Dada – News & Announcements

Feb 04 2016

February 5th: 100th Anniversary of Dada

Posted on February 4, 2016January 14, 2019 by The University of Iowa Libraries

By Timothy Shipe, Curator of the International Dada Archive

Friday, February 5 marks the 100^th anniversary of Dada, the avant-garde literary and artistic movement that started in the neutral city of Zurich in the midst of World War I. On February 5, 1916, a group of exiled artists and writers opened the Cabaret Voltaire, an eclectic performance space in the heart of the student quarter. That first night’s program included poetry readings in German and Romanian, cabaret songs, classical piano music, a balalaika orchestra, and an exhibit of abstract art. By April, the name Dada had been chosen for the movement that grew from the Cabaret’s activities. The Cabaret Voltaire lasted for 165 days, but Dada spread beyond its walls to other venues in Zurich, then to Berlin, Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam, and New York, among other places. The influence of Dada on modern art and culture is immense. Dada centennial celebrations have begun around the world. Our own International Dada Archive houses the world’s most comprehensive repository of Dada documentation. To avoid upstaging the celebrations in Zurich, Bucharest, and elsewhere in Europe, the Dada Archive and Special Collections will launch our own centennial events next year, beginning with a major exhibition in the Libraries’ new gallery in spring 2017.

See the first issue of Cabaret Voltaire online.

Shown here is the cover of the 1916 journal Cabaret Voltaire, one of the gems of our collection. Weekly “Dadagrams” have been posted on the Special Collections Instagram site for the past year.

Calling all Dada enthusiasts! We are going to start featuring some pieces in our Dada collection, starting with our most viewed item on our digital library – Cabaret Voltaire. Published in 1916, it was the first major Dada publication, emerging from the performance space in a brewery that launched the Dada movement in Zurich. [xNX456.5 D3 C3 1916] #uiowa #specialcollections #libraries #dada #dadaatiowa #cabaret #voltaire #dadaism #zurich #20thcentury

A post shared by U. of Iowa Special Collections (@uispeccoll) on Nov 13, 2014 at 1:14pm PST

Dec 31 2015

Issue no. 20 of Dada/Surrealism Journal Now Available

Posted on December 31, 2015January 14, 2019 by Colleen Theisen

By Tim Shipe, Curator, International Dada Archive, and Arts & Literature Liaison

We are pleased to announce the publication of issue no. 20 of our journal Dada/Surrealism, a special number entitled From Dada to Infra-noir: Dada, Surrealism, and Romania.” http://ir.uiowa.edu/dadasur/vol20/iss1/.

Co-edited by Monique Yaari of the Pennsylvania State University and Timothy Shipe of the University of Iowa, our thematic issue includes eighteen articles by scholars and critics from North America, Europe, and Israel, as well as a selection of primary documents newly translated into English and a substantial bibliography. From Dada to Infra-Noir is the first essay collection in English on the subject of Romanian Dada and surrealism in literature and the visual arts, both within Romania and in the (largely francophone) diaspora.

Dada/Surrealism is the peer-reviewed, free and open-access journal of the Association for the Study of Dada and Surrealism, and is published by the International Dada Archive, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.

Profuse thanks are due to Wendy Robertson for her expertise, patience, and hard work in bringing this project to fruition.

Tim Shipe

General Editor, Dada/Surrealism

Sep 30 2013

New from the International Dada Archives

Posted on September 30, 2013January 14, 2019 by Colleen Theisen

Three major new acquisitions from Dada’s transitional period of 1919-1920 document that movement’s spread beyond its World War I origins in neutral Switzerland to the key cultural centers of Europe during the early postwar era.

Francis Picabia was one of the chief agents for the propagation of the Dada movement, and his periodical 391 was a key vehicle for spreading Dada beyond its origins in Zurich. Picabia published the first four numbers in Barcelona, then took 391 with him to New York, Zurich, and finally Paris. Special Collections owns ten of the nineteen issues, representing all four cities. Our latest acquisition is Number 9 (November 1919), the first issue to be published in Paris (following the single Zurich number), just as Tristan Tzara, Dada’s self-proclaimed leader, was preparing to move to the French capital. With a cover featuring one of Picabia’s famous machine drawings, and with texts by Tzara, Picabia, and future Parisian Dadaist Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, this issue anticipates the founding of the Paris Dada movement.

Published shortly after the author had established himself in Paris, Cinéma calendrier du coeur abstrait; Maisons (1920) completes our collection of Tzara’s three books of poetry in the series “Collection Dada.” The first two were published in Zurich, and this third collection marks the full fruition of Dada in Paris. Illustrated with nineteen original woodcuts by Jean Arp, this masterpiece of Dada book art is signed by the author and the artist.

Die Schammade (also known as Dadameter) is the seminal publication of the short-lived branch of the Dada movement in Cologne, Germany. Edited in early 1920 by Max Ernst and Johannes Baargeld and printed on multicolored paper with magnificent woodcuts and drawings by Ernst, Arp, and others, Die Schammade typifies the international nature Dada, and includes texts in German and French, including some of the most important Dada writings of Arp, Ernst, and Baargeld.

In addition, we recently acquired the one issue of the Dada publication 291 not previously in the collection, making a complete set.

All four items will be scanned for the Digital Library of Dada.