Theories of Art

Abstract

The twentieth century has given rise to a confusing array of movements in the fine arts, from the cubism of the 1900’s to the aleatoric and pop art of the 1960’s. Some of these movements have hinged their efforts on theories of form that find underlying order in the prevailing chaos of modern life. Others have proclaimed that chaos alone is real and have dedicated themselves to an irreverent assault on reason, religion, and modern civilization in general. The most extreme example of irrationalism in literature and the arts is Dadaism, which originated in 1916 in Switzerland and commanded much public attention in the early postwar years, numbering among its exponents Hugo Ball, George Grosz, Hans Arp, and André Breton. After the demise of Dada, some of the Dadaists went on to found the surrealist movement; but a good deal of the avant-garde art and poetry of the 1950’s and 1960’s strongly calls to mind the jeering nihilism of Dada in its original form. The chief manifesto-writer of the Dadaists, Tristan Tzara, was a Rumanian by birth, a Parisian by adoption. His most conventionally intelligible effort to explain the antiphilosophy of Dada is perhaps this lecture, given in 1922.