ABOVE: Detail from Raoul Hausmann’s Mechanical Head (The Spirit of Our Age) (c. 1920). The sculpture will be part of the upcoming Dada exhibit at the National Gallery.

First, stuff toilet paper in your ears and then come back and read this. Ready? OK, the National Gallery in Washington announced last week that it will be opening an exhibit of Dada in February, examining the “anti-art” movement of the 1920s that tried really hard to break the mold of conventional art appreciation, but was in the end co-opted and absorbed into modern and postmodern art. It’s become so establishment, it seems, that it gets its own show at the National Gallery.

The curators will take one notable step by breaking down the exhibit by city, since Dada manifested itself in different ways in different places. The show will be divided into sections on Zurich, Berlin, Cologne, Hannover, New York, and Paris, and includes more than 400 works. It seems a bit of a shame to resurrect Dada in such square circumstances, domesticated and musuemized for a docile viewership; it’s safe to say that the founders of Dada would probably be pissed off to see their work treated in such a fashion. But regardless, it was an important artistic moment and it’s happening regardless. The show runs from February 19 to May 14, 2006. You can take the toilet paper out of your ears now, we’ve rocked your world enough for one day.

LINK: National Gallery of Art > First Major International Dada Museum Exhibition…