Claude Cahun
| French writer and surrealist photographer. Date of Birth: Country: France |
Content:
- Early Life and Personal Struggles
- Adoption of Psuedonym
- Literary and Artistic Beginnings
- Photography and Surrealism
- Resistance and Near-Death Experience
- Exploration of Identity
- Recognition and Retrospective Exhibitions
Early Life and Personal Struggles
Born into an affluent Jewish family in , Claudie Cahun, née Lucie Schwob, was related to the Symbolist writer Marcel Schwob. Her childhood was marked by a severe emotional crisis and subsequent mental health treatments.
Adoption of Psuedonym
In , Cahun adopted the pseudonym "Claudie Cahun," under which she would gain recognition. She associated with sculptor Hanna Orlova, who created her portrait.
Literary and Artistic Beginnings
Cahun resided in Paris in the s, where she published stories and articles in the "Mercure de France." She formed friendships with notable figures such as Henri Michaux, Robert Desnos, and Sylvia Beach.
Photography and Surrealism
In , Cahun began releasing photographs. She experimented with theatrical masks and role-playing, capturing images that explored identity and androgy
Claude Cahun: The Androgynous Surrealist Artist
Claude Cahun is not the most well-known name among surrealist artists. This is remarkable because her non-binary perspective gives an original take on surrealism. Cahun was ahead of her time, and this unique identity directly influenced her artwork. She used elements of mirrors, collages, and doubling in her work to reflect diverging from social norms. At the time, she did not receive recognition. Her work only came to light again in the s.
Below, we’ll take a look at her life: from early identity to later activism.
Claude Cahun’s Early Life
Claude Cahun was born as Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob on October 25, She was from Nantes, France, and was born to a provincial but intellectual Jewish family.
Marcel Schwob, the French symbolist-writer, was Cahun’s uncle. Another notable writer and Orientalist, David Léon Cahun, was her great uncle.
From an early age, Cahun grappled with her gender identity. By the early s, she adopted the name Claude because it could be a man’s or a woman’s.
Her last, name Cahun, was taken from her grandmother, Mathilda. Cahun’s mother, Mary-Antoinette Courbebaisse, suffered from severe mental
The things you need to know about the remarkable artist Claude Cahun
Claude Cahun was fearless in her life and art. As a show of her art has opened in Cumbria, we ask curator Helen Stalker for the key facts about this boundary breaker
Claude Cahun, Self Portrait, Image: Courtesy and copyright Jersey Heritage
Who was Claude Cahun?
Cahun (–) was a French artist and writer, now famed for her powerful photographic works. She was born Lucy Schwob into a creative Jewish family; later, in , she assumed the pseudonym Claude Cahun – a gender-neutral first name, with her grandmother’s surname. With this new identity, she distanced herself from the confines of both gender and association with her high-profile family name. In , with the Nazi occupation of France on the horizon, Cahun fled to Jersey with her stepsister, lover and collaborator, Marcel Moore. They built a life together, continuing to create works experimenting with the representation of gender, landscape and identity.
What did her art practice cover?
Cahun worked across writing, sculpture, photomontage, photography and performance. By exploring a variety of media she merged dreamworlds with everyday real
Summary of Claude Cahun
Claude Cahun's photographic self-portraits present a dizzying kaleidoscopic mix of mystery, exuberance, and sobriety. Born in France, Cahun lived mostly on the island of Jersey with long-term love, Marcel Moore. Also known as Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, they both adopted their preferred gender-neutral pseudonyms during early adulthood. Moore, although often invisible, was always present - typically taking the photographs and also authoring collages - and in this sense was as much artist collaborator as Cahun's personal support. Described in Cahun's own words as a "hunt", through a combination of text and imagery, Cahun's exploration of self is relentless and at times unsettling. From circus performer, clothed in layers of artifice, to a stripped-down Buddhist monk grounded by integrity, Cahun is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with multiplicity. Tragically in line with the fragmentary nature of Cahun's outlook, much of the artist's work was destroyed following an arrest and subsequent imprisonment for resistance against the Nazis. What remains bares interesting parallel to the title of Cahun's diaristic publication Aveux Non Avenus, translated as
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