The Queer Surrealists Who Fought Nazis With Paper Bullets
Claude Cahun (born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob) and Marcel Moore (Suzanne Malherbe) formed a queer artistic partnership beginning in their native Nantes before relocating to Paris in 1920, where they adopted masculine pseudonyms and entered surrealist circles. Their collaborative practice—comprising photocollages, illustrations, and mixed-media works rarely exceeding five by three inches—interrogated gender performance and identity through formally inventive black-and-white compositions. The pair’s famous statement “Beneath this mask, another mask. I will never be finished removing all these faces” encapsulates their deconstructive approach to gendered archetypes. Operating during France’s politically volatile interwar period, they engaged in covert resistance activities against fascism. The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis retrospective examines their artistic legacy as inseparable from their clandestine activism and transgressive partnership, positioning their modest yet formally provocative body of work within avant-garde modernism’s radical margins.
Original article published on Hyperallergic — AI-generated summary. Visit the website to read the full article at the source. Image via Hyperallergic.
