Review by Choice Review
Given postmodernism's reliance on principles and materials that were fundamentally Dada in spirit, it is surprising that no retrospective examinations have appeared between 1966 and the 2005-06 exhibition from which this book is drawn, hosted by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, National Gallery of Art in Washington, and MOMA New York. The international nature of the movement is stressed in this volume's layout. Seven scholars and curators contribute essays that examine each of the various Dada centers in turn: Zurich (Dickerman, National Gallery of Art); Berlin (Doherty, Princeton Univ.); Hannover (Dorothea Dietrich, Corcoran College); Cologne (Sabine T. Kriebel, Univ. College, Cork, Ireland); New York (Michael R. Taylor, Philadelphia Museum of Art); and Paris (Janine Mileaf, Swarthmore College, and Matthew Witkovsky, National Gallery of Art). Each essay examines key locations (e.g., the Cabaret Voltaire), individuals, publications (including Merz magazine), and inventions (such as ready-mades and photomontage). Also included are a chronology that synchronizes events in the six centers with world events, a useful summary of Dada films, and extensive artists' biographies. Its comprehensive scholarship and color illustrations of many rarely seen works make this book essential for all art collections. Summing Up: Essential. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals. E. K. Menon Purdue University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
The disillusionment intellectuals experienced during World War I gave rise to Dada, one of the first artistic movements that questioned the fundamental assumptions forged during the Enlightenment. This opulently illustrated and cleanly designed exhibition catalog, published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, accompanies an eponymous show traveling to Paris, New York, and Washington. Editor and contributor Dickerman (associate curator, modern & contemporary art, National Gallery of Art) examines Dada's historical development through the juxtaposition of the six titular cites from which the movement emerged. Six art historians provide brief essays on Dada's trajectory, carefully tracing the complex network of personal relationships and artistic strategies that gave Dada its unique character. And some 40 artists whose paintings, sculptures, photographs, collages, and other works date from 1916 to 1926 are profiled. The innovative, clearly reasoned scholarship, along with the hundreds of high-quality plates, make this an essential investment for any library collecting in art, cultural history, or modernism. It would complement more general texts, like Steve Edwards and Paul Wood's Art of the Avant-Gardes or Greil Marcus's now-classic Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century.-Katherine C. Adams, Yale Univ. Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
