MoMA & Dada

Dada is an art movement that started during World War II during a time of changing social structure.

Duchamp's readymades are manufactured objects that he said were pieces of art ready to be displayed. He was pressing the question, "what is art?" with his pieces. He was trying to show that anything can be art; if his pieces make you feel something (even confusion) it is therefore a work of art.

http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/009/w500h420/CRI_63009.jpg

Dada artists embraced chance events to make their art, along with accident and improvisation. They used this to protest traditional art making techniques. 

http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/jean-hans-arp-untitled

They said that the value of art was not in the finished work, but in the process of making it and collaborating with others to make new visions together.

They used word play to display the arbitrary nature of words and their meanings.

http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/francis-picabia-mamenez-y-1919-20