1. Is Dada dead?
In a review for the New York Times on an exhibit opening at
the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris in 2005, Alan Riding wrote, “Viewed from
almost a century later, Dada can be easily recognized as a short-lived but
influential movement that expressed its revolt against World War I by
challenging artistic and intellectual conventions… Certainly, from its birth in
a Zurich club called Cabaret Voltaire in 1916, the Dada movement appeared eager
to avoid classification. Its impact was immediately felt in New York, Paris and
the German cities of Berlin, Cologne and Hanover, but in each city it expressed
itself differently. Then, like many revolutions, its ardor waned. By 1924, if
not earlier, Dada was over.” The article continues: “‘Max Ernst said that Dada
was a bomb and you can only pick up the bits,’ Le Bon [the Pompidou show’s
curator] noted. “When you pick up the bits here, you can see all the elements
of 20th century art. In 1921, Tzara, a Romanian-born poet and dad’s
central figure, moved to Paris and a highly literate form of Dad flourished
briefly around the likes of Andre Breton, Louis Aragon and Paul Eluard. But
while Dada found space to breathe in other cities, Paris was an intellectual
pressure-cooker and personality clashes soon erupted, with Breton often at
their center. In fact, it was Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto in 1924 that
announced the birth of a new movement and the demise of Dada. Open,
nonconformist and spontaneous, Dada was not equipped to resist Surrealism,
which was closed, disciplined and ritualistic. Over the next 15 years,
Surrealism ruled the left bank.”
Is Dada dead? Or does it continue to inspire artists, like
the “happenings” of the 1960’s, which echoed of Cabaret Voltaire, and are there
aspects of modern art that are Dada? Riding states, “Dada is now part of an
evolutionary process. The shock has largely disappeared. Dada’s aesthetic
values may even have triumphed, but its political message has been forgotten.
Today, many artists like to shock, not to overthrow the art establishment but
to join it.”
Do you agree that the political message of Dada has been
forgotten? Does it have any relevance today? Does Dada exist in any modern art
forms, or did it die with its creators?
2. Women and Surrealism
Meret Oppenheim claimed, in a 1984 interview with Robert J.
Belton, that Andre Breton had imposed a masculine interpretation on her famous
work Dejeuner en Fourrure, and in
fact had subverted the entire piece. Phyllis Evans writes, “Its very creation
was something of a fluke, with the idea to line a teacup and saucer with fur
arose from a bit of lighthearted banter with Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar about
how anything could be covered in fur. While Oppenheim thought of it only in
terms of the contrast of material textures, she made it according to Breton’s
idea. When he renamed it Object, she
felt that it was his title and creation, and stated that she saw herself only
as the manufacturer. Breton saw the work as a sexualized object with its furry
and concave cup acting as a female recipient to the phallic form of the spoon.
This ‘resonated with sophomoric humor that male Surrealists found so endearing’
(Belton, 53).” Evans further explains the role of women: “Oppenheim, like other
woman Surrealists, had to contend with a tendency within the movement to abuse
women. Proto-Surrealist Isodore Dicasse’s statement ‘as beautiful as the chance
encounter of an umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissection table,’ with its
Freudian, aggressive, and violently sexual insinuations set down a pattern of
sexual objectification and violence which was thereafter followed by the male
Surrealists. She also had to contend with Surrealism’s indifference to the work
of its female members. For all its claims to be a movement of social
revolution, Surrealist society paralleled the patriarchal attitudes of society
during the day. Andre Breton ‘had a way of praising their work without granting
them autonomous powers.’ Belton comments that ‘it is a sad fact that a great
many of the women who participated in Surrealist exhibitions seem to have been
allowed to do so precisely because they...were nicely packaged explosives’ [a
reference to Frida Kahlo].”
Belton further states in his article “Speaking with Forked
Tongues: ‘Male’ Discourse in ‘Female’ Surrealism’ that “In point of fact, the
male Surrealists were almost totally indifferent to the work of women artists
as art, even though they exhibited alongside them from time to time. Their
writings on art typically ignored the contribution of female artists, and individual
women were mentioned chiefly as the wife or companion of a respected male”
(Belton, 52)
So the question becomes, did the female artists of the
Surrealism movement participate as equals, with outlets and acceptance for
their work, or is it only through contemporary lenses of gender equality that
their work is validated?
3. Back to the Future: Fluxus and Surrealism
Fluxus continues to thrive in modern society, including at a
Fluxfest in Chicago in February of this year.
On the Flux Blog http://www.fluxusfreezone.com/
there are opportunities for on-sendings, zines, received art and many other aspects
of Fluxus that anyone can do. Flux games abound on the Internet and in personal
gatherings. Why does Fluxus thrive while its predecessors have been relegated
to relative obscurity? Are there continuing connections to Surrealism? Recently
at the MoMA there was an exhibition of Surrealist games, including one called
“The Exquisite Corpse,” which can be played either verbally or artistically.
The MoMA exhibit included a drawing from the game called "Landscape" (1933), done in colored
pencil on black paper with elements composed by Valentine Hugo, Andre Breton, Tristan Tzara and Greta Knutson. The game
is essentially on-sending, originating in Surrealism. The exhibit included
works by modern artists created through the same “game.” Dick Higgins said, “Long, long ago, back when the world was young
... Fluxus was like a baby whose mother and father couldn't agree on what to
call it ... Fluxus has a life of its own ... When you grow up, do you want to
be a part of Fluxus? I do.” (Dick
Higgins, "A Child's History of Fluxus," New York, 1979). Is Fluxus a “movement”
like Dada and Surrealism, or is it something else? Why does it endure?
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