Hannah Hoch (November 1, 1889 – May 31, 1978)

Hannah Hoech parlant aux marionnettes repésentant ses filles Pax et Botta, ca1920 /Willy Roemer /sc

Hannah Höch. German, 1889-1978 Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands). 1919-1920 Photomontage and collage with watercolor, 44 7/8 x 35 7/16” (114 x 90 cm) Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie © 2006 Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, © 2006 Hannah Höch / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, photo: Jörg P. Anders, Berlin

was one of the pioneers of the photomontage, combining, collating and layering images from contemporary magazines.  She was the lone female participant in the Berlin Dada group, although Sophie Täuber, Beatrice Wood, and Baroness Else von Freytag-Loringhoven were significant Dada players albeit in different locales. Besides being the only female, Hoch was never quite accepted by the Berlin Dadaists, who felt that though Hoch’s works possessed a Dada aesthetic, they were conceptually still making a feminist social critique based upon “logic”.  Dada had given up “logic” in favor of chaos, nonsense and irrationality.   Continue reading HANNAH HOCH :: German Dada Photomontage →