Hannah Höch

Hannah Höch was a Dada artist born in Germany, Gotha, November 1 1889 and died May 31 1978. She is regarded as one of the first photomontage artists. Photomontage are two photos or more joining together to create an unreal subject, a lot like today's Photoshopping. 

Berlin Dada Movement

Dada means Yes Yes, which makes no sense. It literally means nothing.

L.H.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp

Dada movement were an anti-war used by Visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre and graphic design. It relied visually on surrealism. It was an early form of Shock art In other countries the Dada movement is part of the anti-art and anti-war argument. It used the means on non-art because art in society had no meaning. Which goes against traditional artists. It was an art in itself, though it declared it wasn't. However the Berlin Dada movement is quite different. It doesn't at all focus on anti-art, but more on the fight for anti-war.  Which I don't at all mind. Dadaism is almost completely silly, even its name is silly meaning 'Yes Yes'. Really it was meant to be silly though the artists were completely serious about it. It was a wake up call to society. Dadaism tried to change society with the means of nothing and shouting. It was sick of the war and intellect, willing to call out on it. The public despised it because it was so inappropriate. It challenged what everyone believed. It was against anything with any rules. It's about freedom, even though the dadaists claim freedom is not important. Nothing is important.

--Raoul Hausmann

'I wish to blur the firm boundaries which we self-certain people tend to delineate around all we can achieve.'

--Hannah Hoch

"We should burn all libraries and allow to remain only that which everyone knows by heart. A beautiful age of the legend would then begin."

--Kurt Schwitters
'Art has nothing to do with taste. Art is not there to be tasted.'

Comparison of her work to Kurt Schwitters (Das Unbild) work,
who as you can see follow a similar layout and colors.

Hannah Höch

Her influence in the Berlin Dada movement I believe possibly came from  Pablo Picasso, fellow Dada member Kurt Schwitters. Her work is quite similar with her compositions, dynamic and layered style. Hannah preferred metaphoric images then dirt, text based images like John Heartfield who she thought was quite tendentious with his work. She might have taken inspiration from her boyriend Raoul Hausmann, a fellow Dada artist who involved his poetic writing skills, photographs and anti-war beliefs into his work. Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield and Raoul Hausmann were key figures on this movement. There are many more figures as well but they will be my main focus. Hannah Höch was an accomplished feminist and the only German woman to participate in the Dada movement but she wasn't the only woman to work in Dada. She mainly critiqued the Weimar German Government. 

Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic, 1919

Perhaps her most famous work. Here are cut  and knife piece of politicians, women, technology, Dada typography and anti-war typography along with scenes of gatherings and riots. This obviously is a poster or piece to speak against the war and politicians. It's quite plain in other areas with colors of a dull blue and skin colour peach. However at the bottom it slowly becomes red, as to show danger and evil. She has also created some surreal scenes such as a politicians head on a female belly dancer, a man's head connected to a blimp, a soldier covering half of a politicians face and the letter "E" planted in the middle of marching soldiers. 

Sexuality and Feminism
Feminism are a collection of ideologies and movements aimed at establishing and defending equal politics, economic and social rights for women. 

She was a bisexual woman, once being in a 9 year relationship with a Dutch writer Mathilda (Til') Burgman, whom Höch met through friends Kurt and Helma Schiwitters. Her artwork often had usually depicted same sex couples, both men and women. Her artwork depicting them may have been related to her sexuality and promotion of homosexuals and bisexuals alike. However she especially promoted the equality of women, as she is a feminist. 

Hoch's collage here mixes both women and mechanical objects. I believe this this represents the comparison of women to objects at the time. Working like the way objects do with how they are efficient, without a brain or opinion and unable to question their role in life. The attractive model's head is replace by a light bulb, which can be turned off and on at will by supposedly a man. Hair is considered the most seductive part of a woman by man, so the hair may reference the need in society for women to be attractive to fit in society. This could also apply to the model in the swimsuit. Perhaps the woman in the background is watching men, skeptical and untrusting unlike the mechanized foreground. The hand looks like it belongs to a young toddler. This might represent how women have to be youthful in the ideal of men. 

This actually still relates to our culture right now, except we have grown outside the roles of a typical 'stupid' housewife. Now we have to be thin and gorgeous, just like back then (though weight wasn't really as much of an issue).Women have plastic surgery now, breast implants and tanning beds just so they can have the perfect body as media portrays and manipulates young women to have.  

What if she grew up in this modern society today? 

I think she'd have less of an obsession with mechanical objects, but she would be just as a feminist. She might compare us women to TV, Media, Brainwashing and skeletons in her work which would probably be done on Photoshop.