Aveux non avenus

Claude Cahun

French artist (–)

Claude Cahun (French pronunciation:[klodka.œ̃], born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob;[2] 25 October – 8 December ) was a French surrealistphotographer, sculptor, and writer.[3]

Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in [4] Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae.

In her writing, Cahun mostly referred to herself with grammatically feminine words,[5] but she also said that her actual gender was fluid. For example, in Disavowals, Cahun writes: "Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me."[6] Cahun is most well known for her androgynous appearance, which challenged the strict gender roles of her time.

During World War II, Cahun was also active as a resistance worker and propagandist, founding the leftist group Contre Attaque, a union of communist writers, artists and workers, alongside André Breton and Marcel Moore.[7]

Early life

Cahun was born in Nantes in ,[8] into a well-off literary Jewish family.[9]Avant-garde writer Marcel Schwob was her uncle and Orientalist David Léon Cahun was her great-uncle.

When Cahun was four years old, her mother, Mary-Antoinette Courbebaisse, began suffering from mental illness, which ultimately led to her mother's permanent internment at a psychiatric facility.[10] In her mother's absence, Cahun was brought up by her grandmother, Mathilde.[11]

Cahun attended a private school (Parsons Mead School) in Surrey after experiences with antisemitism at high school in Nantes.[12][13] She attended the University of Paris, Sorbonne.[12] She began making photographic self-portraits as early as (aged 18), and continued taking images of herself throughout the s.

Around , she changed her name to Claude Cahun, after having previously used the names Claude Courlis (after the curlew) and Daniel Douglas (after Lord Alfred Douglas). During the early s, she settled in Paris with lifelong partner Suzanne Malherbe, who adopted the pseudonym Marcel Moore.[14]:&#;70&#; The two became step-sisters in after Cahun's divorced father and Moore's widowed mother married, eight years after Cahun and Moore's artistic and romantic partnership began.[15] For the rest of their lives together, Cahun and Moore collaborated on various written works, sculptures, photomontages and collages.

The two published articles and novels, notably in the periodical Mercure de France, and befriended Henri Michaux, Pierre Morhange, and Robert Desnos.

Around Cahun and Moore began holding artists' salons at their home. Among the regulars who would attend were artists Henri Michaux and André Breton and literary entrepreneurs Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier.[16]

Work

Cahun's works encompassed writing, photography, sculpture and theatre, of which the most remembered are the highly staged self-portraits and tableaux that incorporated the visual aesthetics of Surrealism.

During the s, Cahun produced an astonishing number of self-portraits in various guises such as aviator, dandy, doll, body builder, vamp and vampire, angel, and Japanese puppet.[14]:&#;67&#;

Cahun gave a unique perspective within surrealism, using mirrors, collages and doubling in her photos to reflect the diversion from social norms.

Some of Cahun's portraits feature the artist looking directly at the viewer, head shaven, often revealing only head and shoulders (eliminating body from the view), and a blurring of gender indicators and behaviors which serve to undermine the patriarchal gaze.[17][18] For example; in one photo Cahun is seen in a top that reads 'i am in training, do not kiss me.' showing how her identity and gender is allowed to be seen but should not be objectified and exoticized by the male gaze.

Scholar Miranda Welby-Everard has written about the importance of theatre, performance, and costume that underlies Cahun's work, suggesting how this may have informed the artist's varying gender presentations.[19]

Cahun's published writings include "Heroines", () a series of monologues based upon female fairy tale characters intertwined with witty comparisons to the contemporary image of women; Aveux non avenus, (Carrefour, ) a book of essays and recorded dreams illustrated with photomontages; and several essays in magazines and journals.[20]

In , Cahun joined the Association des Écrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires, where she met André Breton and René Crevel.

