Hannah Hoch

Hannah Hoch was an artist of the Dadaism movement; post WW1 Germany experienced a new form of government backed by American money. Moving away from imperialism to capitalism opened the door for rapid industrialisation and consumerisms. This created an explosion in two areas: first a rapid growth in media, second, a redefinition of social roles of women. Dada painters questioned the political situation.

Hannah Hoch created a group of photomontages using images from magazines and juxtapositioned the modern German-woman with the colonial German woman. By doing this she challenged cultural representations of women.

Hoch was one of Linder Sterling's inspirations as a contextual artists. You can see the similarities between the two designers and how they looked at contextual imagery and re-arranged it to express a different idea. Through her images Hoch creates an unsettling view as she addresses the fears and hopes for new possibilities for the modern German women.

Art historians suggest that Hoch represent a scene of anger and frustration, arguing that the modern German woman felt a threatened by the rapid industrialization and modernization of their society.  

 

In Dada Ernst Hoch questions the role of women in the new society. A pair of legs with money and a man's eye placed between them are the main focus of the picture. A bow like machine links money with a gymnast who symbolizes the modern athletic woman. At her side a bare backed woman playing a trumpet symbolizes women's femininity.

Hoch juxtaposes the modern images of mental (symbolizing machinery) against the woman's flesh (symbolizing femininity) raising questions regards women's sexuality in the modern world under the watchful eye of the male gender.