Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943):
A Life Before Auschwitz
Lecture by Monica Bohm-Duchen, London (UK)
June 1, 2022 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
| FreeCharlotte Salomon (1917–1943), was a hugely talented Berlin-born artist who was murdered at Auschwitz, four months pregnant, at the age of twenty-six. Her main body of work, a sequence of nearly 800 gouache images entitled Leben? oder Theater? (Life? or Theatre?), and created while seeking refuge in the South of France, is an ambitious fictive autobiography which deploys both images and text, and a wide range of musical, literary and cinematic references. The narrative, informed by Salomon’s experiences as a cultured, and assimilated German Jewish woman, depicts a life lived in the shadow of Nazi persecution and a family history of suicide, but also reveals moments of intense happiness and hope. Challenging the artistic conventions of Salomon’s time, it remains almost impossible to categorize.
This lecture by London-based art historian Monica Bohm-Duchen explores the multiple aspects of this sophisticated, complex and haunting work and reflects on its relevance for our own time.
Charlotte Salomon, Leben? oder Theater? [Life? or Theater?], 1940-1942. Gouache on paper, 10 x 13 inches. Collection Jewish Museum, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation
Charlotte Salomon, Leben? oder Theater? [Life? or Theater?], 1940-1942. Gouache on paper, 10 x 13 inches. Collection Jewish Museum, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation
Charlotte Salomon, Leben? oder Theater? [Life? or Theater?], 1940-1942. Gouache on paper, 10 x 13 inches. Collection Jewish Museum, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation
Charlotte Salomon, Leben? oder Theater? [Life? or Theater?], 1940-1942. Gouache on paper, 10 x 13 inches. Collection Jewish Museum, Amsterdam. © Charlotte Salomon Foundation
Monica Bohm-Duchen is a London-based writer, lecturer and exhibition organizer. She was co-curator of Life? or Theatre? The Work of Charlotte Salomon, shown at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1998, and co-edited an anthology of critical essays entitled Charlotte Salomon: Gender, Trauma, Creativity, published by Cornell University Press in 2006. Her book, Art and the Second World War was published by Lund Humphries in association with Princeton University Press, in 2013/14. She teaches a course on Art and War: 1914 to the Present at Birkbeck, University of London and at New York University London, and contributed an essay on “The Two World Wars” to War and Art: A Visual History of Modern Conflict (Reaktion Books, 2017). She is the founding Director of Insiders/Outsiders [Insiders Outsiders Festival], an ongoing celebration of the contribution of refugees from Nazi Europe to British culture and beyond.
Charlotte Salomon’s work can be viewed HERE,
and a digital “Life? or Theater?” can be explored HERE.
This event is part of our monthly series
Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.
Future events and the recordings of past events can be found HERE.
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