Hannah Höch
Dadaist, photomontage master, and proudly a "degenerate"
Hannah Höch was a rare female artist who was practicing prominently in the arts in the early 20th century and was unique in in her place in the Dada movement. She was a German artist and an an originator of photomontage. Her intentions included to dismantle the myth of the “new woman,” exploring androgyny, to be politically critical of Germany and to observe shifting gender roles. She herself was bisexual. She suffered censorship by the Nazis who declared her work as degenerate art. Politically she was very critical through her art of the failings of the German Weimar period. She stayed in Nazi Germany and kept quietly hidden in a small house outside of Berlin after fleeing the city.
Her appropriation and placement of images is second to no one. She said she drew her inspiration from Pablo Picasso and fellow Dada artist Kurt Schwitters with whom she shared a dynamic layered attitude to art. Schwitters started the Merz movement in art within the Dadaists.
We are pleased to present our 10 favorite pieces of Hannah Höch in honor of the artist and her work. Her work can be seen all over the world at all the leading museums including the Museum of Modern Art. The book Hannah Höch: Life Portrait is a collaged autobiography she began at age 83 and is a wondrous accomplishment.
