The gist of Dadaism was the "gratuitous act," and the most gratuitous Dadaist act of all was Marcel Duchamp's invention of the readymade. One can regard them as experiments in art, or mock works of ...

It was the beginning of what climaxed in the "Degenerate Art" exhibition of 1937, the most important art event of the decade, for it was the largest single show of 20th-century avant-garde art ever ...