Cut with the Kitchen Knife Through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic 1919

How have women used undervalued art techniques to overcome discrimination? 👩‍🎨 In Cut with the Kitchen Knife Through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic (1919), Hannah Hoch uses the techniques of collage and photomontage – which bring together images that have been cut out from a variety of sources – to attack the politics of 1910s Weimar Germany. Hannah Hoch (1889-1978) was a German artist who was known for her signature paper-based cut-and-stick works. She was associated with the Berlin Dada Group, a movement which is characterised by chaotic and bizarre imagery. This sense of confusion and disorder is clearly evoked in Cut with the Kitchen Knife Through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic. Dadaism was dominated by male artists such as Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) and Man Ray (1890-1976). Hoch, however, often explored themes of gender oppression in her works. In 1959, she noted that Dada women artists were denied ‘any real professional status’, instead being seen as ‘charming and gifted amateurs.’ Hoch pioneered the collage technique, a historically overlooked art form. Collage has traditionally been considered a feminine ‘craft’ rather than a valid art form. In Cut with the Kitchen Knife, Hoch challenges this idea by using the technique to highlight vital sociopolitical issues. The explosive composition boldly brings together a mass of images, demanding the attention that was often denied to women artists in a patriarchal art world. Hoch has placed jarring images directly next to each other, creating striking juxtapositions and drawing unexpected parallels between seemingly unrelated objects. These images include a photograph of the German Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhelm II, dancing women, and floating heads. In the lower right of the collage, Hoch has placed a map which highlights the countries where women could vote. This is a bold and clear challenge to the Weimar Republic, as women in Germany were first allowed to vote in 1919. Hoch has used the marginalised art form of the collage to give a voice to a marginalised social group. Cut with the Kitchen Knife Through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic is a fierce attack on the Weimar government and the position of women in her post-war society. Take a closer look at some of the images Hoch has used in her collage. What strikes you? Do any particular images interest you? 📰💬 Editor: Lucy Jude Grantham