{"id":7376,"date":"2019-10-29T12:36:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T12:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/?p=7376"},"modified":"2019-10-29T12:36:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T12:36:23","slug":"charlotte-salomon-life-or-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2019\/10\/29\/charlotte-salomon-life-or-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre?"},"content":{"rendered":"

8 November 2019 – 1 March 2020\u00a0<\/strong>
\njewishmuseum.org.uk \/ @jewishmuseumLDN<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the condition of terrorised vulnerability and politically menaced radicalised identity\u2026.Salomon contemplated taking her own life\u2026 Instead, however, she created one of the most challenging, enigmatic and demanding artworks of the twentieth century\u201d.
\nGriselda Pollock in: Charlotte Salomon and the Theatre of Memory, published by Yale, 2018<\/p>\n

The Jewish Museum London is pleased to present one of the most powerful artworks of the 20th century \u2013 the complex masterpiece Life? or Theatre? by German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon (born Berlin 1917 \u2013 died Auschwitz 1943).<\/p>\n

This major exhibition features over 230 gouaches from her celebrated work, Life? or Theatre? created by Salomon in an extraordinary burst of creative activity in the early 1940s, when in hiding in the South of France. Fifty of the works to be shown at Jewish Museum London have never previously been exhibited in the UK; the last major UK show of her work was at the Royal Academy of Arts, twenty years ago, after the work resurfaced in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

Life? or Theatre? combines creative force with personal narrative. Divided into three sections, the remarkable gouaches unveil a vivid self-portrait spanning across all facets of Salomon’s existence: from a complicated family life, marked by the suicides of nearly all female relatives; growing up in Berlin, her training at the art academy in Berlin (one of a tiny number of Jewish students admitted), her close relation to singing teacher Alfred Wolfsohn; the rise of the Nazis; to her exile to France. Throughout, the artist challenges the destructive forces of these external events as well as the gendered traumas of the domestic everyday by deploying playful pseudonyms and fantastical elements alongside emotional candour, remarkable observation, and a meticulous visual memory. The work has extraordinary emotional depth, with joy, hope and determination surfacing alongside the pain, confusion and sadness of an abusive and difficult family life, failed love affairs and political machinations affecting her and her family.<\/p>\n

In its entirety, Charlotte Salomon\u2019s Life or Theatre? comprises over 700 gouaches, divided into a prelude, main section, and an epilogue with distinct acts and scenes; it reads like a storyboard for a film, complete with musical citations. The work is subtitled Ein Singspiel, ‘a play with music’, and combines images, texts and musical references to recreate a life marked both by personal tragedy and external political events. Painted with primary colours (red, yellow and blue) and white, and mixing them to create vivid hues, the images incorporate \u201ccharacters\u201d of important and influential individuals in the artist\u2019s life. As the narrative unfolds the work becomes looser and more visceral.<\/p>\n

The remarkable combination of image, text, and music, reveals Salomon\u2019s wealth of references to cinema, opera, Berlin cabaret, and reveals the painter\u2019s self-consciously deployed modernist engagements with diverse artists such as Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Edward Munch, and K\u00e4the Kollwitz. Additionally, affinities can be drawn between Salomon\u2019s work and that of others who shared her experience of statelessness and menaced exile in Nazi-dominated Europe, including Hannah Arendt, Sigmund Freud, and Walter Benjamin.<\/p>\n

Shown in the exhibition at Jewish Museum London will be 236 gouaches \u2013 reflecting the entirety of the work \u2013 with accompanying text \u2018captions\u2019 in form of wall graphics. There will also be a couple of short films and interactive media units, offering insight and understanding of the artwork in a combination of text, moving image, and audio.<\/p>\n

Without comparison, Charlotte Salomon\u2019s paintings are a triumph of personal truth and individual expression \u2013 an unrivalled opus magnum from a talented and ambitious artist, dark with her early death, but luminous with her precision, her lyricism, and her courage. Salomon\u2019s life\u2019s work unfailingly arouses intense reactions, and it has inspired artists, filmmakers, writers and choreographers to make creations of their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was summer. There were trees and sky and sea. I saw nothing else. Only colours, paintbrush and you, and this. People, everyone, became too much for me. I had to go further into solitude, completely away from all humanity. Then maybe I could find what I had to find \u2013 namely myself: a name for me + this is how I began Life and Theatre\u201d.\u2019 Charlotte Salomon<\/p>\n

