Gillian Wearing And Claude Cahun

Published to accompany an exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 9 March-29 May 2017

This is the first single-authored book in English on the photographer Claude Cahun, whose work was rediscovered in the 1980s. Doy moves beyond standard postmodern approaches, instead repositioning the artist, born Lucy Schwob, in the context of the turbulent times in which she lived and seeing the photographs as part of Cahun's wider life as an artist and writer, a woman and lesbian and as a political activist in the early twentieth century. Doy rethinks Cahun's approach to dress and masquerade, looking at the images in light of the situation of women at the time and within the prevailing 'beauty' culture. Addressing Cahun's ambivalent relationship with Symbolism and later relationship with Surrealism, this highly readable book also looks at Cahun's unusual approach to the domestic object.

By making this lost masterpiece of Surrealist literature available to an English-speaking readership, this publication will bring further recognition to a seminal and previously underrated figure in 20th century art and literature.

"Published in conjunction with the exhibition The original copy: photography of sculpture, 1839 to today, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (August 1-November 1, 2010)"--T.p. verso.

From prescient proto-selfies to COVID and AI: the democratic portraiture of Gillian Wearing One of the most influential conceptual artists of her generation, Gillian Wearing first gained recognition in the 1990s for groundbreaking photographs and videos that recorded the confessions and interactions of ordinary people she befriended through chance encounters. In its candor and psychological intensity, her work extends the traditions of portraiture initiated by Sander, Weegee and Arbus. Yet in her ongoing attention to technology's role in the presentation of self, Wearing has presciently identified defining aspects of contemporary visual culture, from reality television to the rise of the selfie. Published for Wearing's first North American retrospective, Gillian Wearing: Wearing Masks traces the acclaimed artist's practice from her earliest Polaroids and videos to her most recent production, including large-scale photographic self-portraits of Wearing in the guise of other artists; a more intimate body of self-portraits titled Lockdown; and installations and commissioned public sculpture. Essays by co-curators Jennifer Blessing and Nat Trotman provide an overview of Wearing's oeuvre, and a "self-interview" by Wearing offers a revealing firsthand account of the artist's practice, including her ongoing project Your Views (2013-), in which she has recently responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, and her exploration of AI technology in the video work Wearing, Gillian (2018). Gillian Wearing (born 1963) became associated with the Young British Artists (YBAs) after graduating from Goldsmiths College in 1990, and went on to win the Turner Prize in 1997. She works equally in photography, video, sculpture, installation and, most recently, painting. Wearing became well known early on for her now-landmark piece Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say (1992-93), for which she photographed almost 200 strangers with placards of their own making.

Edited by Louise Downie. Essays by James Stevenson, Katharine Conley, Gen Doy, Claire Follain, Tirza True Latimer, Jennifer Shaw and Kristine von Oehsen.

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, The Observer, PopMatters, and Sydney Morning Herald. The true story of a love affair between two extraordinary women becomes a literary tour deforce in this novel that recreates the surrealist movement in Paris and the horrors of the two world wars with a singular incandescence and intimacy. In the years preceding World War I, two young women meet, by chance, in a provincial town in France. Suzanne Malherbe, a shy seventeen-year-old with a talent for drawing, is completely entranced by the brilliant but troubled Lucie Schwob, who comes from a family of wealthy Jewish intellectuals. They embark on a clandestine love affair, terrified they will be discovered, but then, in an astonishing twist of fate, the mother of one marries the father of the other. As “sisters” they are finally free of suspicion, and, hungry for a more stimulating milieu, they move to Paris at a moment when art, literature, and politics blend in an explosive cocktail. Having reinvented themselves as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, they move in the most glamorous social circles, meeting everyone from Hemingway and Dalí to André Breton, and produce provocative photographs that still seem avant-garde today. In the 1930s, with the rise of anti-Semitism and threat of fascism, they leave Paris for Jersey, and it is on this idyllic island that they confront their destiny, creating a campaign of propaganda against Hitler’s occupying forces that will put their lives in jeopardy. Brilliantly imagined, profoundly thought-provoking, and ultimately heartbreaking, Never Anyone But You infuses life into a forgotten history as only great literature can.

In an accessible yet complex way, Rebekah Modrak and Bill Anthes explore photographic theory, history, and technique to bring photographic education up to date with contemporary photographic practice. --