This book celebrates Dada, the art movement founded 110 years ago but whose subversive political engagement remains highly relevant today. With a keen eye and biting satire, Dada produced forceful critiques while inquiring into political and social conditions. Featuring works by the most important Dada artists, this volume presents a multifaceted portrait of the movement and its many forms of expression, including painting, photography, theatre, dance, literature and satire.

An international group of experts recount the history of Dada from its beginning in 1916 through to the 1930s. The volume’s focus is on the movement’s political motives and social activity, which served to unite this heterogeneous group of visual artists, writers and figures from the theatre. Emerging from the experience of the First World War, Dada artists issued strong warnings about the rise of the Nazi dictatorship. The book vividly demonstrates how vital artistic voices can be in resisting inhumane and anti-democratic tendencies. Artists: Johannes Baader, Hugo Ball, Erwin Blumenfeld, Paul Citroen, Otto Dix, Otto Griebel, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Marta Hegemann, Emmy Hennings, Hannah Höch, Heinrich Hoerle, Richard Huelsenbeck, Franz Jung, Walter Mehring, Rudolf Schlichter, Kurt Schwitters, Sophie Taeuber-Arp.