Special Exhibition Image Galleries: Dada at MoMA

If any one image from Dada sums the movement up perfectly, it would likely be this one. Marcel Duchamp's readymade Fountain (1917) broke a handful of artistic and social taboos in one fell swoop, and then - just in case anyone had failed to notice that Fountain, indeed, consisted solely of a porcelain fixture into which certain excretory processes were meant to be received - danced a triumphantly satirical jig on the pieces. Here, once again, Dada set the accepted order on its ear. The Art World would never be the same after Duchamp submitted Fountain to the American Independents Exhibition, and there's nothing mysterious in that it was voted The Most Influential Work of Modern Art in 2004, nearly 100 years later.

In light of the city's generous contributions (of sanctuary, machines and other manufactured goods) to the Dadaists, New York's Museum of Modern Art is most appropriately playing host to the enormously popular special exhibition Dada from June 18 to September 11, 2006. MoMA is the third and final stop in a tour that previously included the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from February 19 to May 14, 2006 and a first, slightly variational form at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, from October 5, 2005 to January 9, 2006. Do you need to step on it to see Dada? Yes, yes you do. Don't hesitate for another second if you've been meaning to go; it's doubtful such a major museum exhibition devoted solely to Dada will happen again for many years.

For those who can't possibly see it firsthand, we've gotten permission to show a selection of images from the show here in Dada at MoMA, a complex of picture galleries representing the six major cities in which Dada was created from 1916 to 1924. Endless thanks to Daniela Stigh, Manager of Communications at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, for her help in making this educational resource available for readers. Truly, none of these images would be here for you without her assistance. I hope you find great pleasure in viewing the results.

Image Caption:

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)
Fountain, photograph of sculpture by Marcel Duchamp, 1917
Gelatin silver print
9 1/4 x 7 in. (23.5 x 17.7 cm)
Succession Marcel Duchamp, Villiers-sous-Grez, France
© 2006 Marcel Duchamp / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
/ ADAGP, Paris / Succession Marcel Duchamp