Even though Dadaism had an international outreach, in was not very stable. The movement died down post-war when people became optimistic and developed new movements in art and literature such as Surrealism. Dada, as a matter of fact is said to be the beginning of Postmodern Art. Dada is also said to be a main source of inspiration for many anti-art, political and cultural movements since the 1920s. The Situationist International, founded in 1957, was a group of avant-garde artists who gave their critique on Capitalism. They were so effective that their texts, plays and art provoked the biggest upheaval in France’s history. In May 1968 thousands of European workers rioted against the new consumerist lifestyle. These workers felt defeated by ruling classes and their outrage was felt for years. Every
social class, wage earner, sector of France was impacted by this revolt.
The purpose of this riot was to terminate capitalism and return to more a more communist way of living. The lower class were against group leadership and guiding ideologies. They did not like to be held under someone else’s power. Dada was effective because it reached the people of the lower class, the people who struggled. It was highly followed because it gave these people something to blame their difficulties on. The Situationist International understood that Capitalism had a way of hindering things and tried their best to fight against it. The automobile industry hindered public transport development for years, pharmaceutical companies worked hard to delay cures from coming on market because it would stop their cash flow, an so on… And as we can see in these examples, capitalism would have the same effects on art, but by being extremely anti-traditional it was harder to stop the growth of art in those years.
Even though Dadaism was short lived, the first avant-garde movement in history is what created the 20thcentury. All the following movement were offspring of Dada. Surrealism, pop art, Abstraction…. Were influenced by it. If it was directly related to Dada it was in consequence to Dada. We even hold Dadaism responsible for the emergence of Jazz Music. Who can say they invented music with their movement!?
Morgan's Explorations in Cinema & Communications 