The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Quiz

Answer: Cabaret Voltaire

There is much debate about exactly when and how Dada came to be, but one fact is accepted by most sources, it happened in 1916 at the Cabaret Voltaire. Some credit Tzara while others credit Ball. Tzara himself never cared about the debate and never weighed in on the subject of when or how Dada came to be. Artists of all persuasions were invited to come and experiment at the cabaret.

The performances in many ways mirrored the chaos that then engulfed Europe because of the war. Nothing was off limits and all boundaries were pushed.

Answer: Anti-art

Hans Richter was a German born painter and film maker. He was wounded in WWI and went to Zurich after being discharged from the German army. Having experienced the absurdity of the destruction wrought by the war, he now embraced Dada. As a rejection of the world that led to the war, he called Dada not an art movement but an 'anti-art' movement. That which was celebrated by most art forms was rejected by the Dadaist.

Richter is considered to be one of the first abstract film makers and his 1921 film "Rhythmus 21" is considered to be one of the earliest examples of this art form by both the Getty Center and the Museum of Modern Art among others. His use of the abstract was a direct result of his embracing of Dada.

Answer: Marcel Duchamp

The piece, a urinal turned on its side and labeled "Fountain", was submitted for display during the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917 at The Grand Central Palace in New York. Because Marcel Duchamp was a board member he submitted the piece, or had it submitted, using the pseudonym R. Mutt so that his ties to the piece would not influence its acceptance. Although all pieces were to be accepted if the artist paid the fee, "Fountain" was rejected by the board as not being art after much debate. This caused Duchamp to resign from the board in protest and led to the "Fountain" being featured in the Dada journal "The Blind Man" as a protest to its exclusion. Although the original was lost, in the 1960s Duchamp commissioned replicas, 17 of which still exist.

The "Fountain" is a classic example of Duchamp's use of readymades, ordinary manufactured objects that become art because the artist declares it to be so or because the artist changes it in some way. Other famous Duchamp readymades are "Bottle Rack" (1914), "Prelude to a Broken Arm" (1915), and "50 cc of Paris Air" (1919).

Answer: Hugo Ball

Hugo Ball first read his Dada Manifesto in public at the Cabaret Voltaire on July 14, 1916. It is somewhat ironic that he conveys his ideas with words that the listener can understand all the while decrying the fact that words have no meaning and should not be relied upon. In the same year he released his famous nonsensical poem "Karawane".

He is most well-known for his writings "7 schizophrene Sonette" (a poetry collection), "Die Nase des Michelangelo" (a drama), and "Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary" (a memoir of Dada).

Interestingly, by 1920 Ball had returned to Catholicism and retired to live a religious life. He even contributed to the Catholic magazine "Hochland" during this time.

Answer: Man Ray

Man Ray embraced Dada early in his career and became friends with Marcel Duchamp when he was in New York. He too used Duchamp's readymade concept. Some of his most famous readymades are "Gift" (1921), a flatiron with metal tacks attached to the bottom, and "Enigma of Isidore Ducasse" (1920), a sewing machine wrapped in cloth with a cord tied around it. Ray also developed special photographic techniques that were influenced by Dada as seen in his 1918 version of "Rope Dancer".

Ray moved to Paris in 1921 and there was a much sought after photographer. James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Kiki de Montparnasse all posed for him among many others. During this time his works were featured in the first Surrealist exhibition in Paris.

Ray also experimented with photograms, which he called 'rayographs'. This technique is also called cameraless photography, and involves placing objects on light sensitive material and then exposing it to light. This produces a negative effect which can be anywhere from white to shades of grey, depending on the transparency of the object, on a black background.

Answer: Viking Eggeling

Because the Vikings were of Scandinavian origin, the adjective Swedish was the hint. Eggeling was introduced to Richter by Tristan Tzara in 1918 in Zurich. While in Zurich he associated with and took part in Dada activities with those involved in the Cabaret Voltaire.

In 1919, Eggeling and Richter left Zurich to return to Germany and collaborate for the next three years while staying at Richter's family's estate. Although their styles and focus differed, they were both pursuing abstract film making.

His "Symphonie diagonale" is considered seminal in the early stages of experimental cinema. The film was created by painstakingly photographing each frame one at a time.

Answer: Beatrice Wood

Beatrice Wood was friends with Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché. Together the three created the magazine "The Blind Man". Although only two volumes were ever published, it was one of the earliest Dada publications and played a large role in the debate over Duchamp's piece "Fountain" when the piece was featured in the magazine after its rejection.

Beatrice also was friends with Walter and Louise Arensberg, art patrons who held gatherings of artists for the purpose of intellectual discussion. Along with Duchamp and Roche, Man Ray and Francis Picabia were part of the group.

Beatrice pursued many different artistic endeavors and was a renowned actress before she took up pottery. She developed a signature style of glazing for which she became famous in that field.

While developing the movie "Titanic", James Cameron read Beatrice's autobiography and it influenced the development of the character of Rose DeWitt Bukater.

Answer: France

Although Tzara's Dada views were originally nihilistic, he came to embrace Surrealism in the 1920s. The rise of the Nazis in Germany produced a two-fold threat to Tzara - the Nazis ended the avant-garde art movement in Germany because of its subversive tendencies and they threatened all Jews living in Europe. Tzara was both a member of the avant-garde art world and a Romanian Jew. During the 1930s Tzara opposed the rise of Franco in Spain, even joining the Republican forces who opposed Franco's nationalists.

Tzara was living in France when WWII broke out and hid in Vichy France to avoid capture by the Nazis. He joined the Maquis, contributing to resistance magazines and taking charge of the cultural broadcast for the Free French Forces. His son Christophe joined the Franc Tireurs Partisans in Northern France fighting against the occupation.

Answer: Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Elsa was born in Germany but ended up in New York working with such artists as Louis Bouché, George Biddle, and Man Ray. She was also a friend and collaborator with Marcel Duchamp and may have had a role in his "Fountain" readymade. Her poetry was first published in "The Little Review" alongside chapters of James Joyce's "Ulysses".

Although she tried in her lifetime to collect all of her poetry to get it published, it never happened before her death in 1927. Her works were not gathered together until MIT Press published "Body Sweats: The Uncensored Writings of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven" in 2011.

The volume was edited by Elsa biographer Irene Gammel and poetics scholar Suzanne Zelazo.

Answer: Marcel Janco

Marcel Janco, a Romanian Jew, played a crucial role in Cabaret Voltaire, decorating it and the sets and most notably designing the grotesque masks the performers used. His masks gained fame well beyond Zurich and Europe, inspiring such artists as Germán Cueto, a Mexican puppeteer and painter of the Stridentist school. Janco's illustrations were used in Dada advertisements and continued long after he parted ways with the movement.

In the 1930s Janco returned to his native Romania with his family. As anti-Semitism grew in Europe and especially in Germany and Romania, Janco found himself under more and more pressure. Finally in 1941 he was forced to flee with his family and ended up in Tel Aviv in British Palestine. It was during this time that he began to promote local Jewish art. His influence was important and only grew stronger after Israel became an independent nation. He won numerous awards and influenced architecture as well as other art forms.