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Claude Cahun: Beneath This Mask

Phoenix Gallery

Wed 29 Mar 4000 - Thu 01 Jan 1970

Category

Price

free

Time

Gallery open from 10am - 5.30pm daily (excluding Sundays)

Claude Cahun: Beneath This Mask

Claude-Cahun

Claude Cahun: Beneath This Mask

French photographer Claude Cahun (1894–1954) achieved posthumous fame for her elusive self-portraits in which she assumed multiple personae. Born Lucy Schwob, she adopted the pseudonym in 1917 to free herself from the narrow confines of gender. At the beginning of her career she was aligned to the Surrealist movement and was friends with André Breton; however she distanced herself both politically and physically after fleeing France on the eve of Nazi occupation. Cahun settled in Jersey where she embarked upon her defining photographic series, in which the subversion of traditional portraiture and the constructed nature of identity and gender are pressing concerns. In these now famous images, Cahun anticipated the performative work of contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman.

This Hayward Touring exhibition is presented in collaboration with Jersey Heritage and was first exhibited at the Women of the World Festival 2015, Southbank Centre. It consists of 42 contemporary giclee prints made from scans of the original, the majority of the negatives having been lost.

 

Print

 

GALLERY TALK

Sat 6 Feb | 2.30pm | Free

Join artist and educator Nicci Wonnacott for an informal tour of the exhibition discussing Claude Cahun’s subversion of traditional portraiture, exploration of identity and gender, and her ongoing influence on artists such as Cindy Sherman and David Bowie.

Venue: Phoenix Gallery

 

 

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