As part of Pride Month, join us for a free virtual discussion of “Exist Otherwise: The Life and Works of Claude Cahun” by Jennifer L. Shaw on June 20th at 12 pm EST. The discussion will be moderated by visual artist and photographer, Dina Goldstein, and will be followed by a Q&A.
Claude Cahun was a Surrealist photographer who explored gender identity and the subconscious mind through their work. During WWII, Cahun also carried out a unique kind of resistance against the Nazis. Born Lucy Schwob in Nantes, France on October 25, 1894, to a prominent Jewish family, they began taking self-portraits in their teens and later changed their name to the gender-neutral Claude Cahun.
Along with life partner Marcel Moore (nee Suzanne Alberte Malherbe), Cahun moved to Paris and became part of the Surrealist art scene. In the late 1930s, Cahun and Moore moved to the UK island of Jersey, where they produced and distributed anti-Nazi propaganda. After being caught, imprisoned, and sentenced to death, they escaped when Jersey was liberated by the Allies in 1945.
Jennifer L. Shaw has written the first work in English telling Claude Cahun’s life story. “Using letters and diaries, Shaw brings Cahun’s ideas and feelings to life and contributes to our understanding of photography, Surrealism, and the histories of women artists and queer culture.” – Reaktion Books
Our speakers
Jennifer L. Shaw is Professor of Art History Emerita at Sonoma State University. She received an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, a PhD in art history from University of California, Berkeley, a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at Stanford University, and, recently, an MFA in Fiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars.
Jennifer is author of many academic articles and three books: Dream States: Puvis de Chavannes, Modernism and the Fantasy of France (Yale University Press), Reading Claude Cahun’s Disavowals (Ashgate/Routledge) and Exist Otherwise: The Life and Works of Claude Cahun (Reaktion Books, London) which received praise in Choice, Women’s Review of Books, Brooklyn Rail, The Cut, and The Gay and Lesbian Review. Jennifer’s work on Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore has been featured in the podcasts History is Gay and BBC Radio 4’s recent release, History’s Secret Heroes. She is currently finishing her second novel, The Butterfly Artist, based on the life of the 17th century artist and entomologist, Maria Sibylla Merian.
Dina Goldstein began her career over 30 years ago as a photojournalist, evolving from a documentary and editorial photographer into an independent artist focusing on large-scale productions of nuanced Narrative Photography tableaux. Her work is highly conceptual and complex social commentary; incorporating cultural archetypes and iconography from the collective common imagination with narratives inspired by the human condition. Leaning into the visual language of surrealism, she stages compositions that expose the underbelly of modern life, challenging the notions of cultural influence and inherent belief systems. The vivid and provocative still imagery emerges through an entirely cinematic technique, with Dina’s established methodology following a precise pre- to postproduction process. Goldstein’s work has been the subject of academic essays and dissertations, and has been covered extensively in media around the globe. The projects are studied and taught in art schools, photography programs and gender studies. The Fallen Princesses are included in elementary school textbooks, as teaching tools and subjects of discourse within the classroom. Dina is represented internationally, and consistently exhibits at festivals, biennales, commercial galleries, art centres and museums.
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