5.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable read.

N. · 1 September 2018

I didn't expect too much detail but it was surprisingly deep and has proved very useful. In fact I've reread several times already. A great start before you get into more advanced reading. A good further reading section. Minor niggle is that there was not enough Dada and too much Surrealism but the further reading sends you off in the right direction.

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential lines: does exactly what it says on the label.

J.d. · 9 December 2014

David Hopkins does a good job of drawing out the essential lines of a history of Dada and Surrealism. It is a tough job because the two movements have such obvious crossovers and are yet so widely different. It is good that Hopkins does not shy away from talking about the legacy of each movement and has the generosity to treat his principle speakers fairly: even though André Breton, for example, appears as a noxious person you would never want to meet, Hopkins gives him the benefit of the doubt.I find that I am more interested in Tristan Tzara and Kurt Schwitters than any of the others.And decidedly unimpressed with Surrealist sex!

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

N.H. · 20 November 2017

Thanks.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to the area

J. · 12 December 2010

"A very short introduction" is the correct description! The book is short and sweet, offering a brief overview of the key ideas, themes and writers/artists etc. of the movement. Don't expect anything too in depth but it's a very good starting point.

5.0 out of 5 stars FIRST CLASS

P.K. · 22 July 2016

This a great egg cup of a kipper. The best short guide to the subject going. I would write more but the national aardvark needs wawing.

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost exactly what it says it is

s. · 18 March 2012

The word it missed out was 'excellent' - this is 'a very short excellent introduction', a very well thought out and explained journey through the vagaries of numbers of artists, making sense of their differing efforts, aims, successes or failures.In short, a wonderful example of the successful herding of cats. Thorough, well researched, really interesting, highly recommended.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great little read!

H. · 15 November 2018

A good intro into Dada and Surrealism. However, if you know absolutely nothing about Art, you would have a bit of a hard time getting your head around the movement and where it lays within Art History’s timeline... there was a lot going on around that time.

5.0 out of 5 stars Really handy little book!

M.H.K.C. · 18 February 2012

Very in-depth but still the point. Not to boring which is a massive plus! Really good to cite for research and essays. In short exactly what it says on the cover, very handy little book for the arts based student!

Fantastic and thought provoking

E. · 24 March 2025

One of the better of the series. The author's perspective is clearly stated and the thesis is followed throughout the work. A wonderful summation of 2 important artistic movements which reach far beyond their short popularity.

Great historical art period

R. · 1 February 2014

This is a 5 star for a great explanation and history of this artistic period. One of the few movements that encompassed art, music, literature and politics. A dramatic historical time period pre and post WW1 where the innocence of the world was revealed. Now if your not an art history person this may not make you become one, but if you are, it's a great read.

A Very Good, Well Balanced Overview

R.J.S. · 5 September 2005

As a person with an enduring fascination and respect for the early Dadaists I found this introduction offered a very good and (despite the title) in-depth coverage of most aspects of Dada and Surrealism.The theme is comparison and contrast and also the development of thematic elements in both currents: how they rose to, or challenged each other and society. The basic differences in Dada as Anti-Art and Surrealism as Art-for-arts sake is well considered. The latter bourgoeise taste was very much derided by the original Dadas. The political development of both groups is also analysed, their stances on feminism, colonialism and mass movements.The one thing that I found not covered in this book -- and is also not covered in most books on this subject is, how two movements with such anti-establishment themes fared in the sometimes authoritarian societies that spawned them... how for example were the German Dadaist allowed to escape the Freikorps and later the Nazis? What did Franco think of Dali and Picasso? Some French Dada/Surrealists such as Andre Breton were able to escape from Vichy France to America, but what about the others...?In short, although both streams rebelled against the main thoughts that dominated society -- they were almost all consumate individualists -- how were they able to do so? Since most Dadaists survived WWII I must surmise that either Hitler left them alone, or they lowered their profile to such a degree that they become insignificant. But again, since they were at the forefront of criticising the automaton man that society produced in WWI, the question remains, how did they manage to avoid getting it in the neck when the rest of the world was racing headlong into the twin dispairs of Fascism and Communism?

Five Stars

C.K. · 9 February 2016

Great!

NOT a book on painting history

S.P. · 6 September 2021

When you hear the word "Surrealism" today, there's a 95% probability that it means "Dali and Magritte", whose imagery is not only enormously famous on its own, but also has had a significant influence on the culture in general. The actual Surrealist movement, however, was NOT a group of painters who decided to paint eccentric dreamlike images - instead it was a group of far-left artists who tried to deal with the shock of World War I by embracing irrationality and creating their own brand of Freudo-Marxism, and for whom the traditional technique of oil painting was totally alien at first and at best auxiliary later (true, Salvador Dali ended up completely hijacking the Surrealist brand) - and the topic of the book is the early history of this group, so it is justified that surrealist painting is discussed very briefly (about 5% of the book is about it), and surrealist painters like Kay Sage or Remedios Varo are not even mentioned.This division of topics in the book is understandable from a historical perspective, but I was still disappointed by having a full chapter dedicated to politics and almost nothing to painting. One more issue with the book is that the author seems to be a Marxist himself (using terms like "late capitalism"), which distorts the book a little.