Dominik Czechowski, Head of Exhibitions at Jewish Museum London commented: \u201cWe\u2019re proud to present this body of work by an extraordinary modern female artist who pioneered a practice of honest, even confessional, artistic self-expression and self-creation. Plagued by personal tragedy before her life was cut short in Auschwitz, the themes of Salomon\u2019s work remain compelling and resonant with urgent contemporary issues of oppression, mental health, Jewish identity, and unstable political environments. We\u2019re privileged to be presenting 50 of these powerful paintings for the first time in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTES TO EDITORS:<\/strong>
\nThe exhibition Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre? has been organised in cooperation with the Amsterdam Jewish Historical Museum.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Salomon Biography<\/strong>
\nCharlotte Salomon was born Berlin in 1917. Her mother died by suicide when Charlotte was eight but this was not revealed to the artist until later in 1938, she thought her mother had died of influenza. There were previous family suicides \u2014 her aunt and grandmother \u2013 also revealed to the artist in later life, before she created this influential work. Salomon trained in illustration at the art academy in Berlin, one of a tiny number of Jewish students admitted. She specialised in illustrating M\u00e4rchen, German fairy tales and folk tales.<\/p>\n

In 1938 she fled Germany alone and joined her grandparents in exile in the south of France. There her grandmother jumped to death from a window in 1940, the same year Salomon and her grandfather were interned by the French authorities in a concentration camp in the Pyrenees. Salomon married Alexander Nagler, a fellow refugee, whilst in France.<\/p>\n

In the chaotic conditions after the German invasion of France, Salomon and her grandfather were released from the camp in Gurs and went into hiding between late 1940 and early 1942. Salomon made the huge multi-layered artwork that is Life? or Theatre? in a hotel paid for by her an American patron \u2013 allowing the artist the space to reflect and make the work in
\nrelative isolation. In a letter of Salomon\u2019s, long kept secret by her family and only emerging publicly in 2015, it was alleged that she aided her grandfather\u2019s death by overdose in February 1943. That same year, she was rearrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered five months pregnant and aged 26.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre?<\/strong>
\nCharlotte Salomon addressed her work Life? or Theatre? to her patron, Ottilie Moore, and gave it to her family doctor, Dr Moridis, for safekeeping. Moridis kept it hidden until after war, and when Moore returned to France it was finally given to her. Moore then gave the work to Charlotte’s father and stepmother, who in 1971 donated the work to Amsterdam\u2019s Jewish Historical Museum. Since then, the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam has arranged exhibitions worldwide. (see: https:\/\/jck.nl\/nl\/page\/charlotte-salomon-tentoonstellingen)<\/p>\n

Associated Events at Jewish Museum London<\/strong>
\nJewish Museum London is organising a series of associated events throughout the duration of the exhibition, including curator talks and a lecture by Griselda Pollock. For more details visit: https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/events\/<\/p>\n

ENDS
\n<\/strong>Press Contacts: For further information or images please contact:
\nKate Burvill, KBPR E: kateburvill@gmail.com, M:\u00a0 07947 754717, T: 020 72267824<\/p>\n

EXHIBITION SUPPORTERS<\/strong>
\nGenerously supported by:
\nArts Council England<\/p>\n

ABOUT THE JEWISH MUSEUM LONDON
\n<\/strong>The Jewish Museum London tells the story of the history and heritage of Jews in Britain through universal themes of migration, family, faith and culture.
\nOur mission is to surprise, delight and engage all people, irrespective of background and faith, in the history, identity and culture of Jews in Britain. Our exhibitions, events and learning programmes encourage a sense of discovery and aim to provoke questions, challenge prejudice, and encourage understanding.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

VISITOR INFORMATION
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jewish Museum London<\/p>\n

Website: jewishmuseum.org.uk
\nTwitter: @jewishmuseumLDN
\nInstagram: @jewishmuseumLDN
\nFacebook: facebook.com\/jewishmuseumLDN<\/p>\n

Address:
\nJewish Museum London
\nRaymond Burton House
\n129 \u2013 131 Albert Street
\nLondon NW1 7NB<\/p>\n

Tube: Camden Town<\/p>\n

Opening Times: Daily 10am \u2013 5pm (Friday: 10am \u2013 2pm)<\/p>\n

Museum admission (includes entry to the exhibition and all permanent displays)<\/p>\n

Adults \u2013 \u00a38.50*, Concessions \u2013 \u00a36.50*, Children (5-16) \u2013 \u00a34.00*, Under 5s \u2013 free<\/p>\n

Family ticket (two adults and up to four children) \u2013 \u00a320*, * Includes \u00a31 voluntary donation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 November 2019 – 1 March 2020\u00a0 jewishmuseum.org.uk \/ @jewishmuseumLDN \u201cIn the condition of terrorised vulnerability and politically menaced radicalised identity\u2026.Salomon contemplated taking her own life\u2026 Instead, however, she created one of the most challenging, enigmatic and demanding artworks of the twentieth century\u201d. Griselda Pollock in: Charlotte Salomon and the Theatre of Memory, published by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":7272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[411],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCharlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre? - The Jewish Museum London<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2019\/10\/29\/charlotte-salomon-life-or-theatre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Charlotte Salomon: Life? 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