Visual Arts Subject Overview
Modernism in the visual arts is a complex term and currently the subject of much academic debate. However, this project demanded that we set boundaries…
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Richter, Hans (1888–1976)
Hans Richter was a German painter, graphic artist, and experimental filmmaker associated with a number of the European avant-garde movements, most notably Dadaism. After 1940…
Schwitters, Kurt (1887–1948)
Kurt Schwitters is most commonly associated with Dada, but his relationship to that movement’s aesthetic, political, and philosophical rebellion was ambivalent. Although he was friends…
Der Sturm
Der Sturm (Storm) was the fulcrum of the international avant-garde in Berlin from 1910 to 1932. Herwarth Walden (born Georg Levin, 1878–1941) founded the journal…
Werefkin, Marianne (1960–1937)
Werefkin was born into an aristocratic family and herself a baroness. Her mother, Elizabeth Daragan, was an artist; her father, an army general decorated by…
Manifesto
A manifesto is an articulation of a particular (sometimes numerically or hierarchically ordered) set of theses that correspond to a political or aesthetic movement. In…
Nihilism
Most broadly, Nihilism is the rejection of meaningful moral or religious values. Nihilism is often associated with moral Relativism, extreme Skepticism, and Pessimism. First used…
White Savages Group
The White Savages Group (Baek-man Heo) was founded in 1930 when Kim Yong-jun (1904–1967) published his manifesto “Upon Founding the White Savages Group” in a…
Miller, Henry (1891–1980)
An iconoclastic writer of autobiographical fiction, travel narratives, and personal essays, Henry Miller drew on several strands of European Modernism, including Surrealism, Dada, and Expressionism.…
Automatism [REVISED AND EXPANDED]
There were different directions and forms connnected to Dada but an important element within it was a position of critique of established art and society.…
Eggeling, Viking (1880–1925)
Viking Eggeling, born in Lund, Sweden as the son of a music store owner, was an avant-garde painter who worked in Italy, France, Switzerland, and…
Arp, Hans/Jean (1886–1966)
Hans/Jean Arp is an Alsatian poet and artist, who was a founding member of Dada and an active participant in Constructivism and Surrealism. Arp grew…
Arensberg, Walter (1878–1954)
Walter Arensberg (April 4, 1878 to January 29, 1954) and his wife, Louise Stevens Arensberg (1879–1953), were influential patrons of the avant-garde, building a collection…
Scratch Orchestra
The Scratch Orchestra grew out of an Experimental Music class run by Cornelius Cardew at Morley College (1968–73). Though a number of people contributed towards…
Paik, Nam June (1932–2006)
Nam June Paik was a Korean-born American artist who achieved international notoriety for his destructive, neo-dada activities and visionary, esthetic experiments with electronic media. Born…
de Zayas, Marius (1880–1961)
Marius de Zayas was a Mexican caricaturist, writer, collector, dealer, and curator who formed part of the New York avant-garde, and did much to promote…
Dadaism in Film
Members of the Dada cultural and artistic movement began to experiment with film as a means to disseminate their stylistic partialities and cultural values through…
Shkurupii, Geo (1903–1937)
Ukrainian futurist poet and prose writer Shkurupii was a close collaborator of Mykhail Semenko, the founder of Ukrainian Futurism. He penned articles about Marinetti and…
Wood, Beatrice (1893–1998)
An American potter known for luster-glaze chalices and whimsical ceramic figures, Beatrice Wood was once named the “Mama of Dada.” Born on 3 March 1893…
Japanese-Korean Artistic Exchange (20th Century)
Japan was the most active among the East Asian countries in embracing Western civilization during the late 19th century. At the same time, the 500-year-old…
Semenko, Mykhail’ [Семенко, Михайль] (1892–1937)
Mykhail’ Semenko was the founder, theoretician, and major poet of the Ukrainian futurist movement, as well as the editor of the journal Nova generatsiia [New…
Cabaret Voltaire
The Cabaret Voltaire, housed within the Holländische Meierei bar at Spiegelgasse 1, in Zürich’s Niederdorf district, was the original breeding ground for the Zürich Dada…
Tati, Jacques (1907–1982)
Jacques Tati (born Jacques Tatischeff) was a French director and actor. Despite a very small output—only six feature films and three shorts—he is considered one…
Höch, Hannah (1889–1978)
Hannah Höch was a German painter and photomontagist who also worked in modern domestic handicraft, fabric and fashion design. She is primarily known for the…
Cravan, Arthur (1887–1918)
Born Fabian Avernius Lloyd in Lausanne, Switzerland to expatriate English parents, Arthur Cravan was a self-styled ‘poet-pugilist,’ nephew of Oscar Wilde, and husband of British…