Hannah Hoch / Depth Photomontage

Mini Biography

Hannah Hoch was born November 1, 1889 in Germany. She went to the College of Arts and Crafts in Berlin Germany and studies graphic arts (art used for advertising, etc). She took one year off during WWI she left school to work for the Red Cross. After college she worked for printing companies making dress and embroidery patterns.

Hoch became friends and later dated the artist Raoul Hausmann. The couple used a technique that cubists (like Picasso) created called collage. This involved gluing images onto paper. Influenced by her work with women’s magazines, Hoch used the technique further and created images full of cutouts. This became known as photomontage.

Hoch style of artwork fit into the art movement called Dada, but she was not accepted in the group because she was a woman. Women were ignored as artists during this time. Therefore her work showed a lot of women and how people see them. She used a lot of gears and light bulbs to show that women were seen as machines too cook and clean.

Hoch made work until her death in 1978.

Tie In to Project

Hannah Hoch photomontages often looked like some things were closer and some things were far away. This is called depth. She was able to show depth by overlapping images, using large and small shapes, and by placing them low or high on a page.

Demonstration

Take two cut out shapes that are exactly the same. Tape them on the board. Overlap one over the other. Ask the class which one is closer. (The one in front). Put one shape to the right and above. Ask the class which one looks closer. (The lower should be). Ask the class which one looks bigger. (The higher one should). Tell the class as things get farther away they look smaller. Take a smaller version of the same shape and place it where the higher one is. Ask the class which one looks bigger now. (The lower should, or they may look the same size).

Project

Create a photomontage using depth by cutting similar images out of magazines (all cars or people or dogs, etc). Arrange and glue them on a page using overlapping, placement, and size to create depth in a scene.
Easy- Minimum of 3 images
Medium- Minimum of 5 images
Hard- Minimum of 7 images

Have the students show you their image before they start gluing. Always glue from the ones that look farther away first.

Tips: Clipping from magazines can always be time consuming because they are distracting. Here are some ideas to cut down on time.

1. Each person gets a magazine with a label on it. Ex. Car and Driver Magazine says “Car” or “Tire.” Students must find 5 images of the label to use.
2. In the directions have students rip out 10 pages with the same item and pick from those.
3. Have whole pages already torn out and grouped, students choose, trim, and arrange.

Materials

Paper to glue on

Old Magazines

Scissors

Glue

Variations

Instead of gluing on white paper, have them glue on construction paper or magazine images of scenery like yard, mountains, etc.

Have the students draw a scene after the page is dry. (Road, pet store, park)

Use a large piece of poster board and have the students create a scene together.