Following this, Cahun began associating with the surrealist group and later participated in a number of surrealist exhibitions, including the London International Surrealist Exhibition (New Burlington Gallery) and Exposition surréaliste d'Objets (Charles Ratton Gallery, Paris), both in Cahun's photograph from the London exhibition of Sheila Legge standing in the middle of Trafalgar Square, her head obscured by a flower arrangement and pigeons perching on her outstretched arms, appeared in numerous newspapers and was later reproduced in a number of books.[21][22] In , Cahun published a short polemic essay, Les Paris sont Ouverts, and in took part in the founding of the left-wing anti-fascist alliance Contre Attaque, alongside André Breton and Georges Bataille.[23] Breton called Cahun "one of the most curious spirits of our time."[24]

In , the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London held an exhibition of Cahun's photographic self-portraits from to , alongside the work of two young contemporary British artists, Virginia Nimarkoh and Tacita Dean, entitled Mise en Scene.

In the surrealist self-portraits, Cahun represented herself as an androgyne, nymph, model, and soldier.[25]

In , David Bowie created a multi-media exhibition of Cahun's work in the gardens of the General Theological Seminary in New York. It was part of a venue called the Highline Festival, which also included offerings by Air, Laurie Anderson, and Mike Garson.

Bowie said of Cahun:

You could call her transgressive or you could call her a cross-dressing Man Ray with surrealist tendencies. I find this work really quite mad, in the nicest way. Outside of France and now the UK she has not had the kind of recognition that, as a founding follower, friend and worker of the original Surrealist movement, she surely deserves.[26]

Collaboration with Marcel Moore

Cahun's work was often a collaboration with Marcel Moore (the pseudonym of Suzanne Malherbe).[27] It is believed that they were lovers with Moore being an integral part of Cahun's creative and playful process,[27] though this often goes unrecognized.

It is believed that Moore was often the person standing behind the camera during Cahun's portrait shoots and was an equal partner in Cahun's collages.[17]

With the majority of the photographs attributed to Cahun coming from a personal collection, not one meant for public display, it has been proposed that these personal photographs allowed for Cahun to experiment with gender presentation and the role of the viewer to a greater degree.[17]

World War II activism

In Cahun and Moore settled in Jersey.

Following the fall of France and the German occupation of Jersey and the other Channel Islands, they became active as resistance workers and propagandists. Fervently against war, the two worked extensively in producing anti-German fliers.

See full list on theartstory.org Copy to Clipboard. Late Period. Other Art Forms Toggle child menu Expand. Both the book format and the photomontage technique have the ability to successfully bring together what are otherwise quite disparate elements of scattered mind and a fragmented career.

Many were snippets from English-to-German translations of BBC reports on the Nazis' crimes and insolence, which were pasted together to create rhythmic poems and harsh criticism. They created many of these messages under the German pseudonym Der Soldat Ohne Namen, or The Soldier With No Name, to deceive German soldiers that there was a conspiracy among the occupation troops.[28] The couple then dressed up and attended many German military events in Jersey, strategically placing their pamphlets in soldier's pockets, on their chairs, and in cigarette boxes for soldiers to find.

Additionally, they inconspicuously crumpled up and threw their fliers into cars and windows.

On one occasion, they hung a banner in a local church which read "Jesus is great, but Hitler is greater – because Jesus died for people, but people die for Hitler." As with much of Cahun and Moore's artistic work in Paris, many of their notes also used this same style of dark humor.

In many ways, Cahun and Moore's resistance efforts were not only political but artistic actions, using their creative talents to manipulate and undermine the authority which they despised. In many ways, Cahun's life's work was focused on undermining a certain authority; however, their activism posed a threat to their physical safety.

As historian Jeffrey H. Jackson writes in his definitive study of their wartime resistance Paper Bullets, for Cahun and Moore, "fighting the German occupation of Jersey was the culmination of lifelong patterns of resistance, which had always borne a political edge in the cause of freedom as they carved out their own rebellious way of living in the world together.

For them, the political was always deeply personal."[29]

In , Cahun and Moore were arrested and sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out, as the island was liberated from German occupation in [23] However, Cahun's health never recovered from her treatment in jail, and she died in Cahun is buried in St Brelade's Church with partner Moore.

