CUT WITH THE KITCHEN KNIFE (final) Flashcards
(20 cards)
DATE
1919
artist
hannah hoch
full title
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany
Historical situation in Germany
ABDICATION OF WHILLHEM II
-sparked communist uprising (dada artists were sympathisers of uprising)
COMMUNIST UPRISING
-supressed by weimar gov
-weimar gov dominated, was highly borgeious
WEIMAR REPUBLIC AND ITS ISSUES
-unofficial state
-emerged after communist revolution after abdication of willhem ii
ISSUES
-Hyper inflation
The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic for the country’s defeat and for the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
who was hannah hoch
.
was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage
key features
-photomontage (varied figures and mismatched bodies)
-added wheels and cogs to figures (mechanisation)
-words using different styles of typography
-FRAGMENTED
what does the fragmentattion reveal
-political chaos and experience of modernity
(post war- berlin weimar government)
TOP RIGHT
represents the “anti-Dada world” and Weimar culture
FIGURES- Kaiser Wilhelm II (the last German emperor and the man who had lead Germany into WWI, he abdicated in 1918)
BOTTOM RIGHT
Represents the ‘great world of dada’
figures- Left-leaning political heroes and key Dada figures as well as Höch herself (Dada aligned with leftist communism)
TOP LEFTP
features Dada propaganda with slogans such as “Invest your money in Dada”
BOTTOM LEFT
Dada persuasion, represents the masses in support of the political Left and Dada with slogans such as “Join Dada”
where are her images taken from
newspapers, posters, postcards and magazines
(USE OF READYMADE INSPIRED BY DUCHAMP, use of anti-art materials)
how did this technique of photocollage differ from cubist collage
developed out of Cubist collage – but it differs from Cubist collage in that it is more politicised – about satirizing the status quo
EFFECT OF PHOTOMONTAGE
-dismembers reality- shows aubsurdity of weimar gov
-anti art (lack of artist personal connection and use of unconventional materials challanged status quo AND HIERARCHIES OF ART)
who invented photomontage
Höch and her partner Raoul Hausmann invented the technique
idea had originated from German army photographers, who inserted portrait heads into idealised settings for propagandist purposes
CRITICAL QYOTE
‘our whole purpose was to integrate objects from the eorld of machines and industry into our art)
CLUB DADA CONTEXT
-berlin dada artists (figures like hoch and Haussmann)
-sided with the radical Left-leaning Communists against the German bourgeois Weimar government
-used radical techniques: unconventional material etc
-USED POLITICAL PROPAGANDA
PURPOSE OF THE WORK
The work acts as a strong critique of the contemporary political situation in Germany and the restricted role of women; it also promotes Dada values.
critical quote on state of berlin at the time
Towards the end of WWI, Berlin was a half-starved nightmare city, and there was increasing social and political chaos, which was to last until 1933.”
