Image of the Day

.

Cover of Hannah Höch's Picture Book
(originally published in 1945).

From the International Center of Photography's description:

A central figure in the Berlin Dada circle, friend to Kurt Schwitters and Piet Mondrian and lover of Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch (1889-1972) is probably the most important female artist from the German modernist period. She is best known for her pioneering works of photomontage, which briskly juxtapose mechanical and organic forms, ancient and contemporary bodies, symbols and text drawn from brands and headlines, also edging feminism, commodity critique and other political concerns into the mix. 'It is striking how contemporary to us much of Höch's work feels,' Luc Sante wrote recently, 'in its sexual politics, its humor, its gleeful appropriation of anything and everything at hand.'

In 1945, Höch made this fantastical full-color children's book, which chronicles the adventures of the four mythical creatures (Runfast, Dumblet, Snifty and Meyer) in an enchanted garden, combining photomontage with the hallucinatory plant imagery she had come to favor.

The book, which contains 19 spreads that each consist of a poem and corresponding collage, can be purchased through the ICP's online store. (The holidays are just around the corner...it's not too early to be thinking about what to get the sophisticated munchkins on your list.)