Strange Beauty: Hannah Höch and the Photomontage Author(s

Strange Beauty: Hannah Höch and the Photomontage
Author(s): Kristin Makholm
Source: MoMA, No. 24 (Winter - Spring, 1997), pp. 19-23
Published by: The Museum of Modern Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4381346
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StrangeBeauty:
m
HANNAH
EUocH
and the Ph)otomontage
KRISTIN
THE
MAKHOLM
notthefirst
NAME HANNAH HOCH is probably
to come to mindwhen consideringthe anticsof Berlin
Dada. Artistssuch as George Grosz,John Heartfield,or
RaoulHausmannseem moresuitedto Dada'spoliticaland
socialcritiquesand its loud-mouthed,rowdycontemptof
traditionalbourgeoisart and aesthetics.Yet it is Hannah
Hoch,whom HansRichterdubbedthe "goodgirl"of Berlin
Dada, who took the characteristicDada medium of photomontageto its most provocativeand challengingheights.
~ ~ ~
With photographsfrom mass-marketperiodicals,Hoch's
photomontagesdisplaythe chaosandcombustionof Berlin's
visual culture from a particularlyfemale perspective.By
with photomontagefromI9I8 to
chartingherpreoccupation
ofHannah
the earlyI970s, the exhibitionThePhotomontages
Hoch, on view at The Museumof ModernArt fromFebruachieveHc&hsremarkable
ary27 to May20, demonstrates
her
medium
and
in
modern
this
quintessential
ments
sensitivityto the powerof an explosivemediaculture.
Bornin I889, Hoch becamepartof the Berlinartscene
when both World War I and Expressionismwere in full
swing.She arrivedin Berlinfromher home in the German
provinceof Thuringiaat the ageof twenty-twoto studythe
applied arts, which included the creation of designs for
wallpaper,embroidery,textiles,and glass. By 19I5 she had
met the Czech emigreartistRaoul Hausmann,who drew
her into the avant-gardecircle aroundHerwarthWalden
and his famousDer Sturmgallery-the leadingenclaveof
artistsandwritersin Berlin.
Expressionist
x 7?
Institut fr AuslandsbeziehL.nge, StIttgart.
Flight(F/-icht) I931 Photomontage
From this point on, Hoch maintained a balance
betweentwo seeminglycontradictoryrealms:the worldof
whoseexhibitionsand poetryreadingsshe
the avant-garde,
and the commercial sector, where she a groupof young Berlinartistsdisillusionedwith warand politicsand
Hausmann;
with
attended
workedas a designerof embroideryand lace from I9I6 to i926 at the the discrepanciesbetweentraditionalartand modernlife. Within the
largeUllstein PublishingCompany,creatorsof popularmagazines realms of art, poetry, performance,and criticism, artists such as
Zeitungand Die Dame. H6ch, Hausmann,Grosz,and Heartfieldembracedthe tempestof
and newspapers,such as the BerlinerIllustrirte
women'smagazines modernlife in the new metropolis,callingfor the artist'swholeheartfor
Ullstein's
The patterndesignsHoch created
and her earlyexperimentswith modernistabstractionwereintegrally ed commitmentto the eventsof the day.
Theirworkwasinfiltratedby sweepingforces:the unstablepolitical
related,blurringthe boundariesbetweentraditionallymasculineand
and socialsituationbroughtabout by the NovemberI9I8 revolution
femininemodesof formand expression.
By I9I8 Dada had emergedin Berlin, transferredthere from its and the formationof Germany'scontroversialWeimarRepublic;the
wartimeoriginsin Zurichby the writerRichardHuelsenbeck.Essen- barrageof technologyand new formsof industry;and the massmedia
tiallyan antagonisticnonsenseword,"Dada"becamethe battlecry of glut of illustratedmagazines,newspapers,photography,and film.
