There is some uncertainty over how the name Dada and Dadaism came into being. One theory is that it comes from certain Romanian artists tendancy to use the words da, da, meaning yes, yes. Another opinion is that a group of artists in Zurich, including the French poet Tristan Tzara, wanted a name for this new type of art and chose it by randomly stabbing a French/German dictionary. It is said that the knife landed on the word dada, which means a child’s hobby-horse in French.
Dadaism art developed in both Europe and the US, and the American form was generally more humorous in tone than the European equivalent, not least through the influence of Marcel Duchamp. One of Duchamp’s most famous creations is the Mona Lisa with a moustache and beard, titled 'L.H.O.O.Q' (see above). The title is a typical Duchamp witticism. Pronouncing those letters in French makes the sentence Elle a chaud au cul, for which the literal translation is 'she is hot in the ass'.
Possibly the most famous of Duchamp's artworks is one of his 'readymades' called 'Fountain'. It is a urinal simply taken as it is and placed in a gallery. He submitted it to the Society of Independent Artist exhibition in 1917. Even though the exhibition policy was that all works submitted would be displayed, the decision was taken by the exhibition committee to hide it because it was deemed not to be art. Duchamp had submitted the work under the name of R Mutt, so most of the committee did not know that he was the artist. He subsequently resigned from the board of the Independent Artists in protest at the decision.