Hannah Hoch is
considered as a pioneer of photomontage although during her career she
struggled to get recognition even from those who allegedly advocated the women
rights. She was German born Dada artist, lone woman among other Berlin group of
Dadaists which consisted strictly from men artists. Although there were a few
more women who should have been part of this group, however they have never
been officially acclaimed and never gained a credibility for their work.
Hannah Hoch
managed to do this against all obstacles due to her remarkable talent,
intelligence and strong attitude which is notable on a first sight when I look
at her photo. It is obvious that this rebellious woman rejected all social standards.
She refused to be one more female slave so she vigorously fought to prove that
she, or any other woman, can be at least as good as any man. And she proved it
with her artwork.
Disappointed
over the hypocrisy she encountered with her male group of Dada artist who
allegedly fought for female rights but in reality they disapproved it just as
everybody else, she responded in her manner, creating the artwork called “The
strong guys”.
She created
photomontage, presenting a man vigorously raising hand for protest but under the arm are spikes which are ready to
run through the head of a woman. Hoch portrayed this new generation of modern
woman as face which is half male and half female as she probably thought that
those women have the same freedom as men did. Part of male silhouette is in
orange tones which remind me of fire and she probably wanted to express his
energy and how he was allegedly determined to fight. I like the colors she
chose. Darker yellow which is nice blended with yellow-green, brown and fiery
orange, create unity and visual dynamic for its contrasts and gradation.
She had often
used her artwork to express her feelings
and attitudes toward the political circumstances, creating messages so strong
that she managed to completely turn public opinion. This especially referred to
“Dada Panorama” collage where she ironically presented men responsible for a
double murder in bathing suites with fig leaves on their bellies. I like the
composition and use of dark colors with ochre. She managed to create a sense
of real space and all elements stands in
such a harmony.
When it comes to
photomontage “Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar
Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch”, I am amazed how she synchronized so much different
elements into one unity and how good is dynamic she had made. She had limited
color palette just like with two previous artwork which I have described. She
had used different tones of yellow contrasting them with dark, which along with
blue create good dynamic unity.
When I first saw
her artwork “Grotesque” I didn’t understand the point of this imagery. It
looked odd and bizarre to me, but that was because I skipped the background
story; a story that stands behind her involvement in suffragette movement. She
presented two pairs of women legs and placed on the first pair beautiful
woman’s head and on the second pair she put a part of head of an ugly man. I think she actually
wanted to present disagreement with
social circumstances where women are always expected to be beautiful from head
to toe while men didn’t have to bother with that. It is interesting fact that
things actually didn’t change a lot after almost 100 years. There are lot of
women who are ready to risk their lives in order to stay young and beautiful,
so unfortunately Hannah Hoch didn’t manage to change it.
John Heartfield was one of the most influential Dada
artist regarding political engagement artwork. He expressed his despise toward
Adolf Hitler and Nazism through his legendary photomontages. I like his
satirical approach which is in the same time simple but also cuts to the bone.
This
photomontage shows in common way how much he had respect for German ideas of
that time.
In this
artwork Heartfield portrayed Adolf Hitler as a figure who was only driven by
money and it was in the background of whole Nazi idea. He figuratively
presented this by portraying Hitler with insides made of gold bullion where he
said that Hitler swallows gold but spouts junk. This is very impressive
artwork.
Another
amazing photomontage pointed toward
German regime, where Heartfield presented hyena wearing hat and iron cross,
walking across corps.
http://weimarart.blogspot.com/2010/08/hannah-hoch-brushflurlets-and-beer.html
http://offtheorange.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/john-heartfield-more-things-of-interest-from-the-dada-movement-berlin/
http://offtheorange.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/john-heartfield-more-things-of-interest-from-the-dada-movement-berlin/
