For this weeks blog, I am going to look at the influence that WWI had on the art of the era. WWI is known as ‘the great war’ and was thought to be the war to end all wars. New technologies and weapons created one of the worst battle scenes that the world had ever witnessed. After the war the league of nations was created to put an end to wars, but it didn’t last long. Huger, poverty and death overcame much of Europe and the United States after the war. To combat this, the art form had to change. It changed to what is called ‘dada’. Dada was created to help relieve some of the pressure that came up after the war. It was based off of a childish word, and that defines the style. It is less serious, and in some ways ‘isn’t even art’. It’s not as serious as styles of the past, and can be seen to relieve stress from the situations that WWI put people in.
These are the three pieces of art that I have used to show dada. The first is Network of Stopages by Marcel Duchamp and made in 1914 in Paris. This piece I think resembles the old transportation lines, which are now broken because of the war.
The next piece is Fountain, made by Marcel Duchamp in 1917 in I believe Paris. It is a picture of a urinal fountain. I think that this obviously shows the disgust with the situation after the war. It is a funny portrayal of what the people are thinking of the situation throughout the world.
Lastly, there is Conversation II by Francis Picabia in 1922 in i would imagine Paris, as that is where Picabia is from. This picture shows a number of bodies without arms or legs. I think that this again through a ‘unique’ way shows the helplessness of the people after the war.
In terms of which picture I like the most, I think I like the Network of Stopages the most. I think that it reminds me of New York back in the time period. It shows the desire to want to get back to normal society, but that is far away. The other two are interesting though. The Fountain is so basic, but I think it has good meaning. Lastly, the Conversation II is interesting, but compared to the others I don’t think it’s as good as the others.
Works Cited:
“Francis Picabia.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. Site
“Dada.” Artlex. n.p., 1996. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. Site
“Marcel Duchamp.” The Collection. MoMA, 2016 Web. 27 Mar. 2016. Site
“Fountain.” Marcel Duchamp. TATE, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. Site
“Francis Picabia.” The Collection. MoMA, 2016. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. Site
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