I actually love the Dadaist movement, although this piece is not really my favorite. Truth be told, I don’t love the art of the Dadaist movement, so much as I love what it represented.

This piece is named “The treachery of images” but most people refer to it by ‘This is not a pipe’ because, well, that’s what’s written on it.
It’s basically an art shitpost. Of course it’s not a pipe. It’s a painting of a pipe.

But the Dadaist movement is basically all art shitposting. Dada is an utterance that roughly means “yeah, whatever” and came about as a form of protest art against the bourgeoisie, and their overly rigid definition of art after WW1. In that time it was common for the rich of various nations to embrace specific forms of art as an expression of nationalism.

Dadaists were like “fuck that, art is whatever the hell the artist says it is.” Because art for just the rich sucks, as does art that’s only in one format, and nationalism, too.

My favorite story is that Marcel Duchamp submitted “Fountain” a urinal that had been turned sideways and signed “R. Mutt” to an art show that ostensibly showed everything submitted to it, but the organizers hid his piece, and it’s rumored that they threw it away after taking a photo of it.
The treatment of the submission and mystery surrounding it brought about tremendous attention, furthering the Dadaist movement.