Tristan Tzara

How to Make a Dadaist Poem (method of Tristan Tzara) To make a Dadaist poem: Take a newspaper. Take a pair of scissors. Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem. Cut out the article. Then cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them in a bag. Shake it gently. Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag. Copy conscientiously. The poem will be like you. And here are you a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that is charming though beyond the understanding of the vulgar. --Tristan Tzara 

"Manifestation Dada" in Dada n° 7 Dadaphone - March 1920

Dada n° 7 Dadaphone. Editor: Tristan Tzara. (8) pages, 10 illustrations (halftone photographs). Front cover design by Picabia. Contributions by Tzara, Picabia ("Manifeste Cannibale Dada"), Breton, Éluard, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Soupault, Cocteau, Dermée, Aragon, Arnauld, Evola and others. The penultimate issue of Dada, brought out by Tzara in March 1920, at a moment of inspired Dada activity in Paris, just before the Manifestation Dada at the Maison de l'Oeuvre (March 27), the first appearance of Cannibale (April), the Festival Dada at the Salle Gaveau (May).

Reminiscent of 391 and with a strong Parisian bias along Littérature lines (like Dada 6), Dadaphone's visual interest is mostly in its insistent typographic density, rather than its illustration--though it does include a beautiful abstract Schadograph, purporting to show Arp and Serner in the Royal Crocodarium in London, as well as the spiralingly zany
Picabia drawing on the front cover. It includes an example of the broadside "Manifestation Dada," designed by Tristan Tzara, originally stapled in the middle of the issue, as is sometimes found. A great succès de scandale, the Manifestation Dada was the third, and most elaborate, of three Dada demonstrations after the arrival of Tzara in Paris, precipitating plans for the Festival Dada. This broadside handbill, printed on pink stock, with red mechanomorphic line drawings by Picabia superimposed over the text, is one of the best ephemera of Paris Dada, and among the rarest. In addition to providing a complete program of the performances (works by Dermée, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Picabia, Aragon, Breton and Soupault, Éluard, Tzara and others), it carries advertisements for the forthcoming Dadaphone, 391 no. 12, and Proverbe, printed sideways at the right edge, printed in red.Oblong sm. folio. 266 x 373 mm. (10 7/16 x 14 11/16 inches).

Paris (Au Sans Pareil), 1920. Estimated at $9,500.00