Jeanne Mammen: Art Between Resistance and Conformity in Modern Germany, 19161950

Jeanne Mammens watercolour images of the gender-bending new woman and her candid portrayals of Berlins 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 plasterall while hidden away in her tiny studio apartment in the heart of Berlins 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 Mammens 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 Mammens 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 émigré women artists as agents of German modernity. The examination of Mammens 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. See more