Hannah Hoch: The Not-So Quiet Girl

It’s interesting that in some of Hannah Hoch’s works, she chose to include the word “Dada” at least once, sometimes more than once. And even, on occasion, including the name of the work into the actual collage. It’s almost as if she was trying to tell people that she was a Dadaist, as if they would not believe that she, as a woman, could practice and believe in that category of art. The biography of her also mentioned that although her male colleagues accepted her as a Dadaist, they never treated her as an equal. Perhaps she was feeling this inequality and chose to include “Dada” into her collages as a way to tell them, and the world, that she was a Dadaist.

One of Hoch’s collage that I liked was her “Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany.” The biography mentions that the piece is not only a political statement about the Weimar era, but also that she was making a social statement about women and equality. The subtle details, like the fact that only the women in the collage have movement, are what draws me in the most, especially after reading that she was not treated like an equal by her male colleagues. I also really enjoyed Hoch’s “Da-Dandy” because the piece isn’t as abrasive, color-wise, as some of her other work. The collage is very light and feminine, but she also makes a social statement by placing feminine-looking parts, like eyes, over a man’s face. Again, she is subtle but also still staying true to the Dada category of art.