At the trial, Cahun said to the German judge (according to the documentary on the Occupation of the Channel Islands, presented by John Nettles) that the Germans would have to shoot her twice, as she was not only a Resister but a Jew. This apparently brought a peal of laughter from the court and is said to have been one reason the execution was not carried out.[30]

Social critique and legacy

Cahun made work for herself and did not want to be famous.[31] Cahun's work was largely unrecognized until 40 years after her death.

In many ways, Cahun's life was marked by actions which revolted against convention, and her public image has since become a commentary which challenges the public's notions of gender, beauty, and logic.[citation needed]

Her work was meant to unsettle the audience's understanding of photography as a documentation of reality.

Furthermore, her poetry challenged gender roles of the time and attacked the increasingly modern world's social and economic boundaries. Also, Cahun's participation with the Parisian Surrealist group brought an element of diversity to the group's output which ushered in new representations. Most Surrealist artists were men, whose primary images of women depicted them as isolated symbols of eroticism rather than as the chameleonic, gender non-conforming figure that Cahun presented.

Cahun’s photographs, writings, and general life as an artistic and political revolutionary continues to influence artists.[32][33]

Twenty-first century writing on Cahun and Moore’s work has described the pair as "prototransgender artists".[34] Christy Wampole connects Cahun’s adopted name and appearance to twenty-first century genderqueer identities, arguing that Cahun's photographs display “transgender signals” and are a prototype of modern trans self-representation.[35]

Cahun's collected writings were published in as Claude Cahun – Écrits (ISBN&#;), edited by François Leperlier.

In , a street of Paris took the name of "Allée Claude Cahun – Marcel Moore"[36] (area of Saint-Germain-des-Prés – Montparnasse, near the rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs where Claude and Suzanne lived).

Rupert Thomson's novel, Never Anyone But You, was based on the lives of Cahun and Moore in Paris and Jersey.

It was favourably reviewed by Adam Mars-Jones in the London Review of Books.[37]

Cahun and Moore's WWII activism and heroism are documented by Jeffrey H. Jackson in the book, Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis.[38]

Google honored Claude Cahun by showing an animated Doodle on its home page in many countries on 25 October , on the anniversary of what would have been her th birthday.[39][40]

Exist Otherwise is a literary journal edited by Eric Jennings that takes Claude Cahun as its literary inspiration.[41]

Kaz Rowe, an illustrator, published a biography in graphic novel form on Cahun's life in Liberated: The Radical Art and Life of Claude Cahun explores Cahun's and Moore's involvement in "a radical journey of Surrealist collaboration that would take them from conservative provincial France to the vibrancy of s Paris to the oppression of Nazi-occupied Jersey during World War II, where they used art to undermine the Nazi regime."[42][43]

An opera about the lives of Cahun and Moore has been commissioned by West Edge Opera with a planned premiere.[44]

Bibliography

  • Vues et Visions (Pseudonym Claude Courlis), Mercure de France, No.

    , 16 May

  • La 'Salomé' d'Oscar Wilde. Le procés Billing et les pervertis du Livre noir, Mercure de France, No. , 1 July
  • Le poteau frontière (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No. 3, December
  • Au plus beau des anges (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No. 3, December
  • Cigarettes (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No.

    3, December

  • Aux Amis des livres, La Gerbe, No. 5, February
  • La Sorbonne en robe de fête (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No. 5, February
  • La possession du Monde, par Georges Duhamel, La Gerbe, No. 7, April
  • Les Gerbes (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No. 7, April
  • L'amour aveugle (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No.

    12, September

  • La machine magique (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No. 12, September
  • Mathilde Alanic. Les roses refleurissent, Le Phare de la Loire, 29 June
  • Le théâtre de mademoiselle, par Mathias Morhardt, Le Phare de la Loire, 20 July
  • Vues et Visions, with Illustrations by Marcel Moore, Paris: Georges Crès & Cie,
  • Paraboles (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No.

