MANNHEIM.- Hannah Höch (18891978) is considered the most important German female artist of classical modernism. As a revolutionary of art, she ranks among the most prominent figures linking the emancipatory art of the avant-gardes of the first half of the 20th century with the second. Her life and art were shaped by a revolutionary attitude permeated by the rebellious consciousness of Dada. With the continuation of her work after 1945, Höch became a decisive groundbreaker for a younger generation of artists who in the 1960s took up the utopian-revolutionary potential of 1918.
From April 22 until August 14, 2016, the
Kunsthalle Mannheim presents an exhibition of Hannah Höchs oeuvre after 1945. It is the first comprehensive retrospective of the work which she created after the Second World War. The museum thus continues its series dedicated to significant female artists of the 20th and 21st century from Germaine Richier via Ré Soupault to Magdalena Jetelová, Nairy Baghramian, and Pipilotti Rist.
There is still a lot to be discovered in Hannah Höchs work that spans more than 60 years, from 1916 to 1979, since the artist was appraised almost exclusively as the grande dame of Dadaism after the Second World War. This one-sided focus on her Dadaistic work of the 1920s has shaped our perception of Höch until today obstructing the view to her prolific post-war oeuvre.
The exhibition Hannah Höch. Revolutionary of Art addresses both, Dadas revolutionary conception of the world, which was a fundamental idea of Hannah Höchs oeuvre, and the diversity of her work. In 1918, the artist introduced the collage into fine art as an independent, extremely effective medium. It remained her most important form of expression throughout her career. Her collage Entartet (Degenerated) with a shiny silver corsage and pointed cone-shaped breasts became legendary: As the incarnation of seduction and decay, it is merely an empty shell, headless, with flies swarming around it.
By focusing on the Höchs oeuvre after 1945, the Kunsthalle Mannheim acknowledges the artists entire artistic work and highlights her key role in the context of modernism and the 20th century. The curators Dr. Inge Herold and Dr. Karoline Hille present more than 150 exhibits, structured in eight themed galleries. They also include works that have never been exhibited so far.
The woodcut Der Prophet Matthäus (The Prophet Matthew, 1917) is in the collection of the Kunsthalle Mannheim. Many exhibits come from the estate of Hannah Höch, and numerous others from private collections in Germany.
Further lenders are: Galerie Berinson, Berlin; Berliner Sparkasse; Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; Heimatmuseum Reinickendorf, Berlin; Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin; Galerie Remmert und Barth, Düsseldorf; Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen; Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr; Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.