February 27 - Lecture Notes PDF

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Prof. Ihor Junyk...

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Art is Shit I: Dada Dada Radical avant-garde movement Begins at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich (in neutral Switzerland) Hugo Ball recites the first Dada Manifesto on July 14, 1916 “We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the tabula rasa. At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order.” (Marcel Janco) Dada and War ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔

➔ Otto Dix, Stormtroops Advancing Under a Gas Attack, from his 1924 set First World War drawings, Der Krieg ➔ Dix, Prague Street, 1920 The Dada Manifestos ➔ “Dada means nothing” pg. 77 ➔ Dada and Negation ◆ “Let every man proclaim: there is a great negative work of destruction to be accomplished. We must sweep and clean. Affirm the cleanliness of the individual after the state of madness, aggressive complete madness of a world abandoned to the hands of the bandits, who rend one another and destroy the centuries.” (81) ◆ “I say into you: there is no beginning and we do not tremble, we are not sentimental. We are a furious wind tearing the dirty linen of clouds and prayers, preparing the great spectacle of disaster, fire, decomposition.” (78) ◆ Anti-system: “I am against systems, the most acceptable system on principle is to have none” (79) ◆ Anti-logic: “Logic is a complication. Logic is a complication. Logic is always wrong…” (80) ◆ Anti-morality: “The control of morality and logic…” (81) ➔ Dada Affirmation (?) ◆ “I am against systems, the most acceptable system is on principle to have none. To complete oneself, to perfect oneself in one’s own littleness, to fill the vessel with one’s individuality, to have the courage to fight for and against thought, the mystery of bread, the sudden burst of an infernal propellor into economic lilies” (79) ◆ “To respect all individuals in their folly of the moment; whether it be serious, fearful, timid, ardent, rigorous, determined, enthusiastic.” (81) ◆ “How can one expect to put order…” (77) Dada and Art

➔ Dadaism, the most radical movement within the European avant-garde, no longer criticizes art as an institution and the course its development took in bourgeois society.” (Peter Burger, Theory of the Avant-Garde) ➔ “[Art] is not as important as we,mercenaries of the spirit have been proclaiming for centuries” (80) ➔ “All pictoral or plastic work is useless: let it then be a monstrosity that frightens servile minds, and not sweetening to decorate the refectories of animals in human costume, illustrating the sad fable of mankind.” (78) ➔ “And so Dada was born of a need for independence, of a district toward unity. Those who are with us…” (77) Dada and the Work of Art ➔ Marcel Duchamp ➔ French Artist ➔ Moves to New York for the duration of WWI ➔ Begins to produce “Readymades” - radical new conception of art Dada and Nazism ➔ John Heartfield ➔ Changes his name from Herzfeld in sign of disgust at German actions ➔ Photomontage Dada Cinema ➔ Entr’acte - Rene Clair, 1924...