Hannah Hoch

Upon doing a search for ‘German Artists’ on Wikipedia, I clicked on Max Ernst, which then took me to a page on the Dada movement, which then linked me to Hannah Hoch. I chose her as starting point for my studies because of the relevance her pictures have to me. I am a lesbian feminist (or should I say, a humanist) so straight away from reading her biography I was interested in the motives behind her art, both political and personal.

Her Life

[1889 / 1978]
1889 - Born 1 Nov, as Johanne Hoch in Gotha. Her mother an amateur painter, her father a manager for an insurance company.
1904 - Left high school to care for her younger sibling.
1912 - Enrolled in Kunstgewerbeschule, Berlin Charlottenbourg studied glass design.
1914 -Outbreak of World War 1 - traveled to Cologne to see the Werkbund Exhibition.
1915 - Moved to Berlin to study graphics with Emil Orlik at the Staatlichen Lehnranstalt des Kunsgewerbemuseum. Met and became lovers with Raul Hausmann.
1916/1926 - Worked for Ullstein Verlag designing handiwork patterns for Illustrierte, and other magazines.
1917 - Became involved in the Berlin Dada circle through Hausmann.
1920 - First exhibited in the Novembergruppe annual exhibitions, subsequently participating for the next 10 years.
1921 - Traveled to Prague with Hausmann.
1922 - Separation from Hausmann and exhibited in Berlin.
1924 - First Parisian visit Hoch met Mondrian and exhibited in the Soviet Union.
1925 - Exhibited in Deutschen Kunstgemeinschaft Berlin. Second trip to Paris.
1926 - Met Til Brugman and lived with her in the Hague through 1929.
1928 - Exhibited in the Netherlands and other cities in Germany.
1929 - First one person exhibition: Kunsthuis de Bron in the Hagues, Rotterdam.
1930/1931 - Moved back to Berlin with Brugman and exhibited in the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung and the Berlin Fotomontage exhibition.
1932/1932 - Exhibited in America and Brussels.
1934 - One person exhibition at Kunstzaal d'Audretsch in the Hague. One person exhibition in Czechoslovakia.
1935/37 - Separation from Brugman.
1938 - Married Kurt Matthies.
1942 - Separated from Kurt Matthies.
1945 - Exhibited in Berlin and at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1978 - Died in Berlin

Höch's personal relationship with Hausmann grew from friendship to romance over time. While this was the first crucial relationship to have an influence on Höch's artistic work, she often reflected upon her relationships in such pieces as Love (1926). After her involvement with Hausmann, she was sexually involved with women and had a relationship from 1926 to 1929 with the Dutch writer and linguist Til Brugman. Hausmann was married to another woman during their involvement, and refused to marry Höch. She supported women's right to reproductive control; she had two abortions during her involvement with Hausmann. Hausmann was physically abusive. Höch and Hausmann separated in 1922, at which point Höch was well on her way to becoming an artist in her own right, independent of her involvement with Hausmann. Incidentally, it was during Höch's relationship with Hausmann that both artists began to work more thoroughly with collage, extending the artform firstly applied by cubistic painters. There is evidence that she collaborated with Hausmann, although she was considered his lover and not his equal. Höch spent the years of the Third Reich in Germany, trying to remain quiet and in the background. She married the much-younger businessman and pianist Kurt Matthies in 1938 and divorced him in 1944.

Her Artwork

This collage about living in the Dada movement, entitled 'Cut With the Kitchen Knife', is arguably Hoch's most famous work. It is constructed of images from German newspapers as the time (1919) and is a criticism of life in Weimer Germany.

This collage is another of Hoch's work that I particularly like. It is entitled 'Marlene'. Two men gaze up towards a pair of huge legs wearing high heals and stockings which are mounted upside down on a traditional architectural pillar. Up in the right hand corner sits a bright red mouth position away from the stare of the males. The name Marlene is written across the stage as if done by a fan. 1930 wa s the year that Marlene Dietrich starred in the movie the "Blue Angel." By juxtaposition images Hoch challenges and provokes questions regarding the role of gender identity and women's sexuality.

Another one I very much like. It is called 'Indian Female Dancer' and shows a women's head pushed back where half of her face is an India statue. Her hair is hidden behind cut out silhouettes of knives and forks shaped like a crown. Hoch creates an allegory of the modern woman recognized by her trendy hair cut, called a Bubikopf, as she juxtapositions images that in one sense creates a crowned modern woman, but in another identifies her stereotypically as the domestic housewife. The woman's face comes from a photo of a popular actress of the time called Marie Falconetti. Cleverly Hoch creates an image layered with many feminine identities, actress, modern woman, domesticated woman, and woman crowned ready to do battle.

This is probably my favourite of all the Hoch pieces I have come across. It is entitled 'Das schone Madchen'. "The Beautiful Girl" clad in a modern bathing suite, with a light bulb for her head, seated on a steel girder, surrounded by various images of industrialization. For example, BMW insignias, tires, gears and cogs and watches. In the right hand corner a black boxer appears stepping through the tire representing automation. In the back ground a silhouette of a woman's head with cats eyes stares at the audience. Being modern meant speed, consumerism, urbanization and technology, these changes promoted hope for the women. Yet amongst the hope came fear as seen in the watchful cat eyed woman who lurks behind the scenes staring out at the audience. In this juxtapositinoing of images Hoch reflects upon a certain optimism for technology and its relationship to the modern woman.




This completes my brief study of Hannah Hoch. I have found it immensely interesting, and hope to continue to study her art, hopefully seeing some of it when I visit Germany next summer.

Credit for the photos goes to: http://www.yellowbellywebdesign.com/hoch/gallery.html