Crisis and the Arts: the History of Dada: The Coordinates of Cultural Politics

During World War I, an international group of young artists and writers fled to Zurich, in neutral Switzerland. In reaction to the horror of the War and the onslaught of new technology, as well as to the suffocating aesthetics of Futurism and Cubism, these artists began to create a new kind of art art that was anti-logical, anti-aesthetic, anarchistic, confrontational, shocking. Performing and exhibiting at the famous Cafe Voltaire, these artists called the new art Dada. Operating out of a period of acute cultural and social collapse and revolution, Dada provided a model for critique which continues to impact the present profoundly. Crisis and the Arts is a comprehensive treatment of this 20th century artistic movement. It explores Dada in its broad socio-political context. Volume One describes the critical framework for all following volumes, provides parameters for the historical and sociological context of Dada, and examines Dada in terms of its manifestations in visual arts, theatre, the media, and literature. Correspondence between Dadaists and their various manifestoes are also explored for their value in defining the movement.