Hannah Hoch

by Hannah Höch, Dawn Ades (Editor), Daniel F. Herrmann (Editor)

This book on the celebrated Dada artist Hannah Hoch explores her use of collage as the artistic medium of choice for both satire and poetic beauty. World-renowned for her work during the Weimar period, Hannah Hoch was a pioneer in many aspects, both artistic and cultural. She was the crucial female artist of the Berlin Dada movement - the riotous movement that deconstructed sound, language, and images to re-assemble them into new objects, texts and meanings. Hoch was a pivotal force in the development of collage, paving the way for today's ubiquitous image editing techniques. A determined believer in artistic freedom, Hoch questioned conventional concepts of partnership, beauty and the making of art, her work presenting acute critiques of racial and social stereotypes, particularly that of her native Germany. Focusing on Hoch's collages, this book examines the artist's career from the 1910s to the 1970s, charting her oeuvre from early works influenced by fashion and mass media, through to her later compositions of lyrical abstraction. It reveals her rapid development of a personal style, which was both humorous and often moving, but also offered critical commentary on society at a time of tremendous social change."

Genres: Art, Photography, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 25, 2014

About the author

(Born Anna Therese Johanne Höch) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage.

Reviews

[Kerfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last year a friend sent me a link to work by Hannah Hoch--an artist at the time unknown to me. My collage bears an uncanny resemblance to many of her photomontages. So this book caught my eye at the library.

A member of the Berlin Dada Movement, Hoch believed "we must be open to the beauties of fortuity." She was originally involved in pattern design for women's magazines, and that job definitely had an influence on the art she created. Working with the images in those magazines and newspapers, Hoch used her art to both critique and celebrate culture as reflected in popular media. Her surreal juxtapositions open both the eye and the mind.

"I also want to show that there are millions and millions of other justifiable points of view besides yours and mine."

Hoch's work evolved over the course of her career, at times becoming more abstract, at times including paint, linocut, or texture with the photo images. She never stopped exploring.

The book is well-illustrated, and the essays, interviews, and quotations add valuable insight to the images.

But above all, there is the work. Wonderful!

[Merel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al langer fan van het werk van Hannah Höch. Deze catalogus biedt een mooi overzicht van haar stijl evolutie en kritische en boeiende reflecties op haar werk en thematiek.