Customer Reviews (1)

Good comparative work about movers and shakers
This is quite a good book.I used it to research a paper on DADA and Surrealist theatre, and as there are not too many books available out there (in English anyways) on this particular aspect of DADA and Surrealism.It's broken down by artist.Each of these artists were involved in many other aspects of the avant-garde in Switzerland, France and Germany, but most other books will hardly mention their "theatre" work.Of course they were not attempting to produce regular theatre, but what they did accomplish in performance is well explained and detailed.Another good book for this sort of thing is "PERFORMANCE: LIVE ART 1909 TO THE PRESENT" by Roselee Goldberg (and it has pictures!), but it lacks some of the detail this work has.For any DADA or Surrealist enthusiast, this is an excellent filler-in on many details not easily found in other sources, and for a theatre and performance enthusiast, it is an interesting description and breakdown of art movements many people do not know about today. Oh, and it's also fairly readable and is of course, also somewhat biographical.A good and informative source. ... Read more

Book Description
Surrealism is the first in an expanded range of Themes and Movements titles which look beyond the post-1945 period to survey all of the twentieth century's major art movements. Mary Ann Caws is an internationally respected scholar of Surrealism who has translated many of its major texts and published extensively on the Surrealists' art and writings. Aside from academic studies and museum catalogues this is the first comprehensive, art book format survey on Surrealism to be published for a number of years. It also provides an overview of the essential links between the Surrealists' famous artworks and their equally renowned writings. Mary Ann Caws is uniquely qualified to do this. ... Read more

Book Description
Born in the midst of World War I, Dada posed a fundamental challenge to established social values and artistic norms. The 1910s and early 20s marked the birth of the illustrated press and radio broadcasting, the commercial cinema, and the industrial assembly line--phenomena that all contributed to shaping this extraordinarily dynamic movement, which had an enormous influence on the art and culture of later decades. Looking at Dada is intended as an accessible introduction to Dada and its times. The book examines some 30 major, representative artworks from each of the principal cities where the movement took hold: Zrich; Berlin, Cologne, and Hannover; Paris; and New York. Largely drawing on the unparalleled collection of Dada artworks in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, it investigates all of the major areas and processes in which the Dada artists worked, including abstraction and figuration; painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography; the readymade, collage and photomontage; as well as poetry, performance and the applied arts. The book's sequences of handsome color plates and accompanying clear discussions focus on major social and artistic questions that contributed to Dada's consistent practice of subverting expectations, including: how Dada fundamentally reshaped our understanding of painting as a "window on the world;" how it both addressed and rewrote traditional histories of portraiture and still life; how, through the photomontage and the rayograph, it expanded our understanding of the artistic potential of photography by exploring its relationship less to sight than to touch; how it reversed the traditionally oppositional relationship between photography and painting; how it deployed chance to protest the inhumane uses to which science and technology were put during World War I and to subvert cherished notions of artistic expressivity, intention and "genius;" how its interest in chance came to play a pivotal role in twentieth-century art history, poetry, performance, graphic design and typography; and how it set off an entire century of questioning not only the role and identity of the artist, but, more broadly, the norms of culture, politics and gender in shaping modern society. ... Read more