    17, February

  • Une conférence de Georges Duhamel (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No. 19, April
  • Marcel Schwob, La Gerbe, No. 20, May
  • Boxe (Pseudonym Daniel Douglas), La Gerbe, No. 22, July
  • Old Scotch Whisky, La Gerbe, No. 27, December
  • A propos d'une conference and Méditations à la faveur d'un Jazz Band, La Gerbe, No.

    27, December

  • Héroïnes: 'Eve la trop crédule', 'Dalila, femme entre les femmes', 'La Sadique Judith', 'Hélène la rebelle', 'Sapho l'incomprise', 'Marguerite, sœur incestueuse', 'Salomé la sceptique', Mercure de France, No. , 1 February
  • Héroïnes: 'Sophie la symboliste', 'la Belle', Le Journal littéraire, No.

    45, 28 February

  • Méditation de Mademoiselle Lucie Schwob, Philosophies, No. 5/6, March
  • Récits de rêve, in the special edition Les rêves, Le Disque vert, Third year, Book 4, No. 2,
  • Carnaval en chambre, La Ligne de cœur, Book 4, March
  • Ephémérides, Mercure de France, No.

    , 1 January

  • Au Diable, Le Plateau, No. 2, May–June
  • Ellis, Havelock: La Femme dans la société – I. L'Hygiene sociale, translated by Lucy Schwob, Mercure de France,
  • Aveux non avenus, illustrated by Marcel Moore, Paris: Editions du Carrefour, 30 May
    • Review on Bibliothèque Nationale Gallica
  • Frontière Humaine, self-portrait, Bifur, No.

    5, April

  • Protestez (AEAR), Feuille rouge, No. 2, March
  • Contre le fascisme Mays aussi contre l'impérialisme francais (AEAR), Feuille rouge, No. 4, May
  • Les Paris sont ouvert, Paris: José Corti, May
  • Union de lutte des intellectuels révolutionnaires, Contre-Attaque, 7 October
  • Prenez garde aux objets domestique, Cahier d'Art I-II,
  • Sous le feu des canons francais et alliés, Contre-Attaque, March
  • Dissolution de Contre-Attaque, L'Œuvre, 24 March
  • Exposition surréaliste d'objets, Exhibition at the Charles Ratton Gallery, Paris, 22–29 May Items listed by Claude Cahun are Un air de famille and Souris valseuses
  • Il n'y a pas de liberté pour les ennemis de la liberté, 20 July
  • Deharme, Lise: Le Cœur de Pic, 32 illustrated with 20 photos by Claude Cahun, Paris: José Cortis,
  • Adhésion à la Fédération Internationale de l'Art Révolutionnaire Indépendant, Clé, No.

    1, January

  • À bas les lettres de cachets! À bas la terreur grise! (FIARI), June

References

  1. ^Latimer, Tirza True. "Acting Out: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore". . Queer Cultural Center. Archived from the original on 2 April Retrieved 7 March
  2. ^"MoMA | Claude Cahun.

    Untitled c. ". . Retrieved 8 January

  3. ^"Claude Cahun – Chronology".

    How did claude cahun die: Similar Posts. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me. The hand-held mirror reappears, and the rouge and the eye shadow. Self-Portrait with Masked Face and Graveyard c.

    Retrieved 18 October

  4. ^Sarah Howgate, Dawn Ades, National Portrait Gallery (Great Britain), Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun Behind the Mask, Another Mask (Princeton University Press, ), p.
  5. ^"Claude Cahun - Kunsthal". . Retrieved 19 December
  6. ^Cahun, Claude (). Disavowals: or cancelled confessions.

    The MIT Press. p.&#; ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;

  7. ^Katherine, Smith. "Calude Cahun as anti-Nazi resistance fighter". Grey art gallery nyu. Katherine Smith.
  8. ^Great women artists.

    The things you need to know about the remarkable artist ... Cahun published the novel Heroines in , and an important collection of writings and photo- collages Aveux Non Avenus - in a limited edition of copies. However, they were also lesbian lovers in privacy. Cahun and Moore decided not to flee, but instead to stay and take part in the resistance, producing anti-Nazi propaganda. For Cahun and Moore though, their adoption of new names was not about changing gender, but about escaping such oppositional constructed ties altogether.

