Gender and art

"‘What does a woman want?’ I still remember my first encounter with the question Freud put to Marie Bonaparte in 1925, just as I recall my inability to stomach its aggressive and mystifying tone. Years have passed since then, and with them many Hannah Höch exhibitions, yet it has taken the riveting new retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery – her first ever exhibition in London (until 23 March) – to make me realise that Freud’s question was hers too."

"An early champion of feminist art and a celebrated member of the Berlin Dada movement, Hannah Höch’s collages commented on the social change and economic upheaval of Weimar Germany and Europe during the First and Second World Wars. Her contemporaries including George Grosz and Kurt Schwitters admired Höch’s unique satirical language that combined fashion images with symbols of industry. Over 100 works made between 1910-1970 display the depth and radical practice of this truly great collagist."

Whitechapel Gallery, London

Jan 15 2014 - Mar 23 2014

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/

"The most famous work by German artist Hannah Höch (1889-1978) remains Cut with the Kitchen Knife: Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Culture Epoch (1919), exhibited at the International Dada Fair in 1920. One of Höch’s largest collages, Cut with the Kitchen Knife showcased both the satirical possibilities and political ambiguities of the form, which she pioneered. Using the titular ‘kitchen knife’ to symbolise her cutting through male-dominated society, Höch incorporated newspaper headlines, animals, industrial landscapes, and political or cultural figures, loosely divided into ‘anti-Dada’ and ‘Dada’ sections, leaving open the question of which represented the most positive force in the new Weimar Republic."

Hannah Höch is at the Whitechapel Gallery, London until 23 March 2014

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/hannah-hch

"Hannah Höch was an artistic and cultural pioneer. A member of Berlin’s Dada movement in the 1920s, she was a driving force in the development of 20th century collage. Splicing together images taken from fashion magazines and illustrated journals, she created a humorous and moving commentary on society during a time of tremendous social change. Höch was admired by contemporaries such as George Grosz, Theo van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters, yet was often overlooked by traditional art history. As the first major exhibition of her work in Britain, the show puts this inspiring figure in the spotlight."