
Born: April 16, 1896 - Moinesti, Romania
Died: December 24, 1963 - Paris, France

Artworks by Tristan TzaraThe below artworks are the most important by Tristan Tzara - that both overview the major creative periods, and highlight the greatest achievements by the artist. | |
![]() Artwork Images | Unpretentious Proclamation (1919)Artwork description & Analysis: Tzara co-founded Dada in Zurich. The Manifestos he wrote from 1916, including this one regarding "unpretention," all outlined the principles of the movement as well as its raison d'etre. "Art needs an operation." - with these uncompromising words Tzara set forth his philosophy that Art with a capital A was pretentious and that traditional artists were self-absorbed hypocrites. He called for something he called "Dada's magic revolver" to put "Art" (any work of creativity) to sleep (really, put aside) so that a new world that emphasized life and the living could be born. The Dada movement initiated a militant anti-art revolution. As Tzara explained: "Get ready for the action of the geyser of our blood-submarine formation of trans chromatic aeroplanes, cellular metals numbered in the flight of images above the rules of the hand." Type on paper |
![]() ![]() | Contents, Dada 3 (1917)Artwork description & Analysis: This bulletin illustrates Tzara's "cut-up" style wherein pieces and morsels of previously printed material were gathered and juxtaposed in what seems a random manner, coming together to form an artwork as if by accident. As he specifically recommended for poems: "Take a newspaper. Take a pair of scissors. Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem. Cut out the article. Then cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them in a bag. Shake it gently. Then take out the scraps one after another in the order in which they left the bag. Copy conscientiously. The poem will be like you. And here you are a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that is charming beyond the understanding of the vulgar." Typographic Collage - Ink on Paper |
![]() Artwork Images | Dadaglobe solicitation form letter (1920)Artwork description & Analysis: This missive, primarily instigated by Tzara, outlined the goals of the Dadaglobe project as well as clearly presenting its stylistic idiom. The Dadaglobe intended to further promote the international nature of the movement and serve as a cross-cultural guidebook to the future of art. It was an encyclopedia that included self-portraits, photomontages, collages, drawings, poems, and book designs from artists across the world including the former combatant states of Germany and France. To insure its international availability he planned to publish in French, German, and English. Printed paper |
![]() Artwork Images | Untitled (1922)Artwork description & Analysis: The simplified forms and bright palette of this work reflect the artist's attraction to "primitive art," and in particular - African art. In his Dada 'Note 6 On African Art' (1917) he wrote of his fascination for this civilization, which he saw as more real, more pure: "My other brother is an innocent; he is good and laughs; he eats in Africa and in the bracelet of the Oceanic Islands." To Tzara the earliest human societies, free of social rules and conventions, were innately more authentic than the Western one from which he hailed. He found Aboriginal, African, and Maori poems in the Zurich university library and performed them, sometimes in their original language and sometimes translated, at soirées nègres at the Cabaret Voltaire. He collected African art throughout his life and would eventually be considered a specialist, at one point working as a consultant on the subject for such esteemed clients as Peggy Guggenheim. His passion for Africa never waned and in the last year of his life he travelled there to attend a Congress on African Art. Gouache, watercolor and pencil on paper - Private Collection |
![]() ![]() | Magazine cover for Le Coeur à barbe (The Bearded Heart) (1923)Artwork description & Analysis: On July 6, 1923, the theatrical performance - The Bearded Heart, written and directed by Tzara, was performed at the Theatre Michel. He called it "a hoax" as it was deliberately provocative and illogical, intended to subvert a normal theatre experience. An audience coming to sit quietly and watch a play, something recognizable with a beginning, and ending and some kind of normal sense of story development, would be in for a major surprise. The performance, attended by Breton, Aragon, Soupault, Éluard, and Ribemont-Dessaignes, included nonsensical dialogue between a Mouth, Ear, Eye, Nose, Neck, and Eyebrow accompanied by bewildering ballet and music. Black printing on pale pink stock |
![]() Artwork Images | L'Homme approximatif (The Approximate Man) (1931)Artwork description & Analysis: L'homme approximatif is truly the masterpiece of Surrealism. It proves that despite the ongoing argument with Breton over the scope, direction, and relationship of Surrealism to politics and art, Tzara continued to contribute to Surrealist activities and publications. In fact, Klee's drawing (the image here) picks up on the surreal aspect of Tzara's words directly, drawing an organic shape, abstract and dreamy in nature, to stand in place of the Approximate Man described by Tzara. Book |
![]() Artwork Images | Landscape (1933)Artwork description & Analysis: Landscape is an example of a drawing produced during a Dada game known as Exquisite Corpse. It was the product of a game involving Tzara, Valentine Hugo, Andre Breton, and Tzara's wife, the Swedish poet Greta Knutson. The game was played as follows: Player 1 drew something, folded the paper and passed it on to Player 2, who added to the painting and passed it to yet another player. The final image was, accordingly, a collaborative work created by multiple artists that was not preconceived but instead, the result of allowing the unconscious to determine and conceive as it went along; each stage, each artist's hand, was inspired by the former and acted according to the moment. Colored pencil on black paper - Museum of Modern Art, New York |
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Content compiled and written by Jen Farren
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Caroline Igra
" Artist Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Jen Farren
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Caroline Igra
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First published on 05 Aug 2016. Updated and modified regularly.
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