Hats Off to Hannah Hoch

This is a nod to Hannah Hoch, a German woman whose art is very politically motivated and (I think) ahead of her time. I discovered her on a list I have of artists that I should know that I got over the summer (still working on it...).

Hcch, an innovator and photo montager, was part of the Dada Movement, which was a response to the horrors of WWI with an anarchist, nihilistic viewpoint. Her art often comments on women's roles, government, and machinery, juxtaposing elements in a way which feels a bit surrealist and is probably meant to make the viewer a little squirmy. It's this sense of out-of-place-ness in space that binds her images together.

She had a few great love affairs, including one with a married man that wouldn't leave his wife for her as well as another female artist. She ended her life choosing to be alone, but I think you can definitely see how her view of womankind and women's fixated roles were influenced by these love affairs in her life.

Here are a couple sites that give a good view of her, though she doesn't have an official site (at least not one I could find).


http://humanities.uchicago.edu/classes/readcult/figure6.html
http://www.missomnimedia.com/2007/07/art-herstory-hannah-hoch/