Working in the mid-twentieth century, Neo-Dada artists applied a wry sense of humor to their work, which echoed the sensibility of the Dada artists from several decades earlier. Coined by art critic Barbara Rose, the term Neo-Dada encompassed several smaller movements, including Fluxus, Happenings, and Pop Art. The primary adherents of Neo-Dada were Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Like the Dada artists before them, they used found objects in their work and practiced forms of collage. Rauschenberg made large painted assemblages he called combines, using discarded furniture, textiles, and even taxidermied animals as elements in the works. Both artists appropriated imagery from popular culture and the collective imagination for their work as well. The images themselves became a form of found object—Rauschenberg used pictures clipped from newspapers, showing scenes both iconic and quotidian, and transformed them in his prints, while Johns made everyday imagery, like the United States flag or a target, the focal point of his work. In contrast to the gestural, spontaneous paintings of the Abstract Expressionists who had dominated the art scene in previous years, Johns’s work was meticulously planned and executed. Through these various strategies, the Neo-Dada artists hoped to further break down the barrier between art and life.

A group of the Neo-Dada artists met and collaborated at Black Mountain College in Black Mountain, North Carolina, a site which served as a major hub for creativity in the 1950s. There, musician John Cage, dancer Merce Cunningham, Rauschenberg, and others collaborated on multi-disciplinary works that incorporated chance and spontaneity. Many other artists have been associated with the Neo-Dada label over the years, including Naim June Paik, Allan Kaprow, Joseph Beuys, and Jim Dine.