Book Description
Now available in paperback, this lavishly illustrated and astonishingly comprehensive volume stands as the definitive study of the influential but deliberately elusive international Dada movement of the early twentieth century. Organized according to the primary city centers where this shifting, quintessentially avant garde movement emerged, Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris features the work of 40 key artists, both infamous and lesser-known, including Louis Aragon, Hans Arp, Hugo Ball, Andre Breton, Otto Dix, Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Hoch, Man Ray, Tristan Tzara and Kurt Schwitters, to name just a few, in media spanning painting, sculpture, photography, collage, photomontage, prints and graphic work. Dynamically designed with an uncommon intelligence suited to the complexity of the movement itself, it contains hundreds of reproductions of works which, until the major traveling exhibition of 2005 and 2006 for which this book was originally produced, had for the most part never been seen in one place together. Documentary images, topical essays and an invaluable illustrated chronology of the movement make this volume uniquely essential, along with witty chronicles of events in each city center; a selected bibliography; and biographies of each artist accompanied by Dada-era photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Superb
I have always had a weakness for Dada, and within this quixotic movement a special liking for Schwitters. So I visited the Dada-exposition in the Paris Centre Pompidou last year, and there bought both the Dickerman catalogue of the American exposition, and the (French language) catalogue of the Centre Pompidou itself, which differ in many ways. The exposition was wonderful by the way, and one of the best I' ve seen in many years. Thinking that a morning would be enough to see what I wanted to see, I changed my mind, decided to take dinner in the Pompidou, and stayed for the rest of the day. The immense amount of material was stunning. And the same thing really goes for both impressive catalogues. The American (Dickerman) version (520 pages) follows Dada by way of the cities where Dada developed, and does so in a more or less chronological fashion. Essays are excellent, photomaterial looks great. It is the sort of catalogue you would expect from an exposition like this. The European catalogue, more than thousand pages, printed on very thin paper, treats subjects, artists, and everything else connected with Dada according to alfabet. It seems to me that the catalogue has just about everything that could be seen at the exposition, with exception of the films of course. Although I felt a bit silly after buying both catalogues (spending some 100 euros), I was in the end very glad that I did. Everybody who buys catalogues now and then, know how disappointing these sometimes are. Well, these aren't. They are both superb, knowledgeable. And the people who made them have done a terrific job. In the end you wind up thinking: Hey, these guys (and girls) must have loved Dada as much as I do.

dada: zurich, berlin, hanover, cologne, new york, paris
dada: zurich, berlin, hanover, cologne, new yorkk, paris

A great book!
This book is wonderfully informative, plus it has so many full-color reproductions--the type of terrific catalog that inspires one to stroke its pages with a sense of seduction (works in my mind!).

Remarkable
Coupled with Hans Richter's: "Dada, Art and Antiart" and movement's philosophy and works are clearly understood. Graphics are truly great and commentary enlighten. It might be noted this book is German published as the Max Ernst book "Life and Work". Both with numerous colored plates of the highest quality. The Dada book though excels in text.

DADA:ZURICH,BERLIN,HANOVER,COLOGNE,NEW YORK,PARIS
IF YOU LIKE ART THIS IS THE PERFECT MEAL.
BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER AND SNACKS
I WISH I HAD ONE OF THESE BOOKS IN EVERY ONE OF MY ROOMS
OR ANYWHERE I VISIT WHERE THERE MIGHT BE FREE TIME TO LEAF THRU IT! ... Read more

Product Description
an anthology of plays ... Read more

Book Description
This volume of 12 essays fills a broad gap in modernist art history. Taken together, these case studies on artists and concepts present Dada as a coherent movement with a set of operating principles. Among the " tactics" elaborated are the hyperbolic mimicry of dominant social and linguistic conventions, the performance of gender and other aspects of identity, the usurpation of the modes of a new media culture and the marketplace, and the recycling of history and memory in a world traumatized by war. The Dada Seminars developed out of a series held by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, in advance of a major traveling exhibition of international Dada that will open in 2005. Contributors include George Baker, T.J. Demos, Leah Dickerman, Uwe Fleckner, Hal Foster, Amelia Jones, David Joselit, Marcella Lista, Helen Molesworth, Arnauld Pierre, Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Matthew S. Witkovsky. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Dada Seminars is Good
A great overview of a very powerful and inspiring movment in art. An art era long forgotten, yet one of a kind in its ground breaking reaches. The Dada Seminars begins to touch on these sort of fleating happenings the artists that made them happen and the results of their labors. The book picks at every facet of this movement in a very academic scholarly way. A rather great indeapth read sheading more light on this time past. ... Read more

