Feminism - Claude Cahun, 1894-1954

I really enjoyed reading The Guerrilla Girls’ “Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art”. Instead of asking “Why haven’t there been more great women artists throughout Western history?”, the authors have asked “Why haven’t more women been considered great artists throughout Western History?”

This is not the first book to ask the question but for me, the most refreshing. It presents previously forgotten or ignored female artists from the past and redresses their importance to art in a humorous and digestible way.

Some artists were new to me, others I had heard of but didn’t really know too much about, for instance Claude Cahun, in the book sub phrased ‘Boy and Girl Together’.

Decades before Cindy Sherman, she was one of the first 20th century females to use costumes and props and then photograph herself in the name of art.

In her writing, sculptures, collages and photographs, Cahun explored gender identity. As "Claude" is gender-ambiguous in French, her choice of this pseudonym is itself a form of cross-dressing.

She was born France in 1894 as Lucy Schwab, but by 1917 had taken on the pseudonym of Claude Cahun. Her step-sister and lifelong partner Marcel Moore, (born Suzanne Malherbe), collaborated with Claude on much of her work. She was associated with the Surrealists in the 1930’s, but was mostly forgotten or ignored up until the mid-1980s.

In 1912 she began a lifelong obsession with self-portraiture, presenting herself alternately as a male dandy, or demure maiden. Sometimes enigmatic, androgynous portraits with close-cropped or shaved hair, or as a historical or fictional character, from Buddha, to masked avenger, vampire, rag doll, or even her own father.

She once said: “Beneath this mask, another mask. I will never be finished lifting off all these faces”.

Claude and Marcel moved to Jersey in 1937, and when it was invaded by the Nazis started covert resistance work. They were captured in 1944, tried and sentenced to death, but were liberated 10 months later. Much of their work was confiscated or destroyed.

Inverted Odysseys: Claude Cahun, Maya Deren, and Cindy Sherman exhibition and book, New York University, 1999:
http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/exhibits/odysseys/index.html

Further information and images:
http://www.vinland.org/scamp/Cahun/
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5204353
http://www.squidoo.com/cahun
http://www.meta-magazine.com/index.php?id=13
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/photography--behind-the-mask-who-was-claude-cahun-man-woman-or-member-of-the-third-sex-adrian-searle-reviews-the-genderbending-surrealist-photographer-1444902.html
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Tirza/TirzaEssay1.html