No. 8
Paris, January 1923
No. 6
Paris, November 1922
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Above is cover artwork from the magazine journal Littérature published during the surge of the Parisian Dada movement in the early 1920s post WWI. This magazine was pioneered by Andre Breton, Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupalt.
“Here the writers tested automatic writing, or writing impulsively without filtering their thoughts… in social venues, the French branch of Dada continued with speeches, debates, readings, art exhibits, and performance art to entertain the crowd. The association often collected admission from the audience. The subject matter of performances was frequently offensive, insulting, incendiary, anarchic, and/or vulgar. Sometimes, the audience even responded by throwing objects such as rotten fruit at the performers.
Some Paris gatherings of Dada were so popular that the Parisian social elite attended. These gatherings provided firsthand exposure to the latest intellectual debates and a chance to view works by emerging and established artists. Between 1921 and 1924, the transition began towards Surrealism.
In “History of the Surrealist Movement,” Gerard Durozoi explains: ‘What was worrisome to the Litterature group, more than to Tzara or Picabia, was that Dada was beginning to be co-opted: word was spreading that Dada was the latest fashionable entertainment or the cutting edge of snobbishness.’
While Surrealism was not just an outcome of Dada but clearly claimed its roots there, Surrealism would become the more memorable of the two movements in history.”
(via ArtHistory.net)
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You may also be interested in my recent feature on the 1921 Dada book of poems, Bezette Stad. Additional literary works can be found at the International Dada Archive located at the University of Iowa.
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