Burst Unity
Hannah Hoch
1955
My initial reaction to this photomontage was that it was a beautiful, abstract piece of art but I didn’t know what it was. I have no idea what the objects are in this photomontage. What I see in this photomontage are many unknown objects, lines, shapes and colours combined to create this piece of art.
The elements and principles of design in this photomontage are balance, dominance/emphasis, contrast, shape and colour. The balance in this photomontage is symmetrical because if you were to draw a line down the middle, it would be visually equal on both sides. Dominance/emphasis is found in this photomontage because all the objects are placed in the center, making it the focal point. Contrast is found through shape and colour. The shapes contrast with each other because of their different sizes. Some are large and some are small. Contrast in colour is found with white on the dark blue, dark blue on the lighter blue and dark blue contrasting with the light green. There are both geometric and organic shapes in this photomontage. The organic shapes are all of the unknown objects in the center. The geometric shapes are the rectangles in the photomontage and the background shape with the top half being dark blue and the bottom half being light green. The primary colours red as seen on that rectangular-ish shape at the top, blue, both light and dark, as seen in the background and in the shape on the left and at the bottom and the rectangle towards the bottom, and yellow as seen on the shape on the left beside the blue shape, are in the photomontage. The secondary colours orange, as seen on the shapes in the bottom left of the center, green as seen on the top left shape and in the bottom half of the background, and violet as seen in the shape in the center and the bottom right rectangle, are in it. And the tertiary colours yellow-orange as seen in the orange shapes in the bottom left of the center, blue-green as seen in the background where the dark blue and light green merge, and red-violet as seen in the the rectangular-ish shape at the top are in the photomontage as well. The artists choice of objects/materials are all unknown, unidentifiable objects and this photomontage doesn’t have a location. What grabs my attention in this photomontage is the center focal point. All the objects seem to point to or come from this point. It has a black hole effect where either things are being sucked into a central point or things are coming out from a central point.
The theme of this photomontage is aesthetic beauty of these images put together. It’s really hard to see any moods or emotions in this photomontage. I can’t see any happiness or sadness or any other emotions in this photomontage. You can’t really tell from this image alone what it’s about or what it means but the photomontage is called, “Burst Unity” so maybe all these objects, shapes and lines bursted out from a central point which is where the objects seem to come out from. This work was created because the artist, Hannah Hoch, wanted to create a beautiful photomontage by combining several shapes, lines and colours. Based on this piece of art, I’d say the artist’s view of the world is beautiful because of a combination of various objects and colours. For example, in nature we have a combination of green trees, blue water, yellow sunlight, red roses etc... that can give us beautiful scenery. Hannah Hoch never explicitly said why she created “Burst Unity” but all throughout her art career, she worked hard to learn the techniques of photomontage so she could show other artists the things photomontages were capable of, a medium that artists lost interest in during the 1920s and was discarded in favour of other mediums. In her photomontages, she worked hard to create an image which looked modern and sophisticated and I think “Burst Unity” is one of her photomontages that best show this and that’s what her intent of this artwork probably was.
Hannah Hoch created the photomontage “Burst Unity” so she could show that through the use of the medium photomontage, she could combine shapes and lines that are simple on their own and combine them to create a complex, modern and sophisticated piece of art. My thoughts and feelings about this photomontage haven’t changed after knowing what her intent with this probably was because I always thought this had a modern, sophisticated and abstract look which seemingly is what the artist was trying to communicate. I don’t interpret the photomontage any differently now. I still see it as an aesthetically beautiful/pleasing piece of abstract artwork. What I learned from “Burst Unity” is that a combination of simple shapes and objects can create a modern and complex image which I should try to experiment with when creating art.
Works Cited
Cut And Paste: Hannah Hoch. 2007. 10 Oct 2010.
