Dada Vs. Surrealism Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Dada Vs. Surrealism - Term Paper Example The essay "Dada Vs. Surrealism" discusses dada movement and surrealism movement. Phantasmagorical is characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines phantasmagoria as â€Å"an exhibition of optical effects and illusions; a constantly shifting complex succession of things seen or imagined; a bizarre or fantastic combination, collection or assemblage†. Artists emerging in this period used disjunctive and bizarre comparisons and contexts to try to break through to a cultural subconscious creating new approaches to art. In the course of making their art, they wanted to expose the hypocrisy that lay at the heart of what they considered to be a decadent, bourgeois world that only they truly understood. The Dada and Surreal movements that emerged in this period were both influential in their own right. Dada began as a movement against the way art was appreciated by others while Surrealism, originally a literally movement, grew and engulfed Dada and became the most eminent movement other than Cubism at that time. Being that Surrealism is a reflection more defined by Dada, it quickly immersed Dada and thus became more influential. The Dada movement in art is roughly traced to the beginning of the First World War. It was essentially a protest carried out through the visual arts, literature, theatre and graphic design. The movement stood against what the literati considered the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests that led to war.