I recently chanced upon a comprehensive volume about Da Da while waiting for Vicky to get off work at the library. I guess I never really realized how that movement was a direct result of the insanity of World War I. Shows how little I know. This book is the companion to the exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art that I apparently missed! The book is exhaustive and in-depth as only a major museum production should be. By the time I finish it I'll be an authority on the subject. So far it's got me thinking, wondering and inspired...the DaDaists found a common ground that was the horror and insanity of war and created art that was so self critical and creative that it could easily produce film, sculpture and painting while at the same time negating its own existence with a flippant yet clear honesty. It was political art and high brow art all in one. In our role as arm chair warmongers we fear controvesy as if it could destroy our precious cocoon. Why aren't we creating a movement today within contemporary art that lashes out at the horror of our vast military industrial complexes, that supplies and feeds conflicts across the globe? Where are the DaDaists?
