'Dada' At The Museum Of Modern Art

Raoul Hausmann's assemblage of various measurement objects affixed to a hairdresser's wigmaking dummy sought to make "Mechanical Head," circa 1920, an unsettling commentary on the empty spirit of postwar Germany. Centre Pompidou, Musee national d'art moderne, Paris.

Dadaists rejected conventional definitions of art styles and materials, expanding them to include manifestations of modern life - advertisements, newspapers, magazines, ticket stubs, machine parts, food wrappings, pipes, light bulbs and much more.

Their performances, publicity stunts and manipulation of mass media were intentionally controversial and provocative, prompting definitions of Dada as "anti-art," a term they embraced.

"Dada," the first major exhibition in this country to explore the subject in depth, features a multimedia installation of more than 400 paintings, collages, prints, sculptures, photographs, sound recordings and film. Organized by the National Gallery of Art and the Centre Pompidou, Musee national d'art moderne in Paris, in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, it has already been seen in Paris and Washington, and will be at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) through September 11. The exhibition was organized by Leah Dickerman, the National Gallery's associate curator of modern and contemporary art, and Laurent Le Bon, the Pompidou's curator, and coordinated at MoMA by Anne Umland, curator in the department of painting and sculpture. Dickerman is principal author of the excellent, comprehensive catalog.

In this large painting (51 3/16 by 76 inches), "At the Rendezvous of Friends," 1922, Max Ernst brought together leaders of the Dada movement and kindred souls. Among those depicted standing are Hans Arp (second from left); writer Andre Breton (third from right); painter Giorgio de Chirico (second from right) and Gala Eluard, later wife of Salvador Dali (far right). Among those seated facing the viewer are Max Ernst (first on left) and Russian novelist Feodor Dostoyevski (second from left). Museum Ludwig, Cologne.

The exhibition explores the different ways in which Dadaism played out, 1916--1924, in six primary centers: Zurich, Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, New York and Paris. On view is the work of 50 artists, including such important figures in Twentieth Century art history as Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, George Grosz, Francis Picabia, Man Ray and Karl Schwitters.

"Our understanding of Dada," acknowledges curator Dickerman, is vague - that it was "wacky and nonsensical." The exhibition and catalog seek to explore "how might we understand the idea of Dada?" It "was not a disavowal of art," says Dickerman, "but a revolution [against tradition]. In many ways the art world would never be the same [after Dada]."

Dada's origins date to 1916 with the founding by German-born writer Hugo Ball of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, a boisterous gathering place for free-thinking artists and intellectuals, many of them refugees who had fled the horrors of the war for a safe haven in neutral Switzerland. Disillusioned by the materialism and excesses that had generated the conflict, they mounted an artistic offensive against the political, social and cultural institutions that had given rise to the war.

The overcrowded, drunken rowdiness of the place was captured by one of the participants, Romanian native Marcel Janco, in "Cabaret Voltaire," 1916, featuring several Dada leaders engaging in spontaneous foolishness in an impromptu performance on the tavern's stage, egged on by a characteristically unruly audience