One Movement, Five Cities

Dada erupted in Zurich, Berlin, Cologne, Paris, and New York at once, and each city gave it a different temper. Berlin Dada turned political, using John Heartfield's photomontages to attack the Weimar Republic and, later, the Nazis. New York Dada, led by Duchamp and Man Ray, stayed more philosophical and playful.

A Name From Chance

Nobody agrees how the word Dada was chosen. The most repeated story says the founders stabbed a knife into a French dictionary and took whatever it landed on, which turned out to be the word for a child's hobby horse.

Whether or not that happened, the method fit the philosophy perfectly: let chance, not the artist's taste, make the decision. Letting accident take over from intention became one of Dada's signature tools.