teenth century. Ho ̈ch was consequently stimulated to
experiment on her own. As the illustrated magazine
industry exploded during the Weimar years, Ho ̈ch
used portions of images collected from periodicals
like those in which her own ornamental patterns
appeared to create her photomontages. An inveterate
collector, she kept scrapbooks and filled boxes with
clippings, filed according to the object represented.
Ho ̈ch also frequently incorporated fragments of her
own photographs and watercolors into her work.
Between 1918 and 1922, Ho ̈ch remained closely
affiliated with the Dadaists, from their explosive
self-introduction into the art world through a radi-
cal performance at the usually decorous Berlin
Secession of 1918 to the 1921 Dada evenings staged
by Hausmann and Kurt Schwitters in Prague. In
1920, Ho ̈ch participated in the First International
Dada Convention held in Dr. Otto Burchard’s gal-
lery in Berlin, an event that marked the apex of
Dada’s artistic preeminence in Germany. Among
several of her works exhibited was her renowned
critique of the Weimar Republic,Schnitt mit dem
Ku ̈chenmesser.Her 1922 work,Meine Hausspru ̈che,
is said to mark her break with Hausmann and the
nihilism of Dada. The work manifests a sympa-
thetic turn towards Constructivism in her composi-
tional adherence to a vertical–horizontal axis.
Unlike John Heartfield, who extracted images
from their sources with meticulous attention to out-
line and who subsequently rephotographed his mon-
tages so that each would appear as a seamless whole,
Ho ̈ch allowed the edges of her collaged images to be
apparent. Because of the clipped-off contours, the
juxtaposition of incongruous sizes, the visibility of
picture seams, and the resulting grotesque appear-
ance of her figures, Ho ̈ch’s works have been charac-
terized by historians as violent. This brutality served
her underlying messages, which frequently dealt with
the continued subjugation of women in a culture
undergoing seismic political shifts.
Always at issue for Ho ̈ch was society’s belief in the
credibility of the photograph. Unknown to many read-
ers, magazines and newspapers routinely manipulated
the images that accompanied news articles in order to
make them more dramatic. Ho ̈ch’s photomontages
utilized similar methods of fabrication, yet allowed the
evidence of the manipulation to be seen. With their
cobbled appearance, her pictures constantly remind
the viewer that they are artificial constructions. By
emulating the level of control expended by fashion
magazines to assemble ideal ‘‘realities,’’ she both sub-
verted and commented on the mechanisms of the
media, revealing the didactic power of illustrated maga-
zine content and the insidious implications this power
had for women’s self perceptions and political situation.
Ho ̈ch continued to create small format photomon-
tages through the mid-1930s. She was immensely
productive, exhibiting frequently, creating highly
political series likeFrom an Ethnographic Museum,
and even publishing a book critiquing consumer
culture entitledScheingehackteswith her companion,
the Dutch poet Til Brugman, in 1935. Through
Brugman, she met the artists Piet Mondrain, Theo
Van Doesburg, and Hans Arp, all with whom she
became close friends. The National Socialist’s
Degenerate Art campaign of 1937, which success-
fully isolated artists and prevented their collabora-
tion, halted Ho ̈ch’s exhibition possibilities and her
productivity. In 1942, she moved to a small house on
the outskirts of Berlin near Heiligensee, working and
exhibiting intermittently until her death in 1978.
SavannahSchrolSeealso:Dada; Futurism; Heartfield, John; History
of Photography: Interwar Years; History of Photo-
graphy: Twentieth-Century Pioneers; Manipulation;
Montage; Photography in Germany and Austria;
PropagandaBiography
Born Johanne Ho ̈ch in Gotha (Thuringia), 1 November 1889.
Enrolled in the Berlin Kunstgewerbschule, 1912. Returned
home to work with Red Cross, 1914. Studied at the Staa-
tliche Lehranstalt des Kunstgewerbemuseums in Berlin,- Became companion of Raoul Hausmann, 1915.
Accepted part-time position at Ullstein Verlag, 1916.
Experiments with photo collages after encountering med-
ium during trip to Baltic Sea, 1918. Left Hausmann and
broke with Dadaists, 1922. Began relationship with Dutch
poet Til Brugman and settled in The Hague, 1926. Estab-
lished contacts with Piet Mondrain and other de Stijl
artists, 1926. Denounced as cultural Bolshevik by National
Socialist, Wolfgang Willrich, 1937. Married pianist Kurt
Matthies, 1938. Divorced Matthies, 1944. Lived in isola-
tion on Heiligensee near Berlin, 1942. Died in Berlin on 31
May 1978.
Individual Exhibitions
1929 Kunsthuis de Bron, The Hague
Rotterdamische Kring, Rotterdam
Kunstzaal Van Lier, Amsterdam
1934 Fotomontazi; Brno, Czechoslovakia
Fotomontage van Hannah Ho ̈ch; Kunstzaal d’Aud-
retsch, The Hague
1945 Galerie Gerd Rosen, Berlin
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1957 Hannah Ho ̈ch, Collagen; Galerie Gerd Rosen, Berlin
1959 Hannah Ho ̈ch, Collagen, 1956–1959; Galerie Gerd
Rosen, Berlin
1964 Hannah Ho ̈ch; Galerie Nierendorf, BerlinHO ̈CH, HANNAH