The status of the images as such in Hoch's photomontage must be dealt with if one wants to discuss her work within the context of Weimer's early visual culture. Hannah Hoch’s photo collage is a great example of the chaotic nature the Dadaist attempted to portray in their illustrations. She is basically criticizing the Weimar Republic – the failed democracy attempt that controlled government in Germany that resulted from the war.* At the time of this pieces creation in 1919 and 1920, Germany was experiencing political chaos after losing WWI. There was a struggle between two political parties, as German society navigated its way out of the old Weimer Republic and into the left-wing Communist movement. Pieces of machine are exploding throughout the montage to symbolize booming industry and culture within an urban area. This booming progress is not displayed in a proud, exciting and happy manner, but rather in a chaos filled environment. The mood is to the point of insanity, with exaggerated expressions and dramatic body language along with images of political figures serving as an example of the political free-for-all between the old Weimer leaders and the new left-wing communist agenda.
After Hannah Höch showed her photomontage "Cut with the Kitchen Knife - Dada through Germany’s Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch" in the First International Dada Fair in Berlin in 1920, it was not seen again in public until the 1960s. Höch had stayed in Germany during the Nazi period as an “inner emigrant,” a term applied to artists and intellectuals who continued their work privately, without bowing to Nazi ideology. Like the artist, the work survived Nazi Germany but remained unseen and unmentioned for reasons that included sexism and the artist’s own reticence about showing it. Since its reemergence and purchase by Berlin’s National Gallery in 1961, "Cut with the Kitchen Knife" has resonated with enough viewers to become the best-known representative of Berlin Dada’s critique of contemporary German society, of Höch’s feminist perspective on it, and of women artists’ historically marginal status in modern art.**
After Hannah Höch showed her photomontage "Cut with the Kitchen Knife - Dada through Germany’s Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch" in the First International Dada Fair in Berlin in 1920, it was not seen again in public until the 1960s. Höch had stayed in Germany during the Nazi period as an “inner emigrant,” a term applied to artists and intellectuals who continued their work privately, without bowing to Nazi ideology. Like the artist, the work survived Nazi Germany but remained unseen and unmentioned for reasons that included sexism and the artist’s own reticence about showing it. Since its reemergence and purchase by Berlin’s National Gallery in 1961, "Cut with the Kitchen Knife" has resonated with enough viewers to become the best-known representative of Berlin Dada’s critique of contemporary German society, of Höch’s feminist perspective on it, and of women artists’ historically marginal status in modern art.**
*Lavin, Maud, Cut With the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hoch. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1993.
**Federle, Courtney. “Kuchenmesser DADA: Hannah Höch's Cut Through the Field of Vision.” Qui Parle, Vol. 5, No. 2, (Spring/Summer 1992), pp. 120-134
**Federle, Courtney. “Kuchenmesser DADA: Hannah Höch's Cut Through the Field of Vision.” Qui Parle, Vol. 5, No. 2, (Spring/Summer 1992), pp. 120-134