    Phaidon Press. p.&#; ISBN&#;.

  9. ^Knafo, Danielle (15 January ). "Claude Cahun: The Third Sex". Studies in Gender and Sexuality. 2 (1): 29– doi/ S2CID&#;
  10. ^Colvile, Georgiana M.M. (). "Self-Representation as Symposium: The Case of Claude Cahun". Interfaces: Women, Autobiography, Image, Performance: Retrieved 5 March
  11. ^Shaw, Jennifer Laurie ().

    Reading Claude Cahun's Disavowals.

  13. Claude Cahun: The Androgynous Surrealist Artist - TheCollector

  14. Ashgate studies in surrealism. Farnham, Surrey Burlington, VT: Ashgate. ISBN&#;.

  15. ^ abDoy, Gen (). Claude Cahun: A Sensual Politics of Photography. London/New York: I.B. Tauris. pp.&#;xv–xvi. ISBN&#;.
  16. ^Williamson, Marcus ().

    Claude Cahun at School in England. Marcus Williamson. ISBN&#;.

  17. ^ abKline, Katy (). "In or Out of the Picture: Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman". In Chadwick (ed.). Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self-Representation. MIT Press. pp.&#;66–
  18. ^Latimer, Tirza True ().

    Women Together/Women Apart: Portraits of Lesbian Paris. Rutgers University Press. p.&#;

  19. ^Schirmer, Lothar ().

    Cahun biography Ever wanted to write a crime novel? This is remarkable because her non-binary perspective gives an original take on surrealism. Find out more about the arts by becoming a Supporter of The Arts Society. Indeed, the image is made using a popular Surrealist technique known as photomontage.

    Women Seeing Women, A Pictorial History of Women's Photography. NY: Norton. p.&#;

  20. ^ abcCole, Julie, "Claude Cahun, Marcel Moore and the Collaborative Construction of a Lesbian Subjectivity", in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard (eds.), Reclaiming Female Agency: Feminist Art History after Postmodernism (California: University of California Press, ), –
  21. ^Hutchison, Sharla ().

    "Convulsive Beauty: Images of Hysteria and Transgressive Sexuality Claude Cahun and Djuna Barnes". Symplokē. 11 (1/2): – doi/sym JSTOR&#; S2CID&#;

  22. ^Welby-Everard, Miranda (). "Imaging the Actor: The Theatre of Claude Cahun". Oxford Art Journal. 29 (1): 3– doi/oxartj/kci ISSN&#; JSTOR&#;
  23. ^Penelope Rosemont, Surrealist Women , University of Texas Press
  24. ^Rosemont, Penelope (1 December ).

    Surrealist Women. A&C Black. pp.&#;88– ISBN&#;.

  25. ^O'Neill, Alistair (). London: After a Fashion. London, England: Cambridge University Press. p.&#; ISBN&#;. Retrieved 19 February
  26. ^ abAndersen, Corinne (). "Que me veux-tu?/ What do you want of me?: Claude Cahun's Autoportraits and the Process of Gender Identification".

    Women in French Studies. 13 (1): 37– doi/wfs S2CID&#;

  27. ^Bower, Gavin James (14 February ). "Claude Cahun: Finding a lost great". The Guardian. ISSN&#; Retrieved 8 January
  28. ^Katy Deepwell ' Uncanny Resemblances: Restaging Claude Cahun in 'Mise en Scene issue 1 Dec xa: international feminist art journal online pp.

    46–51

  29. ^"The Art Story – Claude Cahun: French Photographer, Writer and Political Activist". Retrieved 27 March
  30. ^ abSteer, Emily (14 February ). "9 Powerful Couples Who Moved Beyond the Binary of Artist and Muse". Artnet News. Retrieved 7 March
  31. ^Jeffrey, Jackson ().

    Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis. New York: Algonquin Books. pp.&#;– ISBN&#;.

  32. ^Jackson, Jeffrey (). Paper Bullets.

