Dada's Boys

In this provocative and stimulating book, David Hopkins offers an exciting new contribution to the discussion about 'a crisis in masculinity', addressing the homosocial structures in Dada and Surrealist art with an eye to their relevance to current artistic and theoretical debate. Bestriding the book is the pivotal figure of the artist Marcel Duchamp, who was both Dadaist and Surrealist and in many respects was at the centre of various groups of artistic and literary figures - predominantly male - in Europe and America. His relationships with these men, the various interactions of those within the groups and the impact of this type of male camaraderie on the artworks they produced are at the heart of Hopkins' investigation. The book deals with specific moments in the careers of Duchamp and some of his associates - Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Max Ernst and Andre Breton - and discusses in detail the reception of Duchamp's ideas in the post-war period, in artists ranging from Sarah Lucas to Matthew Barney. The examination of how 'Dada's boys' situated themselves with regard to the issue of heterosexual male identity is constantly informed by the contemporary questioning of that identity. The repositioning of Dada masculinism and the simultaneous tracking of permutations in the heterosexual male position over the course of the twentieth century - the overriding concerns of this invigorating and original study - make this essential reading for anyone interested in Dada, Surrealism and their legacies.