The Anti-Art That Changed Art

Dada lasted only six years, but its impact is permanent:

• Duchamp's readymades established that an artist's concept matters more than craft
• The movement proved art could be performance, collage, chance, or nonsense — not just painting and sculpture
• Berlin Dada's photomontage pioneered techniques now standard in graphic design and digital media
• Dada's self-destruction fed into Surrealism, which carried its ideas into the mainstream

The most durable thing the Dadaists created was an attitude: refuse the frame, mock the institution while operating inside it.