Exist Otherwise. The Life And Works Of Claude Cahun

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: Fine
Publisher: REAKTION BOOKS
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2017
Edition: First Edition

Description: 326 pages. Ex-Library. (only one small stamp on inside page). Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in Fine condition throughout.

Publishers Description: In the turmoil of the 1920s and 30s, Claude Cahun challenged gender stereotypes with her powerful photographs, montages, and writings, works that appear to our twenty-first-century eyes as utterly contemporary, or even from the future. She wrote poetry and prose for major French literary magazines, worked in avant-garde theater, and was both comrade of and critical outsider to the Surrealists. Exist Otherwise is the first work in English to the tell the full story of Claude Cahuns art and life, one that celebrates and makes accessible Cahuns remarkable vision. Jennifer L. Shaw embeds Cahun within the exciting social and artistic milieu of Paris between the wars. She examines her relationship with Marcel Moore--Cahuns stepsister, lover, and life partner--who was a central collaborator helping make some of the most compelling photographs and photomontages of Cahuns oeuvre, dreamscapes of disassembled portraiture and scenes that simultaneously fascinate and terrify. Shaw follows Cahun into the horrors of World War II and the Nazi occupation of the island of Jersey off the coast of Normandy, and she explores the powerful and dangerous ways Cahun resisted it. Reading through her letters and diaries, Shaw brings Cahuns ideas and feelings to the foreground, offering an intimate look at how she thought about photography, surrealism, the histories of women artists, and queer culture. Offering some of Cahuns writings never before translated into English alongside a wide array of her artworks and those of her contemporaries, this book is a must-have for any fan of this iconic artist or anyone interested in this crucial period in artistic and cultural history.

ISBN: 9781780237282