Dada: The Non-art Movement

Dada was, officially, not a movement, its artists not artists and its art not art. That sounds easy enough, doesn't it?
Dada was both a literary and artistic movement that started in Europe during a time when the world was overcome with the horrors of World War I. Due to the war, a number of artists, writers and intellectuals-notably of French and German nationality- left to neutral Switzerland. Far from merely relieved at their respective escapes, this bunch was angry that modern European society would allow the war to even happen. Their anger undertook the artistic tradition of protesting.
About the only thing these non-artists had in common were their ideals. They used an early form of Shock Art meaning that the Dadaists thrust mild obscenities, scatological humor, visual puns and everyday objects renamed as art into the public eye. Marcel Duchamp performed the most notable outrages by painting a mustache on a copy of the Mona Lisa and proudly displaying his sculpture entitled Fountain, which was actually a urinal.