Collage · Dada
Cut with the Kitchen Knife
A photomontage combining politicians, performers, machinery, and printed words into a satire of Weimar society.
- Painter
- Photographer
Hannah Höch
Berlin Dada artist who developed photomontage into a sharp instrument for cutting through politics, mass media, gender roles, and the public faces of the Weimar Republic.
Details
- 1889–1978
- 1889
- Gotha, Germany
- 1978
- Berlin
- German
- PainterPhotographer
About Hannah Höch
Hannah Höch was a German artist in Berlin Dada and one of photomontage's defining practitioners. She cut photographs and words from the illustrated press and recombined them. Her work turned the period's mass-produced public images into unstable encounters between politics, machinery, entertainment, and gender.
Her best-known work, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, was made in 1919 and shown at the First International Dada Fair in Berlin in 1920. Across its crowded surface, recognizable leaders and public figures lose the authority their press photographs once claimed. The work remained in Höch's possession until 1961, when the Nationalgalerie acquired it through Galerie Meta Nierendorf.
Selected works
Movements
Art movement · c. 1916–1924
Dada
A member of Berlin Dada who used photomontage to dismantle and recombine the public imagery of the Weimar Republic.
Sourced claims
Associated with
Dada
A member of Berlin Dada who used photomontage to dismantle and recombine the public imagery of the Weimar Republic.
References
References
The sources below include biographies, scholarly essays, interviews, and primary materials that informed this page. They reflect both the historical record and ongoing critical conversations about Hannah Höch and their work.
1Hannah Höch
WebsiteNational Museum of Women in the ArtsUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Hannah Höch page.
2Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser Dada durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauch-Kulturepoche Deutschlands
Official recordStaatliche Museen zu BerlinUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
3Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (1919)
WebsiteGerman History in Documents and ImagesUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Hannah Höch page.
4Hannah Höch
Official recordMuseum of Modern ArtUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
i
Why these sources are here
These references anchor the page in the documented record and in the scholarly conversations around Hannah Höch. Every claim on this page traces back to one or more of the works listed here.
Explore more resources