neo-dada

Or ne·o-Da·da

[nee-oh-dah-dah]

noun

1. a minor art movement chiefly of the 1960s reviving some of the objectives of dada but placing emphasis on the importance of the work of art produced rather than on the concept generating the work.

Other Word Forms

• neo-dadaist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of neo-dada¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

He went from inspired Pop progenitor, proto-Conceptualist and Neo-Dada game changer to teasing puzzle master.

Read more on New York Times

His Cage paintings, abstractions made by chance according to the rules of American neo-dada composer John Cage, are as mysterious and entrancing as a Wagner prelude, or at least Kraftwerk’s Autobahn.

Read more on The Guardian

Their neo-Dada stunt evolved into an essential rag-trade resource.

Read more on The New Yorker

Incredulous on this score, some observers at the time took refuge in calling him Neo-Dada, but there’s an Atlantic Ocean’s worth of distance between his work, which is dead serious even when playful, and, say, the satiric displacements of common objects by Marcel Duchamp.

Read more on The New Yorker

In 1956, he moved to New York City where he joined the avant-garde scene and began producing and exhibiting neo-Dada sculptures.

Read more on Washington Times