'Studies for a Keepsake' is the first exhibition of pioneering artists Claude Cahun (1894-1954) and Marcel Moore (1892-1972) in Aotearoa.
Visionary artists and activists associated with the French Surrealist movement, Cahun and Moore were lifelong partners and collaborators whose fearlessness in art was reflected wholeheartedly in life. As gender non-conforming artists who defied the social norms of the time, they used their art as a form of resistance. Spanning writing, photography, collage, performance and sculpture, their creative output is considered to have been decades ahead of its time.
Claude Cahun was born Lucy Renée Mathilde Schwob in 1894 in Nantes, France, to a Catholic mother and Jewish father. They were largely raised by their grandmother Mathilde Cahun whose name they later adopted into a more gender-neutral pseudonym. In their teens they met Suzanne Alberte Eugénie Malherbe, who, like Cahun, took on the alternate name of Marcel Moore. Moving to Paris together and then later settling on the island of Jersey, the two embarked on a life of emboldened creativity and courageous activism that continues to have resonance today.
'Studies for a Keepsake' showcases over seventy prints including Surrealist portraits of Cahun, created together with Moore during the 1920s and 1930s. Never exhibited during their lifetime, these photographs have become some of the most enduringly recognisable and defining of the 20th century.
By reflecting on the work of Cahun and Moore from a century later, Studies for a Keepsake celebrates the importance of their art, writing and activism and its resounding call for acceptance and social cohesion.
The public programme is brought to you by The Gerrard and Marti Friedlander Charitable Trust, with additional support from Stephen and Laura Dee. This exhibition is presented as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography.
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