Claude Cahun 127th Birthday: Google Honors Claude Cahun with an Animated Doodle
Claude Cahun 127th Birthday: Google Honors Claude Cahun with an Animated Doodle
Claude Cahun (born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob,25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954) was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer.
Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. She is best known as a writer and self-portraitist, who assumed a variety of performative personae.
Cahun’s work is both political and personal. In Disavowals, she writes: “Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.”
FORScan Activation Code : Obtaining Paid Long Term FORScan Extended License
During World War II, Cahun was also active as a resistance worker and propagandist.
Cahun’s works encompassed writing, photography, and theatre. She is most remembered for her highly staged self-portraits and tableaux that incorporated the visual aesthetics of Surrealism. During the 1920s Cahun produced an astonishing number of self-portraits in various guises such as aviator, dandy, doll, body builder, vamp and vampire, angel, and Japanese puppet.
Film
- Playing a Part, by Lizzie Thynne, 2004
- Magic Mirror, by Sarah Pucill, 2013
- Confessions to the Mirror, by Sarah Pucill, 2016
Google Honors Claude Cahun with an Animated Doodle
When it comes to early 20th century self-portrait photography, none were more provocative than French author and surrealist photographer Claude Cahun, whose purposefully unnerving yet playful images defied gender and sexuality norms.
On this date in 1894, in Nantes, France, Claude Cahun was born into a Jewish family. Cahun grew up in a creative environment, as the grandson of renowned French artist David Leon Cahun and the son of a newspaper publisher. They first met Marcel Moore when they were fourteen years old, and he’s been their long-term creative partner ever since. Cahun shaved their head and went by the gender-neutral name Cahun after moving to Paris to study literature in 1919.
Cahun’s decision to publicly identify as non-binary, despite gender non-conformity being widely considered taboo in Paris in the 1920s, was controversial, but they explicitly rejected the public fuss. The 1927 series “I am in training, don’t kiss me” was an example of Cahun exploring gender-fluidity through literature and melancholy self-portraiture. Artist dressed as feminised weightlifter, blurring male and female stereotypes in this piece. Cahun’s artistic endeavours were complemented by their participation in the fight against fascist rule during their lifetime. In 1951, the French government presented them with the Medal of French Gratitude in recognition of their contributions.
www.paychekplus.com Activation Code Login : PaychekPLUS Activate Card
As of 2018, a street in Paris’s sixth arrondissement, where Cahun and Moore once resided, was dedicated to the duo and named in their honour. Cahun’s work has influenced gender bending celebrities, the modern LGBTQ+ community, and discussions on identity and expression to this day, in addition to drawing attention to their pioneering Surrealist movement work and breaking down gender barriers in the photographic arts.
