what is Anti art,non art ?

"DaDa is beautiful like the night, who cradles the young day in her arms." - Hans Arp

"DADA speaks with you, it is everything, it envelops everything, it belongs to every religion, can be neither victory or defeat, it lives in space and not in time." - Francis Picabia

"Dada is the sun, Dada is the egg. Dada is the Police of the Police." - Richard Huelsenbeck

One of the best books written on the subject was 'Dada art and Anti-art' by Hans Richter. Anyway, a two second Google search turned up this list of Dada artists, most of who I am familiar with: http://www.peak.org/~dadaist/English/Graphics/artists.html

yes there is a whole host of books and things on the web you can read about Dadaism... you just have to do it MaximumDefiance.
Memoirs of a Dada Drummer by Richard HUELSENBECK is an interesting read.

When it comes to judging art, you have to incorporate the classics:
Balance, composition, color harmony, line quality, etc.
To asses the visual attributes or the lack thereof.

Then you have to adress the work on the interactive level, as you would a book of fiction: Is this depiction good/interesting? Does it bring up good/interesting subjects? Does it mentally sustain us?

there could be "anti-art" supporters who think that all those things are not really important, and that is what they believe in.

There was an exhibition at a gallery in Sydney a good year ago called my four year old could do better or something like this... the proceeds going to the Children's Hospital - but it was "art" done by children. Some of it was better than some of the more serious attempts by some people.

Perhaps this is "antiart" in practice?
Maybe a Dadaist would shake his head in horror and dispell it...

I didn't say that you had to go along with those qualities, only asess them. Maybe the four year old art is interesting because it breaks all the rules. Maybe they did something fantastically different with color. Maybe they showed us some aspect of themselves that we could have never guessed without such communication.

Think of it from a scientific point of view: if you can break the rules, the rules were wrong in the first place.

Re: what is Anti art,non art ?


I wondered about the dadaists myself. Are they saying everything is art? I don't know. However, I would say that everything natural is art. This statement is congruent with the artists who, for example, dye icebergs red or put cloth fences around islands, etc. The idea here is to draw attention to nature by framing it or contrasting it, similar to the experience of walking in a field and seeing a flower. The contrast is what attracts our attention.

One could put a frame around a wildflower and call it art. Incidentally, the colorful flower's raison d'etre is simply to contrast with the environment and attract the pollinator's attention. Insects are the normal pollinators but humans because of aesthetics have benefitted flowers greatly by propagating them. So you could say that the flower is making itself into art for its own advantage. That plants have used people to propagate them by making themselves attractive is a form of utilitarian or exploitive art.

I have been reading Irving Stone's "Dear Theo," Van Gogh's letters to his brother. Early on in his artistic career Van Gogh made these comments to Theo regarding the purpose of art in relation to nature: "Try to walk as much as you can, and keep your love for nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more. Painters understand nature and love her and teach us to see her. If one really loves nature, one can find beauty everywhere."

And: "...the feeling for things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures; at least it is more fertile and vital."


Welcome to A2K, Maximumdefiance. You're type questions are what keeps the site vital.

thank you Coluber - I am personally going to search out that book.