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Presley Wilson
David N. Lyon-Buchanan
Humanities 4 Section 30729
April 4, 2016
Paper 3: Ethnicity
What part do our surroundings, our cultures, our familial ties, and our
countries of residence and origin play in shaping our ideas and ideals? How is
this personified through art? Nearly every art movement in modern history
can provide answers to these questions, but Ill focus on just two, Dadaism
and Surrealism. In the context of Modernism, ethnicity and race play many
different roles. In Dada and Surrealism, these themes are amplified due to
their parallelism to both World Wars. In some ways both movements
represent similar ethnic and racial themes, in other ways, they could not be
more different.
At the birth of Dada in Europe, the first World War was raging all across
Europe. Few places were safe. Switzerland, a neutral country, became a safe
haven for many artists and intellectuals. These refugees were anti-war, anticolonialists, and against anything perceived as bourgeoisie. The Dadaists of
Zurich had come together to rail against the current state of Europe, of the
whole world. While the war was not necessarily about ethnic or racial issues,
they were certainly at the root of the conflict. The Nationalists on both sides
forced the Dadaists of all sides to come together in a neutral space. But

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although they thought they rose above the undercurrent of racial strain, it
was still present, even if in the most innocent of ways.
Primitivism became a large theme in the Dadaist movement. The
appropriation began with Pablo Picasso during the Cubist movement. He had
begun using representations of African masks in his paintings. The Dadaists
took this appropriation to a new level, wearing cardboard masks and
performing what Hugo Ball called negro dances. It was a direct critique of,
and rebellion against, the European sophisticate. They were wholly unaware
of their own Eurocentric view of the other cultures they were, in part, trying
to emulate.
Like Dada, Surrealism also appropriated other cultures via primitivism.
It was far more widespread however, pulling from many different areas of the
world, not just Africa. Although one could say the roots of this primitivism are
the same for both movements.
Surrealism turned much of its political focus to anti-colonialism during
the 1920s and 30s. This is thanks, in part, to the surge of ethnographic
material being made available in France during this time. The common
thought switched from exotica to specified cultural icons and art forms. While
an exotica way of thinking still existed, largely due to a still lingering
Eurocentric viewpoint, it was much diminished by the acceptance of
Anthropology and its developments. There were others also leading this
move towards anti-colonialism who where a product of the colonial system
itself, such as Wilfredo Lam. Lam was born and raised in the recently

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liberated Cuba, which has been a Spanish colony for several hundred years
and then a country that was still largely controlled by the US. The effects of
Colonialism were all around Lam. He had moved to Madrid in early
adulthood, but after a visit back with Andr Breton, he painted one of his
most celebrated works, The Jungle. The Jungle was an explanation of
how the culture and ethnicity of Afro-Cuba had been diminished and
caricatured by the Eurocentric western world. It was a poignant statement
about Ngritude.
The Surrealists continued to carry the torch for anti-colonialism and
admonish primitivism. This cause was greatly helped by the larger than
average amount of artists from French and Spanish Colonies that
participated in the Surrealist movement. While these particular artists may
not always be among the most celebrated of the movement, they were
certainly integral in pushing its values and ideas about ethnicity forward.
While very different in its views and approaches to ethnicity, Dada also
played an important role in changing perspective. Had they not appropriated
from other cultures so explicitly, Surrealism may not have developed the
extreme anti-colonial positions that it did.