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The Theater: Battle of the Nihilists - TIME

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When the Dada retrospective show first opened at a Paris Left Bank gallery, the spirit of the good old days was sadly lacking. The show did not take place in a cellar with the lights turned out. Nobody ate matches, meowed or loudly counted the pearls of visiting dowagers. No Dadaist proclaimed to the public: "Before going down among you to pull out your decaying teeth, before shellacking you with passion, we warn you: we are murderers." There weren't even any fights. Dada, the yeasty nihilistic movement of post-World War I days, seemed tired and tattered, its once-youthful stars well past middle age. Even the exhibits had lost most of their punch—Man Ray's ticking metronome with a staring eye impaled on the blade, entitled Object to Destroy; Marcel Duchamp's bearded and mustachioed version of the Mona Lisa; a mirror into which visitors peered until they saw the title, Portrait of an Imbecile. But the show was less than a week old when something like the excitement of the '20s erupted.

Share Tweet Read Later Send to Kindle Email Print Share Facebook Twitter Tumblr LinkedIn StumbleUpon Reddit Digg Mixx Del.i.cious Google+ Reprints Follow @TIME When the Dada retrospective show first opened at a Paris Left Bank gallery, the spirit of the good old days was sadly lacking. The show did not take place in a cellar with the lights turned out. Nobody ate matches, meowed or loudly counted the pearls of visiting dowagers. No Dadaist proclaimed to the public: "Before going down among you to pull out your decaying teeth, before shellacking you with passion, we warn you: we are murderers."

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