The Annotated Mona Lisa: Pages 148 - 149

Question 1

Dada: A World Gone Gaga

Answer 1

• founded in neutral Zurich in 1916 by a group of refugees form World War I
• main strategy was to denounce and shock
• they hoped to awaken imagination

Question 2

Arp: Game of Chance

Answer 2

• Arp (1887-1966)

- discovered the principle of random collage by accident

Question 3

Schwitters: A Matter of Merz

Answer 3

• Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)
• use non art materials to avoid any reminder of the paintings which seemed to us to be characteristic of a pretentious, self-satisfied world

Question 4

Surrealism: Power of the Uncounscious

Answer 4

• began as a literary movement
• took two forms, some practiced improvised art, distancing themselves as much as possible from conscious control; others used scrupulously realistic techniques to present hallucinatory scenes that defy common sense

Question 5

Miro: The Joy of Painting

Answer 5

• Joan Miro (1893-1983)
• tried to banish reason and loose the unconscious
• his semi-abstract shapes, although stylized, always playfully alluded to real objects.