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The Museum of Avant-garde

Dada

Founded in 1916 by Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings, the Dada movement started at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich. Originated from the frustration of WWI and clearly against nationalism, conventional and the bourgeois class. The need to break conventions led to the concept of ‘anti-art’ – undermining conventional art, encouraging crowd participation, conscious irreverence and spontaneous performances. The Dada review started in 1917 was first published in Zürich and later in Paris. From 1918 the movement spread over to Germany with Huelsenbeck, Höch, Grosz, Hausmann, Schwitters and Max Ernst, and to US, with Picabia, Duchamp and Man Ray. Among its protagonists Tristan Tzara was the leader and the mind behind the movement. By 1921 the movements had become more crystallised and confined into a sort of artistic establishment – its legacy was picked up by André Breton leading to Surrealism.

Artists

Dragan Aleksić
Guillaume Apollinaire
Jean Arp
Hugo Ball
Victor Brauner
André Breton
Theo Van Doesburg
Marcel Duchamp
Max Ernst
Raoul Hausmann
John Heartfield
Georges Hugnet
Hannah Höch
Richard Hülsenbeck
Iliazd (Ilia Zdanevich)
Marcel Janco
Oskar Jespers
Paul Joostens
Lajos Kassák
Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky)
László Moholy-Nagy
Francis Picabia
Enrico Prampolini
Hans Richter
Christian Schad
Kurt Schwitters
Walter Serner
Philippe Soupault
Kate Steinitz
Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Tristan Tzara
Beatrice Wood
Hardy Worm (Eberhard Friedrich Worm)