Book Description
Dal. Picasso. Ernst. Magritte. Maddox. Breton. Artaud, Fondane, Masson--all are to be found in this gallery of surrealist artists. Focussing on surrealist visuality--defined as the visual expression of internal perception or, in Andr Breton's words, internal representation--the contributors to this handsomely illustrated volume shed new light on one of the twentieth century's most exciting cultural movements. ... Read more

Book Description
"Where and how Dada began is almost as difficult to determine as Homer's birthplace," writes Hans Richter, who was associated with the movement from its early days. Here, through selections from key manifestos and other documents of the time, he records Dada's history, from its beginnings in wartime Zurich to its collapse in the Paris of the 1920s. Dada led on from Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism, and in turn prepared the way for Surrealism. It was enlivened by bizarre and extravagant personalities, notably Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Hans Arp, Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and Man Ray, whose contributions are fully discussed. The spirit of Dada reappeared in the 1960s in movements such as Pop Art, which are surveyed in the final section. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

it is not only possible to achieve something beautiful, but very easy
This is one of the most important books of my life, and I know for a fact that I am far from alone in this. Richter taught me that it is not only possible to achieve something beautiful, but very easy; you simply have to actually want to. It is the first book I recommend, lend, or give to a friend; Bradley Chriss keeps extra copies on hand for those who need to read it; Warren Fry and David Beris Edwards have both been deeply inspired by it. What I was officially `taught' concerning Dada, and what I took for accurate for many years, was essentially that it was the cheeky use of the Readymade, and was basically synonymous with Marcel Duchamp. When I finally realised that there may have been something to it that I had missed, a particular image recurred to me, one that had been flipped past for not more than five seconds in a slideshow several years earlier, a man inside a large awkward cardboard costume, looking like a cross between the Tin Man, a stovepipe, and a lobster, with a very earnest, very direct, and at the same time very lost look on his face. It was most certainly not Marcel Duchamp. And I decided that there must be something else, and that I needed to track it down. Going to the bookstore, Chance--which that day vouchsafed to me its devious kind of (Anti-)trustworthiness--led me to Hans Richter. Richter was, in many ways, the most grounded of the core Dada group; among the least `absurd', the least polemic, and most importantly in his later role as scribe of the movement, the least histrionic and least given to post-mortem internecine strife. He was also, and perhaps for these very reasons, perhaps the nicest. The result is that Dada: Art and Anti-Art is not, like Ball's history, one of otherworldly mysticism; like Huelsenbeck's, one of political upheaval and ideological combat; like Tzara's version, one of impersonal destruction of all personal and social guarantors of subjective comfort; like Duchamp's, one of formal innovation or `artistic' concerns. Richter's history is the history of a group of friends, some of whom had never personally met, who galvanized that friendship into a force that profoundly transformed hundreds of lives, made all of those other histories thinkable and achievable, and in the process established the groundwork for a programme of joyous, deep-seated social revolt upon which we are still attempting build new ways of living; and, as Richter shows, they did this simply by actually caring. The most essential thing to be gleaned from Art and Anti-Art is not anything unique to Dada, it is the realisation that the Institution has somehow managed to dupe us all into thinking that we need it; Richter, in his generous, humble, unassuming way, taught me that a `movement' is not something that one assembles like an army of ready-made Heroes to launch on the grand battleground of Art History; it is the experience of a few dedicated friends who love nothing more than what they are doing, finding other dedicated friends who all make each other into something none could have imagined on their own, until one day they all look around, realise with astonishment what has come into existence through them, and get back to what they love to do together, as that intangible thing that has evoked itself between them continues to grow.

Important
Takes a good look at the Dada artist's and their work. The author was involved in Dada and made many crucial Dada works. One of the most interesting aspects of this book is that it talks about the relationships between the people involved in Dada, but doesn't stray to far from what is important...the original works.

