Dadaism

Each book in Taschen's Basic Art movement and genre series includes a detailed Introduction with approximately 30 photographs, plus a timeline of the most important events (political, cultural, scientific, sporting, etc.) that took place during the time period. The body of the book contains 35 of the most important works of the epoch; each is presented on a 2-page spread with a full page Image and, on the facing page, a description/interpretation of the work, portrait of the artist, and biographical information. A precursor to surrealism, the Dada movement stressed the absurd and unpredictable, lashing out against traditional standards of aesthetics. Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray were among the most famous proponents of Dada, creating works that dared viewers to expand their notions of what can be considered art.