9
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7
9'/16
19
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GutwsiththeKitchenKnifeDada throuogh
theLwast
Beer-BellyGu/ttural
mit demlKiibchnmesscr
dutchdie lecztcuetimarerlc
Weimzar
Epo0ch
of/Germsany
(.Schuict
Bierb6auchkultltrepDoche
Photomontage.
DeutschlandsJ).I9I9-20.
Berlin. Photo: Jorg P. Anders.
447/8
X 357/16".
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preugischler
Kulturbesitz, Narionialgalerie. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Preugischer Kulturbesitz,
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Modernformsof propagandasuch as pamphlets,posters,
broughttheirrhetoricto an audience
and advertisements
familiarwith theseformsof publicaddress.
Hoch respondedto the Dadaist call for explosive,
modernformsof expressionthroughhercreationof photomontage,whichshe and Hausmannbeganto construct
aftera vacationto the BalticSea in the summerof I9I8.
Here they discovereda type of commemorativemilitary
picturewith the heads of differentsoldierspasted in, a
practicewith deep roots in folk tradition and popular
consumer imagery. By cutting out photographs and
wordsfrom mass-marketmagazinesand pamphletsand
reassemblingthem into fracturednew compositions,
Hoch and the otherDada artistsreconfiguredthe images
of dailylife into abstractedworksreminiscentof the hectic pace of modern urbanlife. They downplayedtheir
rolesas individualcreatorsby callingtheseworks"montages,'which suggeststhe impersonalact of a technician
or a graphicdesignerwho merelyassemblesand mounts
preexistingimages.With photomontagethey could call
into questionthe verywaysthat societyvieweditself.
politicsand
Hoch engagedthe worldof contemporary
politicalfiguresin photomontagessuchas DadaPanorama
and Cut with the KitchenKnifeDada throughthe
(I919)
Last WeimarBeer-BellyCultural Epoch of Germany
both of whichwereexhibitedin the controver(I9I9-20),
sial FirstInternationalDada Fairof I920. Eachpresents
recognizablefiguressuch as FriedrichEbert,presidentof
the GermanReich,andWilhelmII, the deposedemperor,
absorbedwithin a chaoticworldof popularimageryand
formalsatire.In Cutwith theKitchenKnife,Hoch puts a
equatingher
femalespin on the imageby metaphorically
scissors with a kitchen knife, which she used to cut
throughthe traditionallymasculinedomainsof politics
and publiclife. Machinepartsand massdemonstrations
connectthe imagesof intellectuals(suchasAlbertEinstein
and KarlMarx),film starsand dancers(PolaNegri and
Niddy Impekoven),politicalpundits,and even the Dada
artists themselves in a vertiginous composition that
becameone of the iconsof the Dadamovement.
Alongwith herso-calledkitchenknife,H6ch usesthe
imagesof modernfemininity,especiallythe sensational
"NewWoman,"to questionthe complicatedrelationship
betweenthe sexesin post-WorldWarI Germany.With
her bobbed hair, sleek new fashions, and increasingly
frequentappearanceon the streetsand in the workplace,
this New Woman emergedin Europein the 1920S as a
symbolfor all thatwas fashionableand up-to-datein the
metropolis.In manyof her photomontages,Hoch juxtaposesthesesporty,activewomenwith moderntechnology
and domestic appliances, creating ironic statements on
FT
~
E
~~
A*
Einheit).I955. Photomontage.
Btwrst
Unity(Gesprengte
Stuttgart.
1I-3/4X II5/8" InstitutfurAuslandsbeziehungen,
..- .:.4
'
:t^
?r
E
,'.'.;_
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
:
InzdianDancer: From an Ethnographic Mntsen7n(Indische Tdnzerin: Aus einem ethnographischen
The Museumof ModernArt. Frances
Museumn).1930. Photomontagewith collage.iol/8 x 87/8".
KeechFund.
21
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the ambiguitiesand deep conflictsthat accompaniedthe new female
presencein the publicrealm.
