Dada (1916–1924): From Cabaret Voltaire to the Readymade

Picture a dim room in Zürich during World War I. A man in a stiff cardboard costume steps up to a music stand and recites a poem made only of sounds. That odd scene is the spark of Dada—the art movement that turned nonsense, chance, and collage into tools for surviving (and mocking) a senseless world.

Hugo Ball in costume at Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich (1916). Public domain via Wikimedia Commons; image circulated on a 1916 publicity postcard (Kunsthaus Zürich).

Where Dada happened (and what it looked like)

Cabaret Voltaire, Spiegelgasse 1, Zürich—birthplace of Dada. Photo © Fred Romero, CC BY 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons).

Zürich (1916)

In neutral Switzerland, writers and artists—Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, Jean Arp, Sophie Taeuber‑Arp—formed a cabaret that welcomed noise, masks, chance words, and improvised happenings. The room was small; the ideas were not.

Berlin (1918–1920)

The most political Dada erupted in a wounded postwar city. Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, and John Heartfield turned photomontage into sharp propaganda, slicing newspapers into biting critiques—and inventing a visual language still used in posters and memes.

Hannover

Kurt Schwitters gathered tram tickets, labels, and scraps into meticulous Merz collages, and even built a walk‑in assemblage, the Merzbau. His work shows that Dada’s chaos could be carefully composed.

Cologne

Max Ernst fused printing accidents, catalogs, and folk imagery into hybrid techniques—another step toward Surrealism’s dream logic.

New York

Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, with Man Ray, steered Dada toward the readymade: a bottle rack, a snow shovel, a urinal—a museum of everyday things that asked, “Is art what’s made, or what’s named?”

Paris

When Tristan Tzara brought the Dada energy to Paris, the group’s mischief turned to schism—and then fed directly into Surrealism’s exploration of the unconscious.

Five big ideas to recognize

The Readymade

Select an existing object, present it as art, and let context do the work. The readymade swapped craft for concept—and gave later artists permission to use anything as material.

Chance operations & games

Pull scraps from a hat, roll dice, let rules misbehave. Dada used chance to undermine solemn taste and to mirror the randomness of modern life.

Collage & photomontage

Cut and paste—not only papers but meanings. Berlin Dada’s photomontages juxtapositions became a model for visual argument in posters, zines, and digital culture.

Performance & sound poetry

On stage, language broke into syllables and shouts; costumes turned bodies into living sculptures. Dada treated performance as a laboratory for new senses.

Type, photography & the page

Letters could be pictures; pictures could behave like text. That playful confusion shaped avant‑garde magazines and influenced later typographic systems.

How to look at a Dada work (fast checklist)

1. Material reality: What exactly is it made of (tickets, tools, typography)? Name 3 materials you can point to.
2. Collision: What two (or more) things are being forced together—images, words, functions? Why is that friction funny or alarming?
3. Context flip: If this were in a shop/street, what would it “mean”? What changes when it enters a gallery (or your screen)?

Gallery: Dada’s look in four images

Seven works to know (rapid tour)

Use these as exam or museum “anchors”—two sentences each that tell you what to look for and why it still matters.

Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel (1913; repl. 1951)

A stool + a wheel: the first readymade. It turns looking into thinking—proof that choosing and naming can be an artistic act.

Francis Picabia, Fille née sans mère (c.1916)

A machine‑age portrait that feels both absurd and precise. Picabia loved scrambling categories—human/mechanical, solemn/ridiculous.

Hannah Höch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife… (1919–20)

A dizzying photomontage that slices politics and pop culture into a new, razor‑sharp picture of Weimar life.

Kurt Schwitters, Merz Picture 32A (The Cherry Picture) (1921)

Tickets, wood, fabric, type—arranged like a sonata. Schwitters shows Dada’s chaos can be exquisitely composed.

Hugo Ball, Karawane (1916 performance; 1917 printed)

Pure sound as poetry. The costume makes the body into typography; the voice becomes percussion.

Raoul Hausmann, Mechanical Head (The Spirit of Our Age) (c.1919)

A head stuffed with tools and measure—an anti‑monument to “rational” modernity.

“First International Dada Fair,” Berlin (1920)

An exhibition as a provocation: banners, photomontage, and the infamous slogan “Art is Dead.” Dada turns the show itself into a medium.

What came next (and why Dada still matters)

Dada’s unruly experiments seeded whole fields. Its games of chance and dream logic flowed into Surrealism; its love of type, grids, and photos fed into Bauhaus typography; its propaganda‑ready photomontage helped shape Constructivism’s public design; and after mid‑century, designers channeled the opposite impulse—clarity and order—in Swiss Style. Even the rhetoric of speed and rupture from Futurism shadows Dada’s manifestos—sometimes as provocation, sometimes as foil.

Timeline (1916–1924)

• 1916, February: Cabaret Voltaire opens in Zürich; performances by Ball, Hennings, Tzara, Arp, Taeuber‑Arp.
• 1917: Duchamp’s readymades crystallize the idea of choosing as making; Dada journals multiply across Europe and New York.
• 1918–1920: Berlin’s photomontage and agit‑exhibitions peak; Schwitters develops Merz in Hannover; Ernst in Cologne explores hybrid techniques.
• 1920: “First International Dada Fair,” Berlin—an exhibition‑as‑manifesto moment.
• 1921–1922: Paris gatherings; quarrels and transformations push members toward new alliances.
• 1924: Surrealism formally launches in Paris; many Dada energies flow into its orbit.

FAQs

What does “Dada” mean?

It was chosen for its deliberate meaninglessness (it’s “hobbyhorse” in French, baby‑talk in German). The point wasn’t the dictionary—Dada embraced the irrational.

Why did Dada start in Zürich?

Switzerland was neutral during WWI. Refugee artists gathered there and built a space—Cabaret Voltaire—where performance, poems, and collage could push back against a senseless war.

How is Dada different from Surrealism?

Dada tears down with shock, chance, and satire; Surrealism builds new worlds from dreams and the unconscious. Many artists moved between both.

What is a “readymade,” exactly?

An ordinary object selected and presented as art. The gesture reframes utility as concept and asks the viewer to complete the work.

Did Dada have a single style?

No. Think of Dada as a stance—irreverent, anti‑authoritarian—rather than a look. It ranges from precise collage to chaotic performance.

Where can I see great Dada works online?

Major museums host strong collections and essays; see our “Sources & further reading” below.

Sources & further reading

Exactly seven external links: 4 museum overviews + 3 archival/lesser‑known resources.