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Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser Dada durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauch-Kulturepoche Deutschlands, 1919
 

Hannah Höch (1889-1978): "Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser Dada durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauch-Kulturepoche Deutschlands", 1919 (Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany). Hannah Höch and her partner, the artist Raoul Hausmann spent their summer holiday in 1918 on the Baltic island of Wollin. In their accommodation they discovered a military memorial sheet that inspired them to create their own Dadaist-absurd picture compositions. Back in Berlin they created their first Dada photomontages. Hausmann “consciously gave the idea of ​​creating new things by cutting, reshaping or demoulding, omitting or adding, and thereby completely alienating the form, colour and content”, Höch later recalled. She wanted to do something similar with her large collage. "I just did it visually with lots of photos that formed groups based on content - making a statement" . Protagonists from politics, science and culture are depicted. In the upper half of the picture, technical progress and warlike politics are combined, represented by Albert Einstein and the last German emperor, Wilhelm II. In the lower part, Höch associates Dadaism as a mass movement, always striving to carve up recognized authorities. The artist has conspicuously often staged an ironic gender swap, with Paul von Hindenburg appearing as a belly dancer and George Grosz as a ballerina, for example. The locomotive in the upper left hand corner is part of the chaotic and fragmented imagery she assembled to critique the sociopolitical structures of her time. The locomotive symbolizes industrialization, progress, and modernity, It is a thorough photo de-montage with which Höch met her time. As early as 1920, this epochal picture of the Weimar Republic attracted particular attention at the "First International Dada Fair" in Berlin in 1920.

Source: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

January January 16th 2025

 

 
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