Jackdaws Love My Big Sphinx Of Quartz
dada dada dada dada dada dada dada dada dada dada dada mulberry dada dada dada dada dada dada
....lymph node....
dad dad dad dad dad dad dad dad dad
+a +a +a +a +a +a +a +a +a


merz

You Are There
Hans Richter lived on the fringes of Zurich's Dada movement, and here offers a personal narrative of the Dada movement and its eventual successor, Surrealism. This was the first book I'd ever read on Dada and I found it quite sufficient -- all the personalities are introduced, and their motivations and how they came together are revealed. Richter is best in the earliest sections, while discussing the birth of the influential Cabaret Voltaire and how the First World War helped amplify Dada's influence in Europe. The book peters out a bit in later chapters, but is still a detailed look at the subject. If you are simply seeking an understanding of the movement, this book is a fast and entertaining read.

dada, where art thou?
In the interest of re-appropriating dada, read this book on the origins of the movement in Zurich at the Cabaret Voltaire. The Hanover period is less than compelling except for the brilliant Kurt Schwitters. His attempt to gatecrash the Club in Zurich led to marginal friendships with the progenitors - he was perceived as too bourgeois - and Schwitters went on to non-fame in exile in Britain, snubbed by the international art intelligentsia, which still denigrates his late work. Most interesting role? Hugo Ball, the impresario of the Cabaret Voltaire who championed the idea of the gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) then dropped out to live in the Ticino in Tolstoi-esque self-induced poverty. Greatest sub-narrative? The battle for the ownership of dada by the hangers-on. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

THIS ARE IT
As can be seen by some of the reviews, this goes waaaaaay over some peoples heads.For others, it changes lives.I am of the latter category, and i will never be the same after having read this book.

This book does not define Dada. It is Dada.
All manifestos are the biographies of feeble and bitter love.Dada is, therefore, an impotent rapist.Still, Tzara is a charming and likable fellow.

If you want to know what Dada is, then Dada wants nothing to do with you.Approach this book at your own peril.

Dada is against death.Definition is death.This book does not commit murder. Therefore it does not define Dada.It is Dada....

not an academical book if that's what you're looking for
you won't find an explanation of what dada is, simply because it cannot be explained. dada is the anarchism in a french female-boxer soul. is an excellent literary book. not a college research book.

DADA mucht gut!Tzara--boomboom himmel!
MMMMMMMMMMM plastic fishy.Tzara lights yer neighbor's curtain on fire.Yummy blasphemy, beautiful bedroom eyes darting with paranoia all around a crowded room.Devilish leer, "small and dark", this is IT.

not very helpful
I checked this book out from my local library because Dadaism was mentioned in my Design class, and it sounded interesting.I wanted to learn more about it.I found this book to be very confusing and not veryinformative at all.It seems that they wrote this so abstract on purpose(which they may have).Although the final essay, lecture on dada, wasinformative and the essay was, on poetry, was very good.I'd recommendthis book just for those two lampistries. ... Read more

