Claude Cahun: Beneath this Mask at Abbot Hall Art Gallery

Lakeland Arts’ Abbot Hall celebrates the work of Claude Cahun with the show Beneath this Mask – an artist best known for her self portraits, brave in their originality and gender-defying style.

Beneath this Mask features 42 photographs in the form of contemporary giclée prints made from scans of Cahun’s original photographic self-portraits. This Hayward Gallery touring exhibition is produced in collaboration with Jersey Heritage and was first presented at the Women of the World Festival 2015 at the Southbank Centre. 

You may wonder what the artist’s connection is to the island of Jersey. The French Surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer’s life story is a complex one, touched by the horror of war. Despite the difficulties, Cahun continued to create art and stay involved in activist initiatives and resistance work during World War II. Having settled in Jersey in 1937, she lived there with her lifelong partner and artistic collaborator Marcel Moore (pseudonym of Suzanne Malherbe). Due to their fervent fight against war and the Nazis the pair were arrested in 1944 and sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out. Cahun died on the island in 1954 and has since become an important part of its history.

Despite a broad creative output, Cahun is best known for her photographs in part because of their ground-breaking approach to gender fluidity and self-representation. The artist may have joined a long tradition of self portraiture, but with each image she created herself anew with props, makeup or a shaved head, as well as photographic tools like collage, multiple exposure and the use of mirrors. In a way, the resulting performative images can be seen as anti-portraiture, actively avoiding capturing a true likeness.

As Claude Cahun’s work has only received the recognition it deserves in the last few decades, any opportunity to experience her work at first hand is a valuable one. Visit Abbot House to see the work of this true visionary.