Defining Elements of NY's Visual Dada
These defining gestures trace back to a single, overlooked source.
Painted in 1916–17, Morée was the first work to encode what would
later define the conceptual foundations of New York Dada.
Authorial Punning or Ambiguity
Definition —The manipulation, withholding, or playful disguise of authorship through pseudonyms, canceled signatures, or coded identity.
Morée: —The artist’s pseudonymous signature is visibly scraped, partially removed using a sharp tool. This deliberate act of sabotage hides or cancels authorship, making identity ambiguous. If by Duchamp, this would mark his earliest use of authorial concealment in paint—predating even the ‘R. Mutt’ signature.
Other Examples: —Fountain signed “R. Mutt”; L.H.O.O.Q.
Parody of Glamour
Definition —Aesthetic beauty, luxury, or ornament is exaggerated, inverted, or mocked—often appearing as empty or synthetic.
Morée: —The pearls—once emblems of refinement and bourgeois taste—are stripped of all glamour. Suspended in an acidic, deteriorating wash, they hover just above a consuming wave, as if beauty itself were moments from drowning.
Other Examples: —Jeanne Marie Bourgeois’ drips and decay over a society portrait; Belle Haleine glamorizes a perfume label to absurdity.
Drips as Sabotage
Definition —Drips or stains are not expressive but corrosive. They mar or undermine an image’s authority or meaning.
Morée: —Veil-like vertical drips are layered across the surface, disrupting clarity and elegance. These are not expressive flourishes—they actively degrade the image, mimicking corrosion or accidental damage. The drips call attention to the medium’s instability, pushing paint beyond depiction into dissolution. In this way, they seem to attack both the image and the idea of image-making itself.
Other Examples: —Painted drips in Jeanne Marie Bourgeois; photographic backgrounds in Belle Haleine and Da-Dandy.
Denial of Function
Definition —A useful object is made deliberately useless. Its intended function is interrupted, reversed, or perverted.
Morée: —The painting simulates a commercial image—an advertisement or product still-life—but corrodes its own utility. Painted on a standardized reproduction board, it appears ready for mechanical duplication, yet deliberately thwarts that purpose. The image resists photography, its glossy surface disrupted and its subject eroded, as if designed to fail its commercial function.
Other Examples: —Fountain (urinal as art); God (plumbing as sculpture); Cadeau/Gift (iron with tacks).
Surface Disruption
Definition —The integrity of the image surface is physically or conceptually violated. Cuts, intrusions, or insertions interrupt pictorial unity.
Morée: —There is visible scraping, and abrasion of the signature as well as partial removal of a topmost paint layer. These acts violate the image’s continuity. Paint is not used to depict but to interfere—to break the surface as a stable field.
Other Examples: —Physical scraping in Jeanne Marie Bourgeois; Intentional canvas tear and protruding bottle brush in Tu m’.
Artistic Citation
Definition —An existing image, style, or motif is quoted or repurposed—used as conceptual material within a new context.
Morée: —The pearls seem to reference Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 and especially No. 3, where their form was singled out for refinement—visually amplified into rhythmic flourish. In Morée, they are quoted but now in collapse: no longer a symbol of motion or modernity, but of arrested decay, as if Duchamp were turning his own vocabulary against itself.
Other Examples: —Jeanne Marie Bourgeois‘ background refers to Morée’s methods and drips; Tu m’ quotes earlier Duchamp works.