Hannah Höch - born in Gotha, Germany in 1889. From 1912 to 1914 she studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Berlin under the guidance of the director of the class for glass organization, Harold Bergen. She resumed her studies in 1915, this time entering the graph class of the National Institute of the Museum of Arts and Crafts. Also in 1915, Höch began an influential friendship with Raoul Hausmann, a member of the Berlin Dada movement. Höch's involvement with the Berlin Dadists began in earnest in 1919.

Höch's personal relationship with Hausmann grew from friendship to romantic over time. While this was the first crucial

relationship to have bearing on Höch's artistic work, she often reflected upon her relationships in such pieces as Love (1926). Some of Höch's work suggests that she carried on lesbian relationships during her life as well romantic relationships with men. Höch and Hausmann separated in 1922, at which point Höch was well on her way to becoming an artist in her own right, independent of her involvement with Hausmann. Incidentally, it was during Höch's relationship with Hausmann that both artists entered into the world of collage, pioneering what was to become a completely new artform.

Höch made more influential friendships over the years, with Kurt Schwitters and Piet Mondrian among others. Schwitters,

along with Höch, was one of the first pioneers of the artform that would come to be known as photomontage.

Höch's most famous piece is Cut With The Kitchen Knife,

a critique on Weimar Germany in 1919. This piece combines images from newspapers of the time re-created to make a new statement about life and art in the Dada movement.

Hannah Höch died in Berlin in 1978.

External Links

Timeline - a timeline of Höch's life. Raoul Hausmann - a biography of Raoul Hausmann. Chronology of Dada - a chronology of the DaDa movement. Cut and Paste - a history of photomontage.