    See full list on theartstory.org It demonstrates the phase when Cahun was most engaged with the ideas behind Surrealism and was open to outside influences. Unfortunately, Cahun and Moore did not completely escape. Copy to Clipboard. Lucy Schwob later became Claude Cahun to be gender neutral as an artist and as a writer.

    New York: Algonquin Books. pp.&#;– ISBN&#;.

  33. ^Sugarman, Martin, Archivist Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women
  34. ^Colvile, Georgiana M.M. (). "Self-Representation as Symposium: The Case of Claude Cahun". Interfaces: Women, Autobiography, Image, Performance: –
  35. ^Dinsdale, Emily (10 November ).

    "Gillian Wearing on masks, inhabiting disguises, and identity as performance". Dazed. Retrieved 20 December

  36. ^Rosen, Miss (3 August ). "Nan Goldin shares the photography that inspires her". Huck. Retrieved 20 December
  37. ^Reznick, Jordan (6 October ). "Through the Guillotine Mirror: Claude Cahun's Theory of Trans against the Void".

    Art Journal. Retrieved 9 May

  38. ^Wampole, Christy (Spring ). "The Impudence of Claude Cahun". L'Esprit Créateur. 53 (1). The Johns Hopkins University Press: –4. doi/esp JSTOR&#; S2CID&#; Retrieved 9 May
  39. ^"Conseil de Paris". Archived from the original on 17 November Retrieved 25 October
  40. ^Mars-Jones, Adam (2 August ).

    "I'm a Cahunian". London Review of Books. 40 (15) &#; via

  41. ^"Speaker Series: Jeffrey Jackson In Conversation with Emily Yellin". Charleston Library Society. Archived from the original on 4 December Retrieved 13 December
  42. ^"Claude Cahun's th Birthday". Retrieved 25 October &#; via
  43. ^"Claude Cahun Google Doodle &#; Short Biography of French photographer Claude Cahun".

    24 October Archived from the original on 12 December Retrieved 25 October &#; via

  44. ^"About Exist Otherwise Literary Journal".

  45. Kaz rowe illness
  46. Entre nous between us
  47. Claude cahun self-portrait, 1928
  48. Claude cahun, self-portrait 1927
  49. Cajun

    50. 9 July Retrieved 18 August &#; via

  50. ^Rowe, Kaz (). Liberated: The Radical Art and Life of Claude Cahun. Getty Publications. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
  51. ^Rowe, Kaz. "Liberated: The Radical Art and Life of Claude Cahun". . Getty Publications. Retrieved 4 February
  52. ^Salazar, David (13 July ).

    "Composer Alyssa Weinberg Joins West Edge Opera's 'Claude & Marcel'". OperaWire. Retrieved 13 November

Sources

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  • Claude Cahun tribute and biography page
  • The Daily Beast, , "Claude Cahun: The Lesbian Surrealist Who Defied the Nazis"
  • Feminist Art Archive, University of Washington, , "Claude Cahun"
  • Bower, Gavin James.

    "Claude Cahun: Finding a Lost Great." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 14 Feb. Web. 11 Dec.

  • Elkin, Lauren. "Reading Claude Cahun." Quarterly Conversation RSS. Quarterly Conversation RSS, n.d. Web. 11 Dec.
  • Gen, Doy. "Meta: Claude Cahun-A Sensual Politics of Photography." . Mega, n.d.

    Web. 11 Dec.

  • The Guerilla Girls. "The 20th Century: Women of Isms." The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Group, 62– Print
  • Shaw, Jennifer. Exist Otherwise: The Life and Works of Claude Cahun. United Kingdom: Reaktion Books, May Print.
  • Zachmann, Gayle.

    The Photographic Intertext: Invisible Adventures in the Work of Claude Cahun. 3rd ed. Vol. N.p.: Taylor and Francis Group, CrossRef. Web. 11 Dec.

  • Jackson, Jeffrey H., Paper Bullets:&#;Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis.&#; New York:&#; Algonquin Books, ISBN&#; .

External links