Dada was a literary and artistic movement that began in Europe during World War I. Because of the war, many artists, intellectuals and writers, especially from France and Germany, moved to Switzerland, which was a neutral country. Instead of being relieved to have escaped, artists, intellectuals, and writers were furious with modern society. So, they decided to show their protest through artistic means. They decided to create non-art since art in society had no meaning anyway.
The so-called non-artists turned to creating art that had mild obscenities, scattered humor, visible puns, and everyday objects. The most outrageous painting was created by Marcel Duchamp, when he painted a mustache on a copy of the Mona Lisa and scribbled obscenities underneath. He also created the sculpture of himself called the Fountain, which was actually a urinal with no plumbing and had a fake signature.
The public was repulsed by the Dada movement. However, the Dadaists found this attitude encouraging. And slowly, the movement spread from Zurich to other parts of Europe and New York City. Just as many mainstream artists were seriously thinking about this movement, the Dada movement dissolved in the early 1920s.
This artistic movement was a protest, but at the same time it managed to be entertaining and fun. He was sarcastic, colorful, quirky, and goofy. If a person at the time had not been aware of the logic behind the movement, he would have been wondering what the artist was doing creating pieces like the ones that were created. However, the artist who created Dada art took his work very seriously. The movement did not favor one medium over another. He used everything from glass to plaster to geometric tapestries to wooden reliefs. Furthermore, the movement was also responsible for influencing many trends in the field of visual arts, the best known being Surrealism.