CURRENT QUESTION

What does Dada mean?  Name one of the Dada artists.

Please reply to: cathcarts@rlasd.net

OAXACAN WOOD SCULPTURE

Oaxacan wood sculpture is an imaginative Folk Art form from Oaxaca, Mexico. It is used to describe a style of fanciful and surreal animal carvings with bold paint schemes that has developed during the last 20 years in three small villages in the State of Oaxaca on the southern tip of Mexico. 

Several bins of scrap wood pieces were spilled onto the floor in the art room and the students were assigned to choose 7 pieces or less to assemble into a critter of their choice.  The pieces were then glued together and painted a base color.  The next step was to paint bright decorations on their sculpture in the manner of the the Oaxacans.  This project requires a great imagination and the students did a great job!

DADA ART MOVEMENT

Dada was, officially, not a movement, its artists not artists and its art not art.

The Dada art movement came into being during and directly after World War I.  The artists living in Switzerland at the time were disenchanted with the world and the senseless carnage that was going on around them.  They came together to protest the state of the world.

They said that nothing was as it should be at the time so why should Art be any different.  The name "DADA" was even meaningless.  The artwork above is an example of DADA.  You can see that it is utterly useless.

One of the things the Dadaists did to show their disapproval of world affairs was to alter famous works of art.  Salvadore Dali painted a mustache on a print of the Mona Lisa.  The 5th grade students were assigned the task of altering Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  They had some very interesting results as can be seen from the artwork to the right.