Major Project TERM II - Claude Cahun Research
Below you can read another part of my research for my major photography project. This part is dedicated to photographer and writer Claude Cahun.
I. Introduction
Claude Cahun, born in france in 1894, was a queer artist who specialised in photography and writing. While her most known artworks are her autoportraits, she always considered herself a writer. Lucy Renée Mathilde Schwob, as she was originally named, was a daughter of Maurice Schwob, a publisher of regional newspaper and Mary-Antoinette Courbebaisse, who was mentally ill and was not a major part in Lucy's life, since she was permanently institutionalized when Claude Cahun was only four years old.
A bigger part in Claude Cahun's childhood had her grandmother - Mathilde Cahun, who was taking take care of her until she died in 1907. After that time her father sent her to England for her to continue her education and change the surrounding. Two years later she come back to Nantes, her home city, where she met the love of her life and a future stepsister, Suzanne Malherbe.
In later years both Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, changed her names into non-gender specific names. Malherbe changed her name to Marcel Moore, and Schwob, at first changed her name to Claude Corlis, however, finally changed it once again to Claude Cahun, which first name was a french name which could be used for both boy and girl, and last name she took after her late grandmother, Mathilde Cahun. Both of them did not want to have their names associated to any gender, in order to reflect how they were feeling about themselves.
'Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.' (Cahun, 1930)
II. Artistic Life of Claude Cahun
Cahun started creating his self-portraits very early in his career. Being barely nineteen, she created her first one, and from that time every next photograph she created was challenging gender norms and showing her view on herself. With almost every portrait helping her was her lover, Marcel Moore, who become her stepsister, four years after Cahun's first autoportrait. In 1917, Claude Cahun's father, Maurice Schwob, married Marie Eugénie Malherbe, Marcel Moore's mother. It did not change any dynamic between them, and since now they were living in one house, they were collaborating more closely than ever.
Their first collaborated effort was published in 1919, it was a book called 'Vues et visions', which can be translated into Views and Visions, where Claude was responsible for the written content and Marcel created the visual aspects of this book.
Of course, as a photographer, I am more interested in her photographs, however, scholars commented on her work that it can be difficult to comprehend because of its complexity, nonetheless it gives an additional context to the photographs (Treaster, 2019).
Photographs, which at first glance can be viewed as self-portraits, but after a closer look and with knowledge of the relationship between Claude and Marcel in artistic regard we can understand that most of these self photographs are actually made in collaboration between these artists. These choreographed photos were made by Claude Cahun modeling and her lover actually taking a picture.
This collaboration never stopped and in the following years couple moved to paris, where a new world of possible partnerships between different artists was endless. Over the years Claude Cahun collaborated with great artists, like Man Ray, as well as created an artistic group with two other writers - André Breton, and Georges Bataille. During her life in Paris she also met André Breton, who described her as 'one of the most curious spirits of our time'.
Over the course of Claude Cahun's life, she joined resistance to fight Nazis, during Second World War, and because of that in 1944 she was imprisoned and sentenced to death (Blumberg, n.d.). A year later she was freed, however many of her works were confiscated during this time.
Cahun died in 1954, at age sixty, and handed over all of her works to Marcel Moore, where they were safe, until 1972 when she also died, leaving all of their works for auction.
During entire Claude Cahun's life, none of her photographs were exhibited. Only after they were auctioned, were rediscovered in the early 1990s, and become a cultural phenomenon and started to get a lot of attention in LGBTQ+ community.
III. Being yourself
Claude Cahun almost her entire life was trying to break the idea of gender, by photographing herself as different characters. Her self-portraits are now associated with queer communities, however at the time they were made no one was able to see them. Cahun did not show her portraits to the public when she was alive, and it did not change after she died. Only after her works were sold, after Marcel's death to a collector John Wakeham, who over twenty years later sold it to Jersey Heritage Trust, who finally put photographs for display.
Her work was definitely ahead of her time. While now using different pronouns and identifying as being non-binary in noting out of the ordinary, back then it was pretty much unheard-of. 'Cahun created stark, sometimes playful, but deliberately equivocal photos of herself. Here she’s a man. There she’s a woman. Sometimes she’s a little of both' (Treaster, 2019). Her work challenged sexual stereotypes and gender identity, and her appreciation, even if late, is definitely deserved.
IV. A closer look into 'I am in training, don't kiss me'
I chose this particular photograph, because I feel like it is very expressionistic in a sense that in this image there is a lot of scattered emotions all over this artwork. This photographs is presenting Claude Cahun herself lifting weights. She is wearing a white t-shirt with a note on it 'I am in training, don't kiss me'. Besides that she is wearing makeup in shape of heart. This image is clearly staged which is an exception in Cahun's work. Besides that, there is something intimate about the fact that Claude Cahun is looking precisely into the camera lens. It adds another layer into all of her portraits.
This photograph is designed in a way that every element of it is relates to gender stereotypes and identity. This depiction of a strongman was made to confront toxic masculinity. Fake nipples, and stereotypical mustache, in this image transformed into a hairstyle, are clearly making fun of men fragile egos.
As I said there is a lot of emotion hidden in this photograph. Anger at gender norms, sadness of not being able to be yourself, and 'her gaze is coy and inviting, almost seductive, but at the same time contemptuous and mocking' (Heritage Magazine, 2005). It shows that she deserves all the praise.
This series of photographs also inspired may future artists, like Cindy Sherman or Gillian Wearing.
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Sources:
Blumberg, N., n.d. De Montfort University Library Services: Single Sign On to Library Resources. [online] Academic-eb-com.proxy.library.dmu.ac.uk. Available at: <https://academic-eb-com.proxy.library.dmu.ac.uk/levels/collegiate/article/Claude-Cahun/609952> [Accessed 14 February 2021].
The Art Story. n.d. Claude Cahun Artworks & Famous Photography. [online] Available at: <https://www.theartstory.org/artist/cahun-claude/artworks/#pnt_3> [Accessed 14 February 2021].
Treaster, J., 2019. Overlooked No More: Claude Cahun, Whose Photographs Explored Gender and Sexuality. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/obituaries/claude-cahun-overlooked.html> [Accessed 14 February 2021].
Artnet.com. n.d. Claude Cahun | Artnet. [online] Available at: <http://www.artnet.com/artists/claude-cahun/> [Accessed 14 February 2021].
chicagotribune.com. 2012. Provocative new exhibit full of self-portraits from Claude Cahun. [online] Available at: <https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-xpm-2012-04-11-ct-ent-0412-claude-cahun-review-20120411-story.html> [Accessed 14 February 2021].
Bedworth, C., 2020. Claude Cahun. A Surrealist Queer Prophet | DailyArt Magazine. [online] DailyArtMagazine.com - Art History Stories. Available at: <https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/claude-cahun/> [Accessed 14 February 2021].
Jerseyheritage.org. 2005. [online] Available at: <https://www.jerseyheritage.org/media/PDF-Heritage-Mag/Sans%20Nom%20Claude%20Cahun%20%20Marcel%20Moore.pdf> [Accessed 14 February 2021].
Excellent well considered research and commentary - very well done
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