In 1943, the year in which British and American air raids destroyed large areas of Berlin and other German cities in response to heavy German bombing, Hannah Höch made a sketch for “Lamenting Women”. The painting itself was only executed in early 1946. Paints and canvases were hard to obtain during the Second World War.

The dark figures barely stand out from the background. Only the expressive faces and hands of these women can be made out. In this work Höch, a member of Berlin’s Dada circle in the early 1920s, addresses both the misery of the war years and the hopelessness of the post-war mood.