In the aftermath of the First World War, Europe was scarred by political chaos and the horrors that had been witnessed by so many. Millions had been killed, even more wounded, and artists turned to the imagination and the absurd for relief. So ‘Dada’ was born, an art that refused to define itself (and in the words of its founder, Tristan Tzara, meant ‘nothing’). It was more of a philosophy than an actual style, and the artists associated with it were ardently political. Protesting the establishment, they injected their work with dark humour and satire, no doubt as a way of dealing with the
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