Jeanne Mammen: Art between Resistance and Conformity in Modern Germany, 1916–1950

Description

Jeanne Mammen’s watercolour images of the gender-bending ‘new woman’ and her candid portrayals of Berlin’s thriving nightlife appeared in some of the most influential magazines of the Weimar Republic and are still considered characteristic of much of the ‘glitter’ of that era. This book charts how, once the Nazis came into power, Mammen instead created ‘degenerate’ paintings and collages, translated prohibited French literature and sculpted in clay and plaster—all while hidden away in her tiny studio apartment in the heart of Berlin’s fashionable west end. What was it like as a woman artist to produce modern art in Nazi Germany? Can artworks that were never exhibited in public still make valid claims to protest? Camilla Smith examines a wide range of Mammen’s dissenting artworks, ranging from those created in solitude during inner emigration to her collaboration with artist cabarets after the Second World War. Smith's engaging analysis compares Mammen's popular Weimar work to her artistic activities under the radar after 1933, in order to fundamentally rethink the moral complexities of inner emigration and its visual culture. While Mammen’s artistry is considered through the lens of gender politics to reveal her complex relationship with the urbanisation of her time, this book also highlights the crucial role played by a lost generation of inner émigrés women artists as agents of German modernity. The examination of Mammen’s life and work demonstrates the crucial role women artists played as both markers and agents of German modernity, but the double marginalisation they have nonetheless encountered as inner émigrés in recent history. It will be of interest to students of German studies, art history, literature, history, gender studies and cultural studies. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Illustrations Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction ‘One should not write books about pictures’ Chapter 1: Forging a career Introduction Finding her feet The fashion illustrator (Modeillustratorin) The mass media – towards a critical position Mammen and sex reform The Songs of Bilitis Conclusion Chapter 2: Berlin 1947 – going solo Introduction Post-war exhibition cultures Galerie Gerd Rosen and Mammen’s solo exhibition Inner emigration Ulenspiegel Mammen’s response Conclusion Chapter 3: National Socialism and private dissent Introduction National Socialism and art Early political resistance A (re-)turn to Cubism Camouflage I: Circus as criticism Artist as translator Towards a third position Kontakt/los Conclusion Chapter 4: Propaganda, war and the home front Introduction Life on the home front National Socialism, masculinity and warfare Deconstructing the Führer myth Camouflage II: The Picasso Effect Conclusion Chapter 5: Beginning again: Post-war Berlin Introduction Forging the new out of detritus Ruinenmalerei Exploring plasticity ‘Madame Picasso’ Conclusion Chapter 6: Bathtubs and Jellyfish: Mammen and post-war cabaret Introduction A literary cabaret Raumbilder: Dance and modern art Renazification? The conflicted case of Ernst Jünger Exploring collective guilt Conclusion Epilogue Appendices Notes Bibliography Index