Simona Bérešová

Im Netzwerk der europäischen Moderne. Die Korrespondenz zwischen František Kalivoda und Hannah Höch

The article looks at the correspondence in 1932–1935 between the Brno-born František Kalivoda (1913–1971) and the Berlin artist Hannah Höch (1889–1978). The letters, now in the Brno City Museum and the Berlinische Galerie, testify to their friendship and collaboration in the form of the publication of Höch’s texts and photomontages in Czechoslovak journals and in her solo exhibition in Brno – all organised by Kalivoda. At the same time their correspondence offers a unique insight into the functioning of the widely spread network of European modernism in the interwar period. Its study helps us to understand the relationships between the different actors and uncover both their supra-regional connections and distinctive local features. It also helps us to overcome prejudices including the notion of the unequal and dependent relationship of the ‘periphery’, usually regarded as including the whole of Central and Eastern Europe, on ‘centres’ - as a rule the big Western metropolises like Berlin or Paris. The premise of this study is that the actors from different regions influenced each other mutually and on an equal basis. The contact between Hannah Höch, who is today part of the canon of European modernism, and František Kalivoda, now partly forgotten by history, is a good example of this kind of non-hierarchical relationship.

Author's email:

beresova.simona@gmail.com

< back