Assignment 6: Between World Wars

     Dada, which was an art movement of European avant-garde in the early 20^th century, began in Zurich, Switzerland. This art style was born out of negative reaction to horrors of World War I. This international movement was begun by a group of artists and poet associated with the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of prevailing standard in art through anti-art culture works. In addition to being anti-war, Dada was also anti-bourgeois and had political affinities with the radical left. This is a very famous collage named “Rectangles Arranged According to the Laws of Chance” by Jean Arp in 1917. Jean Arp was a major artist associated with Dada in Cologne who also began to explore Dadaist techniques in a more positive and creative manner. Although his Dada credentials were beyond doubt, he was never a dyed-in-the-wool fanatic. Form the this image, Arp tore sheets of paper into rectangles with some cream colored and almost denim blue colored, and dropped them onto the surface of the larger sheet, sticking them down where they landed ‘according to the laws of chance’ irrespective of their aesthetic appeal.

    The artworks shown in the video called “The Migration series” by an African-American painter Jacob Lawrence. His “The Migration Series” depicted the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to urban North after World War I, and their adjusting to Northern cities. He used these series to show the discrimination and challenges that the migrants faced in the Northern cities. Additionally, the Migration Series depicted the living conditions of African-American in South. Soon, The Migration Series received great attention from art world and society. His artworks contributed to letting people to know the problem of discrimination, so I think Jacob Lawrence and his arts are the one of important factors that lessened the racial discrimination in the United States.