Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Continental Philosophy Julia Annas Simon Critchley THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY Atheism Julian Baggini Geraldine Pinch Augustine Henry Chadwick EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BARTHES Jonathan Culler BRITAIN Paul Langford THE BIBLE John Riches THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball BRITISH POLITICS EMOTION Dylan Evans Anthony Wright EMPIRE Stephen Howe Buddha Michael Carrithers ENGELS Terrell Carver BUDDHISM Damien Keown Ethics Simon Blackburn CAPITALISM James Fulcher The European Union THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe John Pinder CHOICE THEORY EVOLUTION Michael Allingham Brian and Deborah Charlesworth CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson FASCISM Kevin Passmore CLASSICS Mary Beard and THE FRENCH REVOLUTION John Henderson William Doyle CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Freud Anthony Storr THE COLD WAR Galileo Stillman Drake Robert McMahon Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh GLOBALIZATION PLATO Julia Annas Manfred Steger POLITICS Kenneth Minogue HEGEL Peter Singer POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood David Miller HINDUISM Kim Knott POSTCOLONIALISM HISTORY John H. Arnold Robert Young HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTMODERNISM HUME A. J. Ayer Christopher Butler IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTSTRUCTURALISM Indian Philosophy Catherine Belsey Sue Hamilton PREHISTORY Chris Gosden Intelligence Ian J. Deary PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY ISLAM Malise Ruthven Catherine Osborne JUDAISM Norman Solomon Psychology Gillian Butler and Jung Anthony Stevens Freda McManus KANT Roger Scruton QUANTUM THEORY KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner John Polkinghorne THE KORAN Michael Cook ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler LITERARY THEORY RUSSELL A. C. Grayling Jonathan Culler RUSSIAN LITERATURE LOCKE John Dunn Catriona Kelly LOGIC Graham Priest THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner S. A. Smith MARX Peter Singer SCHIZOPHRENIA MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER John Gillingham and Christopher Janaway Ralph A. Griffiths SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer MODERN IRELAND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL Senia Pasˇe t a ANTHROPOLOGY MOLECULES Philip Ball John Monaghan and Peter Just MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Socrates C. C. W. Taylor NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPINOZA Roger Scruton BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and STUART BRITAIN John Morrill H. C. G. Matthew TERRORISM Charles Townshend NORTHERN IRELAND THEOLOGY David F. Ford Marc Mulholland THE TUDORS John Guy paul E. P. Sanders TWENTIETH-CENTURY Philosophy Edward Craig BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling Samir Okasha WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Available soon: AFRICAN HISTORY HIEROGLYPHS John Parker and Richard Rathbone Penelope Wilson ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea HUMAN EVOLUTION BUDDHIST ETHICS Bernard Wood Damien Keown INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CHAOS Leonard Smith Paul Wilkinson CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead JAZZ Brian Morton CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy MANDELA Tom Lodge CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE MEDICAL ETHICS Robert Tavernor Tony Hope CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko THE MIND Martin Davies CONTEMPORARY ART Myth Robert Segal Julian Stallabrass NATIONALISM Steven Grosby THE CRUSADES PERCEPTION Richard Gregory Christopher Tyerman PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Derrida Simon Glendinning Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot DESIGN John Heskett PHOTOGRAPHY Dinosaurs David Norman Steve Edwards DREAMING J. Allan Hobson THE RAJ Denis Judd ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE RENAISSANCE THE END OF THE WORLD Jerry Brotton Bill McGuire RENAISSANCE ART EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Geraldine Johnson THE FIRST WORLD WAR SARTRE Christina Howells Michael Howard THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR FREE WILL Thomas Pink Helen Graham FUNDAMENTALISM TRAGEDY Adrian Poole Malise Ruthven THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Habermas Gordon Finlayson Martin Conway For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/vsi David Hopkins DADA AND SURREALISM A Very Short Introduction 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © David Hopkins, 2004 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a Very Short Introduction 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0–19–280254–2 3579108642 Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall Contents List of illustrations viii Acknowledgements xi Introduction xiv 1 Dada and Surrealism: a historical overview 1 2 ‘Rather life’: promoting Dada and Surrealism 30 3 Art and anti-art 62 4 ‘Who am I?’: mind/spirit/body 97 5 Politics 123 6 Looking back on Dada and Surrealism 146 References 157 Further reading 161 Dada: the main centres – key individuals and events 167 Key Surrealist events 170 Key figures associated with surrealism 171 Index 173 List of illustrations 1 Sarah Lucas, Get Off Your 6 The mock trial of Horse and Drink Your Maurice Barrès 37 Milk xvii © Sarah Lucas. Courtesy Sadie 7 Installation view of the Coles HQ, London International Exhibition of Surrealism at the 2 Marcel Janco, Cabaret Galerie des Beaux Arts, Voltaire 5 Paris, 1938 39 © ADAGP, Paris, and DACS, © Archives du Wildenstein London 2003. Kunsthaus Zurich Institute, Paris 3 Marcel Duchamp, 8 ‘Our colleague Benjamin Fountain 10 Péret in the act of © Succession Marcel Duchamp/ ADAGP, Paris, and DACS, insulting a priest’ 47 London 2003. Scottish National Scottish National Gallery of Gallery of Modern Art Modern Art 4 Max Ernst, Pietà/ 9 Cover: La Révolution Revolution by Night 19 Surréaliste, 1 (1924) 49 © ADAGP, Paris, and DACS, London 2003. Photo 10 ‘The Papin Sisters: © Tate, London 2003 Before and After’ 51 Scottish National Gallery of 5 Installation view of Modern Art the First International Dada Fair, Berlin, June 1920 34 © bpk, Berlin 11 Francis Picabia, Young 16 André Masson, Birth American Girl in a of Birds 72 State of Nudity 54 © ADAGP, Paris, and DACS, © ADAGP, Paris, and DACS, London 2003. The Museum of London 2003. Scottish National Modern Art, New York. Purchase. Gallery of Modern Art Digital image © 2002 The Museum of Modern Art/Scala, 12 Jedermann sein eigner Florence Fussball (Everyman his 17 Max Ernst, Santa own Football) 55 Conversazione 75 © DACS 2003 © ADAGP, Paris, and DACS, London 2003. Private collection 13 George Grosz, Daum Marries her Pedantic 18 Hannah Höch, Bourgeois Automaton ‘George’ in Wedding Couple – May 1920. John Quarrel 78 Heartfield is Very Glad Private collection of it 58 © DACS 2003. Berlinische 19 Joan Miró, Galerie, Berlin, Landesmuseum The Hunter 79 für Moderne Kunst, Photographie © Successio Miro, DACS 2003. und Architektur The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Digital image © 2002 The 14 The ‘Palais Idéal’ of the Museum of Modern Art, New Postman Cheval. 59 York/Scala, Florence © Collection Roger-Viollet, Paris 20 René Magritte, Le Viol 15 Hans Arp, Rectangles (The Rape) 82 Arranged According to © ADAGP, Paris, and DACS, the Laws of Chance 70 London 2003. The Menil © DACS 2003. The Museum of Collection Houston, USA. Photo: Modern Art, New York. Purchase. Paul Hester Digital image © 2002 The Museum of Modern Art/Scala, 21 Salvador Dalí, Florence ‘Paranoiac Face’ 83 © Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, DACS, London 2003. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 22 Meret Oppenheim, 27 Claude Cahun, My Nurse