What does dadaism mean?
Dadaism was an avant-garde cultural movement that emerged in Europe during the First World War, most famously at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich around 1916. Rejecting the rationalism and nationalism that many of its adherents blamed for the war, it embraced chance, absurdity, provocation, and what it called anti-art: collage, readymade objects, sound poems, and performances that defied conventional notions of skill or beauty. Key figures include Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Duchamp, and Hans Arp. Although the organized movement had largely dissolved by the mid-1920s, giving way to Surrealism, its influence on later conceptual art, performance art, and Pop art has been profound. In everyday usage, dadaism can also describe any deliberately nonsensical or subversive gesture, making the term useful both as a precise label for a pivotal moment in modern art history and as a shorthand for the enduring appeal of creative mischief.
nounAn early 20th-century avant-garde art and literary movement, originating in Europe around 1916, that rejected conventional artistic values, reason, and logic in favour of chaos, irrationality, and deliberate absurdity. It is also used more loosely to describe any attitude or work characterized by nihilistic nonsense or anti-art provocation.
- The European art and literary movement of the early 20th century that embraced absurdity and rejected traditional aesthetic values.
- Any body of ideas, behaviour, or creative work characterized by deliberate nonsense or anti-establishment provocation, by analogy with the historical movement.
"The exhibition traced how Dadaism paved the way for Surrealism in the 1920s."
"Marcel Duchamp's readymades are among the most famous products of Dadaism."
"Her poetry owes something to Dadaism in its love of chance juxtaposition and playful nonsense."
Rarely pluralized except when distinguishing separate national or chronological variants of the movement (e.g. Berlin Dadaism versus New York Dadaism).
"Scholars increasingly speak of multiple Dadaisms rather than a single unified movement."
The founders of Dadaism chose its name by randomly stabbing a pen-knife into a French–German dictionary — it landed on 'dada', French for hobbyhorse.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dadaism
The word derives from "Dada", the name adopted by the Zurich-based movement founded around 1916; according to the movement's own account, the name was chosen at random by inserting a pen-knife into a copy of a French–German dictionary, landing on "dada", a French nursery word meaning hobbyhorse. The suffix "-ism", from Greek via Latin and French, forms the abstract noun denoting the movement's doctrines or practice. Related terms include "Dadaist", an adherent or practitioner of the movement, and the adjective "Dadaistic".
Related word forms
How dadaism is actually used
Usually capitalized when referring specifically to the historical movement; lowercase when describing a general spirit of absurdism. Formal register, common in art history and criticism. Often treated as a mass noun rather than count noun, though "Dadaisms" is occasionally seen for distinct national variants.
Easily confused with dadaism
Dadaism was an earlier, more nihilistic movement rejecting all artistic convention, while Surrealism, which grew partly out of Dada, sought to express the unconscious mind through dreamlike imagery.
"Dada" is the name of the movement itself (and the word from which it takes its name), whereas "Dadaism" refers to the movement's principles or style as a doctrine.