Hannah Hoch
Dada & Photomontage Biography ● Born: November 1, 1889 - Gotha, Germany ● Oldest of 5 siblings ● Her education started at a local girls high school. ● She had to drop out at age 15 to take care of her youngest sister ● At age 22 she was given a second chance at school ● She attended the School of Applied Arts in Berlin ● She studied glass design which would later influence her interest in the applied arts and design ● While at the School of Applied Arts, WWI broke out and required her to return home (1914) ● Joined the Red Cross ● The following year she studied graphic arts at the School of the Royal Museum of Applied Arts ● While attending, she met Dadaist artists: Raoul Hausmann & Kurt Schwitters. ● She engaged in a romantic relationship with Raoul. ● Between 1916 and 1926, worked for the magazine and newspaper publishers Ullstein Verlag ● For the magazine she designed patterns for crochet, knitting and embroidery. ● In 1918 her and Raoul went to the Ostee where she discovered the art of Photomontage ● They discovered images of German soldiers’ heads pasted to bodies of musketeers. (power of collage) ● 1910-1920’s she began constructing the Dadaist photomontages that she is best known for ● Hannah was the only female German Dada artist during this time in Berlin. ● The men in the group disapproved of her contribution. ● Her style of borrowing from popular culture, dismemberment, and collage fit well with the Dadaist group ● Yet she disapproved of the sexism and “blatant exhibitionism” and left around 1922 ● She continued producing lesser-known works and lived quietly in Berlin until her death. She was also targeted by the Nazis during their regime. The Dada Movement
● Began as an oppositional reaction to WWI, nationalism in many countries, materialism, and traditional art movements ● Intentionally short-lived. Involved artists had small bodies of work. ● Instead of focusing on beauty, focused more on political statements, getting the viewer to ask questions. Used ordinary objects called “readymades.” ● Originated in Zurich, Switzerland but spread to Paris, Berlin, and New York ● Lacks leadership or doctrine, and intentionally ended itself (e.g., by spectacular riot.) ● Faded out with the emergence of Surrealism PROCESS & MEDIUM Title: Bourgeois Wedding Couple
Artist: Hannah Hoch
Date: 1919
Medium: Newspaper and advertisement clippings Title: The Beautiful Girl
Artist: Hannah Hoch
Date: 1920
Medium: Newspaper & advertisement clippings Title: Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany
Artist: Hannah Hoch
Date: 1919
Medium: Newspaper, magazine, advertisements, & journal clippings Title: High Finance
Artist: Hannah Hoch
Date: 1923
Medium: Newspaper Clippings & magazine Advertisements Title: Flight
Artist: Hannah Hoch
Date: 1931
Medium: Newspaper Clippings & magazine Advertisements Title: Strauss
Artist: Hannah Hoch
Date: 1965
Medium: Newspaper Clippings & magazine Advertisements Title: Industrial Landscape
Artist: Hannah Hoch
Date: 1967
Medium: Cut images and painted paper on paper Title: Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum
Artist: Hannah Hoch
Date: 1930
Medium: Printed paper and metallic foil on paper Title: Collage II (Auf Filetgrund)
Artist: Hannah Hoch
Date: 1925
Medium: Printed and painted paper on printed paper Heads of State
Staatshäupter (Heads of State), 1918-20. Photograph: Collection of IFA, Stuttgart--Ian Denkmal I
(Memorial I: From an Ethnographic Museum), 1924, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin. Marlene
Marlene, 1930, Dakis Joannou, Athens. Bibliography
1. Petschauer, Peter. "We Weren’t Modern Enough: Women Artists and the Limits of German Modernism (review)." NWSA Journal13, no. 2 (2001): 166-68. 2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Weltrevolution: Hannah Hoch.” Last modified 2011. Accessed February 16, 2012. http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/190016952. 3. "Hannah Höch. Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany." Museum of Modern Art | MoMA. Accessed January 28, 2018. http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/29/704. 4. "Höch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany." Khan Academy. Accessed January 28, 2018. http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/hoch-kitchen-knife.html. 5. Baldwn, Thomas. "Depictions of and Challenges to the New Woman in Hannah Höch's Photomontage." TCBP. April 20, 2015. Accessed January 29, 2018. http://www.thingscreatedbypeople.com/zine/depictions-of-and-challenges-to-the-new-woman-in-hannah-hochs-photomontage.
6. "Dada Movement, Artists and Major Works." The Art Story. Accessed January 29, 2018. http://www.theartstory.org/movement-dada.htm.
7. "Hannah Höch Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works." The Art Story. Accessed January 29, 2018. http://www.theartstory.org/artist-hoch-hannah.htm.