With the gradualdispersalof the Dada artistsin the earlyI92os,
and her breakupwith Hausmannin I922, Hoch enteredan increasinglyexcitingperiodof experimentation.Her friendshipswith artists
such as KurtSchwitters,Hans Arp and Sophie Tauber-Arp,Laszlo
Moholy-Nagy, and Theo and Nelly van Doesburg furtheredher
contact with the international
avant-gardeand theirradicalchallenges to traditional art and
abstraction.Alongsideworkspublished in their magazines and
"Merz"
books,suchas Schwitters's
magazine,Arp and El Lissitzky's
TheArt-Isms,and Moholy-Nagy's
Bauhausbook Painting-Photography-Film,H6ch createdcollagesof
colored papers and embroidery
patternsthat pay homage to the
!;q,*
geometric formality of the new
internationalmovementsof Constructivismand De Stijl, while at
the same time continuing her
occupationwith traditionalmaterialsfrom the world of craft and
handiwork.In the late 1920S and
featuresof the wooden mask,freezingthe dancer'ssensuousperformanceinto a crudeparodyof the shacklesandstereotypesthatmarked
of women.
the modern-daymediarepresentation
By the end of the I920S, Hoch reapedthe benefitof the increasing
popularityof photomontage.No longermerelyassociatedwith Dada
revolt, it became an importantvehicle in the fields of advertising
and design, which profited from a rising interest in the use of
photographic montage. For the
first time, Hoch was publicly
acclaimed for her provocative
photomontages, which were included in several international
exhibitions, including the 1929
"Filmand Photo"show,the most
comprehensiveexhibitionto date
of both commercial and avantgardephotographyand film.
All of this cameto a haltwhen
Adolf Hitler assumed power in
earlyI930S Hochbecameinvolved
1933. Hochandmuchof
January
the avant-garde were branded
and"degen"CulturalBolshevists"
erate, and not allowedto exhibit
theirwork publicly.Many of her
friends,includingSchwittersand
Hausmann,left Germany.Those
who stayed behind, like Hoch,
werealienatedand intimidatedby
the Nazipoliticsof reprisal.
H6ch's purchase of a house
and gardenin a suburbof Berlin
in a lesbian relationshipwith the
Dutch poet Til Brugman, with
whom she lived in the Netherlands from I926 to I929. These
to
in I939, andherbriefmarriage
yearsproved particularlyfruitful
a Germanbusinessmanfrom 1938
for her photomontage work,
HannahHoch withone of herDadadolls,c. 1925. CourtesyBerlinischeGalerie,
a
to I944, allowedherto establish
whichdelvedinto questionsof the
furModerneKunst,Photographie
undArchitektur,
Landesmuseum
Berlin.
distancebetweenher personallife
construction of sexual identity
and the changingnatureof love and relationshipsin seriesentitled and the culturaland politicalterrorismof the Nazis. Photomontages
from the I930S such as Resignation (c. I930) and Flight (I931) reflect
"Love"and "Dancers."
Among the most provocativeand disturbingphotomontagesare Hoch's growing concerns for her safety under the Nazi regime. They
those collectivelyentitled"Froman EthnographicMuseum,"which also anticipate her withdrawal into a world of fantasy and nature,
Hbch createdbetween1925 and 1930. With photographsof female symbolized by her lush garden and her photomontages of strange,
body partsattachedto those of so-calledprimitivesculptures,Hoch surreal landscapes.
With the end of the war in I945, artists in Berlin were anxious to
combinesthe familiarwith the unusual,the Selfwith the Other,in a
powerfulindictmentof the displayand fetishizationof the human rebuild the sense of culture and community lost under Nazi dictatorship, but this restoration was not without its political consequences.
bodywithin a modernconsumerculture.
