Dada and surrealism
Chance, the found object and the unconscious expand the boundaries of art.
Key ideas
Dada arose in the context of the First World War and combined different forms of criticism of conventional culture: collage, sound poetry, performance and readymade. The surrealists explored automatism, dreams, and unexpected connections between images.
Looking deeper
Surrealism is not limited to Dali's fantastic paintings: there are photographs, objects and texts. Dada does not mean mere absence of meaning. In both cases, it is worth asking what expectation of the viewer is being violated and why this violation is important in a particular situation.
Duchamp, "Fountain"; Magritte, "The Treachery of Images"; Meret Oppenheim, Fur Apparatus.
Find the work in the museum's official catalog and start with a description of the visible details.Combine two common objects and explain how the common meaning changes.
Useful terms
- Readymade
- An ordinary finished object selected and presented as a work. The author's judgment and context are key.
External educational material or museum catalogue. The above review is not a literal translation of the source.