Dadaism is an artistic movement in modern art that started around World War I. Its purpose was to ridicule the meaninglessness of the modern world. Its goal was to cast doubt on the power of language, literature, and art to represent reality, which they felt was absurdly chaotic and not re-presentable.

Examples of artists and their works:

• Marcel Duchamp. “Fountain” is a readymade sculpture produced by Marcel Duchamp in 1917: a porcelain urinal signed “R.Mutt”.

Reflection:

I really like this movement as the artists really tries to question what exactly is art and also pushing the boundaries of conventional art forms. Dadaists saw art as a pretentious luxury, so they set out to change the context in which art was to be experienced, this change caused a mixed reaction and went against the standards of society and the art industry. With the combination of lack of sense and it’s strive to make a change in the art world, it often caused the pieces of art to be very controversial.

For example, my favorite work will be “Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp. This work has gained the society’s attention, but comes with a mix of negative and positive reviews. The Fountain was just a urinal placed in well-known museums along side other master pieces. Many thought it to be inappropriate but Duchamp wanted to use these readymades as his art medium was because he wanted to explore how society would react and also constantly trying to push the boundaries of what art can be. He wanted to see what kind of emotions the his art can create with the viewer’s own perception of art.