This self portrait by Claude Cahun (born Lucy Schwob, in France, in 1894)has always intrigued me. It reminds me of the work of both Cindy Sherman and Gillian Wearing. Maybe it's not quite as well known as other works by Cahun such as the iconic image of the artist in circus strongman costume and doll face make-up ("I AM IN TRAINING DO NOT KISS ME")but this is the image I think of most. There's something special about the chessboard coat and piercing stare. Cahun wrote in her autobiography that, “Under this mask, another mask I will never be finished removing all these faces.” Yet I detect a sense of panic in the eyes that, to me, asks "have I revealed too much?"
Go to most bookshops during PRIDE month and you'll find something in the 'Art & Culture' section about the belief that gender is fluid and not fixed by biology, and that "masculine" and "feminine" are not biologically fixed but culturally presupposed - but back in the days Cahun/Schwob was making art I imagine rejecting gender constructs made you stick out like a sore thumb and that kindred spirits would be very hard to find. But apparently the artists did find a friend in Oscar Wilde.
The self portrait I admire was made in 1928. It wasn't until the 1990's that Cahun's work began to be properly respected and bought by major galleries. In 2018 the artist has a street named after her in Paris. A year ago her heroism was celebrated in a book by Jeffrey H. Jackson called, Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis. I'm sure there will eventually be a bio-pic and postage stamp made in the artist's honor. And why not?
Text by Astrid Horkheimer
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