Dada, Cubism, and Surrealism

Cubism

This was a movement that started in the 1910s in France, mainly being pushed by Pablo Piccaso and Georges Braque. Cubism uses multiple perspectives in a painting.

Cubism was influenced by the cultural shift toward mechanization during the early 20th century, as machines became a dominant presence in daily life. This new environment, filled with straight lines, grids, and right angles, contrasted sharply with the organic shapes of the natural world. As a result, artists began incorporating these mechanical elements into their work. Additionally, the rise of diagrams as tools for understanding and explaining the modern world also shaped the visual language of Cubism.

Dada

In 1915, European Dada was a movement in time where art was focused around visual art, poetry, and performance. This work tended to be nonsensical and satirical. It began in Zurich during World War I, dadaists found violence, expense, and tragedy of war antithetical to their values.

They felt a global war was nonsensical, so they tried to reflect that in their art. They also reacted against nationalism.

Photomongage It was a new form of art in this century that used flyers, posters, and newspapers.

Dadaists used these materials to rearrange them in intriguing ways, by cutting up images they created interesting visuals. Hannah Höch was a German artist who pioneered photomontage, which is a type of collage that uses photographs and other material from printed media. 

One of the prominent themes in her work was the role of women in society. She put forth images that challenged old dichotomies between the genders, showing women who were professional, capable, independent, and an equal member of society to men.

Surrealism

Like Dadaists, the Surrealists enjoyed the variety of surprising images and ideas that surfaced when two very different things were combined.

Surrealist interest in the unconscious mind was related to culture. At the end of the 1800s there were lots of content talking about the unconscious mind. In this century Austrian neurologist and psychologist Sigmund Freud wrote about free association, dream analysis, and the unconscious mind. These ideas were cutting edge and interesting and vital to the Surrealists in developing methods to liberate imagination. 

The Surrealists came up with exercises and games meant to facilitate this type of creative thinking and engagement with the unconscious mind.

It happened in Austria