Hannah Höch

A trailblazing Dada artist who redefined gender roles through photomontage.

Hannah Höch (1889–1978) was a German Dada artist whose pioneering photomontages challenged societal norms around gender and politics. As the sole woman in Berlin's avant-garde circle, Höch faced marginalization but persisted in critiquing Weimar Germany's patriarchy through fragmented, surreal imagery.

Her landmark work, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada (1919), juxtaposed male leaders with female dancers and machinery, satirizing post-WWI nationalism. Höch also co-invented photomontage as a medium, using scissors and glue to deconstruct mass media—a radical act in an era dominated by painting.

Höch’s androgynous figures and exploration of lesbian identity, as seen in works like From an Ethnographic Museum, predated modern feminist art by decades. Despite Nazi persecution and post-war obscurity, she continued creating until her death. Scholars like Maude Lavin credit her with influencing movements from Pop Art to digital collage. Her defiance of artistic and social conventions makes her a pivotal yet underrecognized figure in art history.