Dadaism in the context of humorous approach in art

Among the contemporary art movements, Dadaism is an important art movement that that emerged with its humorous approach, displaying a protest stance against the art understanding of its time and continuing to influence the art world to the present day. The aim of this research is to examine the humorous aspect of the Dadaism movement through artists and artworks. In this study, document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was applied. According to the findings of this research, Dadaists approached the concept of art beyond its conventional meaning, taking a different path from existing art movements. Moreover, they introduced a humorous perspective to art by ridiculing traditional painting. They rejected the established art of their time and replaced it with a humorous narrative. They achieved this by presenting everyday objects as art objects and sabotaging existing artworks, they broke new ground in art by creating works ahead of the age. When we examine the art movements that emerged before Dadaism in the 20th century, we can see that these art movements, at some point, centered around the concept of war. Particularly, the Futurist movement glorified war, embracing masculine violence and commodification in its works. Due to its association with nationalist circles, Futurist movement was excluded by the community of socially oriented artists. In contrast to Futurism, Dadaism represents opposition and rebellion against war and all social values imposed by war. In this context, it was observed that Dadaism made use of humour and satire in their critical expressions while presenting their art products. Representatives of Dadaism frequently emphasized the "opposition" issue in an avant-garde perspective, showcasing it prominently in all their actions. They based their art production on humor and satire, offering innovative and groundbreaking works in various branches of art, including painting, caricature, literature, theater, music, and dance. This study explores the emergence of Dadaism, the areas in which it was practiced, its global impact, and the thematic innovations it brought to art production. It concludes by demonstrating how this art movement humorously defied the irrationality of the bourgeoisie.