Man Ray And Hannah Hoch

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This week I chose to steer towards photography. The two pieces that I chose for this week’s Web Quest are Hannah Höch’s Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany and Man Ray’s Le Violin d’Ingres. I hope that Man Ray, who was an influence on both Dadaism and Surrealism as well as developed the technique solarization and rayograms, will work because Hannah Höch was part of the Dada movement and also an artist who perfected the photomontage technique. But, the assignment clearly states “The image I chose by Man Ray is, I believe, part of the Surrealism movement and Hannah Höch is part of the Dada movement. Both images lean towards a woman’s eroticism and progressing roles in society in similar ways. While the two pieces look of the same genre because of the styles and techniques the artists used as well as erotic images of women, the difference between the two is that Hannah Höch’s image is supposed to send a message about presenting the “progress of women’s enfranchisement.” Höch seemed to be attempting to emphasize her political position, which would appear to be against the Weimar Republic. She also seemed to be attempting to destabilize society during the Weimar Republic in Germany and in her piece she placed pictures of German military leaders’ heads among “exotic dancers’ bodies,” which was probably an outrage as well as humorous to her fellow Dadaists and admirers. The cut-and-paste of photographs that Höch used created a textured appearance to the image as well as linear space due to the positioning and placing of each image. Man Ray’s image is merely of a woman whose torso-shape is supposed to emulate or symbolize a violin. With her arms tucked almost perfectly in front of her in order to maintain a violin-shape and not add any distractions or confusion, the invisible lines of the woman’s body create the
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