Hannah Hock

Hannah Hoch was born in 1889 in Gotha, Germany. She was a dada artist. In her early twenties she studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Berlin were she chose the curriculum glass design and graphic arts. Hannah Hoch continued her studies on graphics sector at the National Institute of the Museum of Arts and Crafts. In 1915, Hoch became friends with Raoul Hausmann who was a member of the Berlin Dada movement. Her involvement with such dadaists began in 1919. When Hannah Hoch started working in the handicrafts department, the influence of her early work and training had reflected her later work (involving dress patterns and textiles).  

Over the years, Hock had developed friendship with other dadaists such as, Kurt Schwitters and Piet Mondrian along with other artists. Therefore, along with Hausmann, they discovered the first art form technique that became known as photomontage. 

She is best know for her work of the Weimar period (when she was one of the originators of photomontage). At the age of eighty-eight, Hoch dies in Berlin.

Hannah Hoch's work:

Cut with the Kitchen trough the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic is the name of this photomontage done in 1919. It is a rebellious collage of pasted papers which very in may ways, such as the industrial revolution at that time, photography, human figures and also bold typography which had been popular among dada artists. To the viewers eye it may seem to be a confusion like due to a lot of cutouts used, even such colour does not help to get a better understanding of the whole concept. Overall, in this photomontage Hannah Hoch seemed to create a controversy between others.  

Here in this photomontage, Hannah Hock presented a well organised art piece, even though when it comes to the dadaists, they are kind of rebellious when composing their work. Once again the word 'dada' is shows at the left top of the art piece. The colours that are used and the female figures and also their facial expressions give the rest of the art piece to communicate in such soft-calm manor.     

Here, in my opinion is another very well organised photomontage, called Grotesque done in 1963. As like the second image that is shown above, human figures and also facial expressions plays a big role in this photomontage due because they are are placed at the centre to create attraction. Although it seems to has an earthy look, the red colour creates a very dense feel.

Reference

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 2013. Hannah Hoch. [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Höch> [Accessed November 2013].