were not afraid for the crowd that violently insulted them of stupidity. Because they, just like Jack Johnson, found in that violence the inspiration to press their artistic, cultural beliefs, against all norms and values of that time. They taught the public in Zaal Rosehaghe their future life style.

Zaal Rosehaghe
Dada soirée
Dada Holland
Life = art
Dada stands for diversity
History of dada
Dada Zurich
Dada Berlin and Paris
The end of dada
Heritage of dada
The dadaist

Updated 3 april 2001; Comments to Martin Woestenburg.

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