Dada was a movement around the time of the First World War, it started around 1915 and ended at about 1922, Surrealism followed Dada and was practised from around 1924 right through to about 1939. Dadaism was very much like a protest against art, it was an anti-art, Dadaists felt that people no longer deserved the beautiful art that they had become accustomed to because of all of the killing in the war, they felt that people had lost their values. So what Dadaists tried to do was make art ugly. In a time of industrial revolution Dadaists decided to degrade their materials using second hand, second rate objects found

Marcel Duchamp’s three dimensional piece ‘The Fountain’ is not what many people would call a great piece of art. ‘The Fountain’ is what Duchamp referred to as a readymade. This work is basically of a urinal with the word ‘MUTT’ written on it. This is a perfect example of Dada for three reasons; firstly it is in no way like art before, secondly the materials used are not what you would call standard art materials and thirdly it makes absolutely no sense what so ever. There is a clear difference between this and Salvador Dali’s ‘The Persistance Of Memory’, where Duchamp has spent what would seem little time slapping his piece together, Dali has carefully painted in great detail his mental image. This piece by Dali is one of what he liked to call ‘hand-painted dream photographs’ – reuniting the unconscious mind with reality. Dali’s painting is of melting clocks in a desolate surrounding appears very realistic, he has used tone, perspective and texture well to create a well

Some topics in this essay:
Memory’ Duchamp, Dali’s Surrealist, World War, Fountain’ Duchamp, Andre Breton, Marcel Duchamp’s, Dada Surrealism, , Dada Surrealists, Paintings Surreal, ‘the fountain’, world war, piece dali, dali’s painting, dada paintings, piece art, industrial revolution,