Claude Cahun

Claude Cahun
Born
Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob

(1894-10-25)25 October 1894
Nantes, France
Died8 December 1954(1954-12-08) (aged 60)
Saint Helier, Jersey
Resting placeSt Brelade's Church
49°11′03″N 2°12′10″W / 49.1841°N 2.2029°W / 49.1841; -2.2029
Known forPhotography, writing, sculpture, collage
MovementSurrealism
PartnerMarcel Moore (1909–1954)[1]

Claude Cahun (French pronunciation: [klod ka.œ̃], born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob;[2] 25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954) was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer.[3]

Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914.[4] Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae.

In her writing, she consistently referred to herself as elle (she),[5] and this article follows her practice; but she also said that her actual gender was fluid. For example, in Disavowals, Cahun writes: "Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me."[6] Cahun is most well known for her androgynous appearance, which challenged the strict gender roles of her time.

During World War II, Cahun was also active as a resistance worker and propagandist, founding the leftist group Contre Attaque, a union of communist writers, artists and workers, alongside André Breton and Marcel Moore.[7]

  1. ^ Latimer, Tirza True. "Acting Out: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore". QueerCulturalCenter.org. Queer Cultural Center. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  2. ^ "MoMA | Claude Cahun. Untitled c. 1921". www.moma.org. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  3. ^ "Claude Cahun – Chronology". Retrieved 18 October 2007.
  4. ^ Sarah Howgate, Dawn Ades, National Portrait Gallery (Great Britain), Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun Behind the Mask, Another Mask (Princeton University Press, 2017), p. 189.
  5. ^ "Claude Cahun - Kunsthal". www.kunsthal.nl. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  6. ^ Cahun, Claude (2008). Disavowals: or cancelled confessions. The MIT Press. p. 151. ISBN 9780262533034. OCLC 922878515.
  7. ^ Katherine, Smith. "Calude Cahun as anti-Nazi resistance fighter". Grey art gallery nyu. Katherine Smith.