Our list of some of the best Dadaism books & series in recent years. Get inspired by one or more of the following books.
1. Dada (2015)
Eminent scholar Rudolf Kuenzli presents a rich selection of the Dadas’ experimental visual and literary works to give a lively, accessible and comprehensive assessment….
2. Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris (2008)
Now available in paperback, this lavishly illustrated and astonishingly comprehensive volume stands as the definitive study of the influential but deliberately elusive international Dada movement of the early twentieth century. Organized according to the primary city centers where this shifting, quintessentially avant garde movement emerged, Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris features the work of 40 key artists, both infamous and lesser-known, including Louis Aragon, Hans Arp, Hugo Ball, André Breton, Otto Dix, Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Höch, Man Ray, Tristan Tzara and Kurt Schwitters, to name just a few, in media…
3. The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology, Second Edition (Paperbacks in Art History) (1989)
The Dada Painters and Poets offers the authentic answer to the question “What is Dada?” This incomparable collection of essays, manifestos, and illustrations was prepared by Robert Motherwell with the collaboration of some of the major Dada figures: Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, and Max Ernst among others. Here in their own words and art, the principals of the movement create a composite picture of Dada–its convictions, antics, and spirit.First published in 1951, this treasure trove remains, as Jack Flam states in his foreword to the second edition, “the most comprehensive and important anthology of Dada…
4. Dada: Art and Anti-Art (Second) (World of Art) (2016)
“One of the best and most consistently interesting documents on this extraordinary movement that has been published.” ―The Sunday Times“Where and how Dada began is almost as difficult to determine as Homer’s birthplace,” writes Hans Richter, the artist and filmmaker closely associated with this radical movement from its earliest days. Here he records and traces Dada’s history, from its inception in wartime Zurich to its collapse in Paris in the 1920s, when many of its members joined the Surrealist movement, to the present day when its spirit reemerged in the 1960s in movements such as Pop Art. This absorbing eyewitness…
5. Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (2004)
The avant-garde movements of Dada and Surrealism continue to have a huge influence on cultural practice, especially in contemporary art, with its obsession with sexuality, fetishism, and shock tactics. In this new treatment of the subject, Hopkins focuses on the many debates surrounding these movements: the Marquis de Sade’s Surrealist deification, issues of quality (How good is Dali?), the idea of the ‘readymade’, attitudes towards the city, the impact of Freud, attitudes to women, fetishism, and primitivism. The international nature of these movements is examined, covering the…
6. Modernism Since Postmodernism: Essays on Intermedia (1997)
BACK IN PRINT!!! Modernism Since Postmodernism: Essays on Intermedia by Dick Higgins ISBN 1-879691-43-4 (1997/2014) paper, 252 pp. US $22.95 Modernism Since Postmodernism: Essays on Intermedia completed Dick Higgins’ critical trilogy that began with A Dialectic of Centuries: Notes Towards a Theoryof the New Arts and continued with his Horizons: The Poetics and Theory of Intermedia. A fluxperson, artist, poet, composer, and scholar of intermedia, Higgins also authored Pattern Poetry: Guide to an Unknown Literature, among numerous other works. He died in October of 1998. Dick Higgins…
7. Dada & Surrealism For Beginners (2007)
What kind of artists put a mustache on the Mona Lisa? Enter a urinal in an art competition? Declare their own independent republic? Hijack a ship?Dadas!And what happens in such a movement? With Dada, many of the artists declared their own “Pope” and continued their journey (with no destination) into Surrealism, creating burning giraffes, “amoebic” dogs, and lobster telephones – some of the most imaginative and intense works of art of the 20th Century. In Dada & Surrealism For Beginners, you’ll get a colorful overview of these two movements, and develop a sense of the turbulent, wild,…
8. Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada, and Everyday Modernity―A Cultural Biography (The MIT Press) (2003)
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874–1927) is considered by many to be the first American dadaist as well as the mother of dada. An innovator in poetic form and an early creator of junk sculpture, “the Baroness” was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances. Some thought her merely crazed, others thought her a genius. The editor Margaret Anderson called her “perhaps the only figure of our generation who deserves the epithet extraordinary.” Yet despite her great notoriety and influence, until recently her story and work have…
9. Tenants and Cobwebs (Middle East Literature In Translation) (2018)
Samir Naqqash’s stirring novel Tenants and Cobwebs nostalgically commemorates the lost culture of an ancient Iraqi Jewish minority living amidst a majority Muslim population in 1940s Baghdad. The plot unfolds during a time of great turmoil: the rise of Iraqi nationalism and anti-Jewish sentiment fueled by Nazi propaganda; the Farûd, a bloody pogrom carried out against Jewish residents of Baghdad in 1941; and the founding of Israel in 1948. These pivotal events profoundly affected Muslim-Jewish relationships, forever changing the nature of the Jewish experience in Iraq and eventually leading to a mass exodus of…
10. Style For Actors 2nd Edition (2009)
“Style is a journey from tourist to native. It is living in the world of the play, not just visiting it.” – from Chapter One Anyone who has ever struggled with capes, fans, swords, doublets and crinolines should make Style for Actors 2nd Edition their constant companion. Robert Barton has completely updated his award winning handbook for the 21st century with contemporary references and up-to-date illustrations. This is the definitive guide to roles in historical drama. The past is a foreign country, and this outstanding book is concerned with exploring it from the actor’s point of view. Specific guides range from Greek,…
11. A Book of Surrealist Games (1995)
This delightful collection allows everyone to enjoy firsthand the provocative methods used by the artists and poets of the Surrealist school to break through conventional thought and behavior to a deeper truth. Invented and played by such artists as André Breton, Rene Magritte, and Max Ernst, these gems still produce results ranging from the hilarious to the mysterious and profound….
Best Dadaism Books Worth Your Attention
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Genesis and download some dadaism books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Please note that this booklist is not definite. Some books are really chart-busters according to Los Angeles Times, others are drafted by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.