Book Description
This study traces the development of Surrealist theory of visual art and its reception, from the birth of Surrealism to its institutionalization in the mid-1930s. Situating Surrealist art theory in its theoretical and discursive contexts, Kim Grant demonstrates the complex interplay between Surrealism and the critical expectations of contemporaries. She examines the challenge to Surrealist art raised by the magazine Cahiers d'Art, which promoted a group of young painters dedicated to a liberated and poetic painting process that was in keeping with the formalist evolution of modern art. Grant also discusses the centrality of visual art in Surrealism as a material manifestation of poetry; the significance of poetry in French theories of modern art; and the difficulties faced by an avant-garde movement at a time when contemporary audiences expected revolutionary innovation. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Surrealism: Desire Unbound is not only a wonderfully produced catalog to accompany the Tate Modern's excellent surrealism exhibition but also a compelling addition to surrealist studies in its own right. As lavishly illustrated as you could hope for (no fewer than 300 color illustrations), the book really owes its strength to the quality of the essays, which come from some of the best art historians around. Professor Dawn Ades, the consultant editor, contributes "Surrealism, male-female," which builds on themes of sexuality and the notion of the fluidity of the category of gender so important to the surrealists, which she (and others, see particularly Surrealism and Women) has previously addressed elsewhere; her book on Marcel Duchamp, a constant reference point for so much modern art, is particularly good. Hal Foster (well known for his argument that the 1990s saw the return to bodies and spaces in art in his thought-provoking The Return of the Real) adds a superb essay on the objectification and fetishization of women within surrealist photography. David Lomas walks us through the influence of Freud (arguably the first theorist of desire and psychoanalysis) on surrealism, and Annie Le Brun rounds off the book with a look at the invention of desire by surrealism and its adoption by modernity. Desire, as a category and as an impetus, compelled much of the art and thinking of the surrealists, and this excellent volume does much to explore and problematize the issues surrounding sex, gender, and identity (the subtitle of the essential Women in Dada, which should certainly be consulted when broaching these issues) that obsessed these important artists and their often iconic art. This is a big, beautiful, and bold book that does the surrealists proud. --Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk Book Description

The surrealist leader André Breton described desire as the "only master that man must recognize." One of surrealism's defining themes, desire was expressed variously in Dali's charged landscapes, Miró's lyric abstractions, and Bellmer's unsettling nudes. Influenced by Freud, the surrealists saw sexual desire as a path to self-knowledge--"a theatre of provocations and prohibitions in which life's most profound urges confront one another."

Published to accompany a major transatlantic exhibition of international surrealism, this lavishly illustrated catalogue explores desire in surrealist art in both words and images. Key works by such artists as Duchamp, Magritte, Ernst, Dali, de Chirico, Giacometti, Bellmer, Oppenheim, and Cahun are illustrated and discussed, as are surrealist films and photographs by Man Ray, Brassaï, and others. The volume also features some of the rare and beautiful books produced by the surrealists in their celebration of love, as well as a selection of fascinating manuscripts, letters, and documentary photographs that reveal the personal contexts of the group's exploration of desire. Essays by leading scholars show how the theme of desire was implicated in almost all aspects of surrealist activity--not only its art and writings, but also its political struggles and its ethical stances on issues involving individual liberty and the social control of sexuality.

This attractive and provocative volume illustrates a vision of desire that embraces both sublime exaltation and dark carnality. It shows the unprecedented intensity with which the surrealists extolled love and the extent to which they depicted desire as implicated in every thought, action, event, and encounter. A major contribution to surrealist studies, this volume is edited by Jennifer Mundy, and has contributions from Dawn Ades, Katharine Conley, Neil Cox, Carolyn J. Dean, Hal Foster, Vincent Gille, Jean-Michel Goutier, David Hopkins, Radovan Ivsic, Julia Kelly, Annie Le Brun, David Lomas, and Alyce Mahon.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Tate Modern, London
September 20, 2001-January 1, 2002

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
February 6, 2002-May 12, 2002

Customer Reviews (3)

Love, Sex, Art: It's All in the Mind
This book gives you an idea of how incestuous the Surrealist movement was. It gives an insight into what went on in the artistic circles of the era. It is thoughtful and extraordinarily interesting. The various authors and their different viewpoints help to show the complexity of the movement and the artists without being too much in awe of artists like Man Ray or Hans Bellmer. It is also a beautiful book with a pretty pink and gold embossed cover (under the dust jacket). Full of stunning reproductions and personal photographs. Excellent read and aesthically pleasing.

Genious Unbound
Supremely thorough and wonderful.A winner. Beautiful, a spectacular book. It's what I want for xmas! lol

Surrealism Exposed
I find this book to be historically acurate, informative, and most comprehensive.In my humble opinion, a great study of one of the most thought provoking, imaginative, and subjective styles of art of all of our existence. ... Read more