Hannah HӧchBy Hannah Bornhoft, Sophia Craven, Maya Davis,

Dillon King, and Sam Stolley

Artist Bio

Born in Gotha Germany in 1889, Anna Therese Johanne Höch lived a life that was dominated by her family.

She attended a school for girls until 1904 when she was 15, before being pulled out to care for her youngest sibling. When she was 27 she began classes at the Berlin school of applied arts under the tutelage of Harold Bergen.

Her studies were influenced by her father's wishes as he did not see any value in studying high art. When the first world war began in 1914 Hannah left school to work for the red cross.

Artist Bio

One year later she would return to Berlin and this is when she met Raoul Hausmann, a prominent member of the Dada movement in Berlin. She began working with the Dadaists in 1917 and received critical acclaim.

This was in part because she was the only woman in the group and was very liberally minded for the time. During the second world war, Höch lived in Germany trying to continue with her art which was subject to Nazi censorship for being “Degenerate”. After the fall of the Third Reich, höch continued to make photomontages until her death.

What is DadaismDadaism was an artistic movement designed to combat the ideas of aestheticism and capitalist ideologies.

The movement has been associated with the far left, and expresses strong anti-war sentiment as well as a general theme of chaos and irrationality. It is characterized by collages and abstract depictions of subjects and is often described as “anti-art”

DadaismReaction to World War I and nationalism

Mocks materialistic & nationalistic attitudes

Opposes norms of “bourgeois” culture

An “anti-art” movement

Considers itself to be an expression of chaos or nonsense

Aim was to destroy traditional values in art and create a new art to replace the old

Hannah Hoch and DadaismHoch was first introduced to the Berlin Dada Group by her Lover Raoul Hausmann, becoming a known member of the group from 1918-1920, participating in the “Erste International Dada-Messe” (First international Dada Fair) in 1920. Using images of the New Woman as a central figure in several of her photomontages

Höch transformed “traditional” dadaism ,which normally focuses on deconstructing popular culture and traditional rationality, into a tool to address problems of feminism, sexuality, and gender roles

Her avante garde style made her exceptional, even among the already non-traditional dadaists of Berlin. She rejected the government of Germany but her work was more often about the previously mentioned issues rather than themes of anti-government.

Artistic Process - PhotomontageCombining several shots together to create a new meaning that could not be achieved alone

Creates a composite image that can either appear as a photograph or a more choppy piece of work carrying a message

Dadaist period - cutting with scissors and using glue

Not only photographs, can use text etc.

Throughout her artworks she uses appropriation as an artistic technique while building her photomontages

Seemingly unrelated photos and images all get cut, copied and pasted into a homogenous piece, usually with a powerful message attached

Important Note: Höch didn’t normally date her work until the 1950’s so actual dating of images is potentially unreliable. Most dates are institutionalized guesses due to images selected and artistic portrayal within the context of her life. Often times while later dating her images she would cross out or erase dates to replace them with other guesses. Collectors would also date her images during procurement

Dada Puppen (Dada Dolls)- 1916

Heads of State 1918-20

Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany - 1919

The Beautiful Girl - 1920

Vagabunden - 1926

Untitled (Ethnographic Museum Series) - 1930

Indian Dancer (Ethnographic Museum Series - 1930)

Dompteuse (Tamer) - 1930

Mutter (Mother - Ethnographic Museum Series) - 1930

Marlene - 1930

Industrial Landscape - 1967

Life Portrait - 1972-73

Citations“Dada Movement Overview and Key Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/movement/dada/.

“Hannah Höch Artworks & Famous Photomontages.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/hoch-hannah/artworks/.

“Hannah Höch. Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum (Indische Tänzerin: Aus Einem Ethnographischen Museum). 1930: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/collection/works/37360?artist_id=2675&locale=en&page=1&sov_referrer=artist.

“Hannah Höch: Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (1919).” Artsy, www.artsy.net/artwork/hannah-hoch-cut-with-the-dada-kitchen-knife-through-the-last-weimar-beer-belly-cultural-epoch-in-germany.

Hoch, Hannah. “The Photomontages of Hannah Höch.” Moma, Walker Art Center, www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_241_300063171.pdf.

“Kwakiutl Masks.” Milwaukee Public Museum, www.mpm.edu/research-collections/artifacts/kwakiutl/kwakiutl-masks.“What Is Photomontage - The Definition and History.” Widewalls, 1 Aug. 2016, www.widewalls.ch/photomontage-art/.

Lavin, Maud. “Androgyny, Spectatorship, and the Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Höch.” New German Critique, no. 51, 1990, pp. 63–86. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/488172. Accessed 3 Feb. 2020.