In IndianDancerof 1930, for example,Hoch displaysa publicity Divided into four zones by the Occupation forces of England,
still of the actressMarieFalconettias Joan of Arc in Carl Theodor France, the United States, and the Soviet Union, Berlin quickly
Dreyer'sI928 film ThePassionofJoanofArc.A wooden dancemask became the site of intense cold war politics. Art became a tool in the
mouthandeye,freezingthe painful ideological split between East and West, with abstractart standing for
fromCamerooncoversthe actress's
grimaceof the martyrinto somethingakinto the seductiveglancesof a freedom of expression in the capitalist zones and Socialist Realism
magazinepinupgirl.Joan'scrownof strawhasbeenreplacedby cutout representing the ideal of a worker'sstate in the Soviet sector.
Hoch fell within the abstract modernist camp centered around
silhouettesof silverware,changingthe symbolof her martyrdominto
one of domesticservitude.With the title IndianDancerHoch com- the Galerie Gerd Rosen, one of the first private galleries to open in
veilsof an orientaldancerwith the ossified Berlin after the war and one of the leading advocates of abstract and
paresthe light,transparent
22
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Surrealist art in Germany. Her participation in
exhibitions at the Rosen Gallery beginning in
1946 and in public discussions of freedom in
modern art allowed Hoch to reassert her own
artistic voice after years of silence and solitude.
Her works of the late I940S and 195os-with
their suggestions of natural phenomena and
complex abstract interplays of color, form, and
texture-mirror Hoch's abiding interest in formal construction, naturalscience, and technology.
By the mid-i9sos, photomontages such as Burst
Unity (I955) benefited from the proliferation of
color photographs and experimental photo techniques in popular magazines such as Life International, as well as the influence of American
Abstract Expressionism avidly marketed in the
international press.
With a renewal of interest in Berlin Dada and
her inclusion in major Dada retrospectivesin the
late I95os and early I96os, Hoch returned to a
subject she had not treated since before the war:
the media representation of women. Spurred on
by the women's movement of the I96os and
anti-high art movements such as Fluxus, neoDada, and Pop, Hoch once again saw herself as
part of an international art community devoted
to irony and critique, with all forms of montage
and collage again taking center stage.
Many of H6ch's photomontages from this
period, such as Strange Beauty II (I966) and
Homage to Riza Abasi (I963) intentionally recall
~~~~,
7
_ W SA
-
-5
Ir
her workfromthe 1920S and I930S while engaging the latest New Woman, whose image flourished amid fashion spreads and media
advertisements. In Homage to Riza Abasi, Hoch
juxtaposes the hypersexualized body of a belly
dancer with the head of an Audrey Hepburn
lookalike in an obscure reference to a seventeenth-century Persianminiaturist named Riza-iAbbasi. Both the female body and the fashion
icon are caricatured in this ironic "homage" to
modern femininity. By the I96os Hoch could
view her subject from a distance, albeit with a
critical awarenessborn from a lifetime of experience with media representations of women.
Homage to Riza Abasi (Hosinage a Riza Abasi). I963. Photomontage.
StLIttgart.
1378
x 73/16". Institut fir Auslandsbeziehungen,
Produced over five turbulent decades, Hannah Hoch's pho- KristinMakholmis a doctoralcandidateat the Universityof Minnetomontagesdemonstratethe remarkableabilityof one individualto sota, whereshe is writing her dissertationon Hannah Hoch. The
carvea sense of identity and critique out of the frenzyof modern Photomontagesof Hannah H6ch was organizedby the WalkerArt
consumerculture.The bitingsatiresandjarringformalincongruities Center,Minneapolis,and coordinatedforTheMuseumof ModernArt
thatwerethe resultof Hoch'sexpertreconfigurations
becomepartof
by CarolynLanchner,Curator,Departmentof Paintingand Sculpture.
her legacyto us as we continue to weatherthe sensoryoverloadof Supportfor the exhibitionwasprovidedby the NationalEndowment
imagesand experiencesof our own high-techmediaculture.
for theArts.
23
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