Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife

Hannah Höch (Germany; 1889 – 1978)
Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife (c.1919)
Staatliche Museum (Berlin, Germany)

Accompanying Song: And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda by Eric Bogle











The chaos and disorder within this photomontage embodies the dogma of the Dada. Dadaism was a cultural movement that developed after the peak of World War I and concentrated on anti-war politics. Believing that it was "reason" that motivated war efforts, the movement employed a rejection of current art standards ("Dada"). The anti-bourgeois sentiment is evident in Höch's depiction of the Kaiser and other political leaders in chorus girl costumes and a background of exploding machine parts (DiLascia). The photomontage satirizes the capitalists and their machinery, displaying that such capitalist greed and logical methods cause destruction. Höch intentionally creates disorder and avoids aesthetics in order to reject the societal norms. Such avoidance of order voices her dissent from bourgeois "reason" and "logic".

The Butter is Gone

John Heartfield (Germany; 1891 – 1968)
The Butter Is Gone(c.1932)
Akademie der Kunste (Berlin, Germany)

Accompanying song: Die Gedanken Sind Frei (Our Thoughts Are Free)










Here, Heartfield bites back at the Nazi party and ridicules its inability to feed Germany. During a food shortage in '35 Herman Göring of the German Nazi party said, “Iron has always made a nation strong, butter and lard have only made the people fat”. In this picture Heartfield depicts Germans trying to eat weapons in lieu of the butter they're supposed to have. He criticizes the value of building up arms over providing food for a destitute Germany (Evans). Such photos were often depicted in the Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung, a weekly magazine, and reached a wide audience. Heartfield's radical images and thick coatings of satire served as a powerful tool in revealing to Germans the corruption and self-serving ways of the Nazi party.