Review of Jeanne Mammen: The Observer. Retrospective (1910-75) at the Berlinische Galerie

17/12/17

Jeanne Mammen: The Observer. Retrospective (1910-75)

Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
6 October 2017 – 15 January 2018

Outside the sphere of art historians, Gertrud Johanna Louise Mammen, known as Jeanne, is not a well-known name – not in Germany and certainly not in the rest of the world. Yet her output was prodigious, as the current retrospective at the Berlinische Galerie amply demonstrates. She was born in Germany in 1890, but her family moved to Paris where she enjoyed a carefree and progressive upbringing (including art studies at the Académie Julian, as well as at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels). In 1914, she returned to Germany and, from 1919, worked from a small fourth-floor, two-room living-quarters-cum-studio at Kurfürstendamm 29 in Berlin for more than 60 years, until her death in 1976.

During her lifetime, she gained a reputation beyond Berlin as a chronicler of life in the city, providing for herself largely by designing film posters for the then booming UFA studios and selling her illustrations to fashion and satirical magazines, including Simplicissimus, Uhu and Jugend. Especially during the 20s and 30s, when out and about, she was never without her sketchbook – several of which are included in the exhibition – capturing the goings-on in cafes, bars and on the streets. Her graphic work from this era might be likened to the new objectivity of Otto Dix or George Grosz, but whereas their works tend towards the satirical, with an underlying political critique, expressing pity or disdain for their subjects, Mammen’s drawings and watercolours, while still often employing grimace and caricature, are far more empathetic and, dare I say it, feminine, imbued with emotion, both of her own, as onlooker, and of the relationships between those depicted. The titles are often almost conversational, as, for example, You Have Beautiful Hands (c1929), depicting a chatty scene at a manicurist.

Read the full review here

Review of Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919–1933 at Tate Liverpool

24/07/17

Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919–1933

Tate Liverpool
23 June – 15 October 2017

In its 14 years (1919-33), the Weimar Republic – as the newly established German state was unofficially known – faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, unemployment, political extremism (with paramilitaries – both left- and rightwing), and troubled relationships with the victors of the first world war. It was also, however, as is common in such periods, an era of remarkable cultural renaissance, a boom time for clubs and bars, and a phase of great creativity in terms of literature, cinema, theatre and music. Visual artists, too, responded to the sociopolitical climate, with Otto Dix (1891-1969) in particular combining realism and criticality with his singular artistic vision to produce paintings showing the manifold extremes of this tumultuous interwar period.

For this dual exhibition at Tate Liverpool, a selection of Dix’s work, primarily from his years in Düsseldorf between 1922-25, and including his barren series of 50 etchings The War (1924), is set against more than 140 photographs from the Artist Rooms collection of photographer August Sander’s monumental project, People of the 20th Century. Photographing subjects from all walks of life, and later categorising them according to his self-devised, ever-evolving system, Sander (1876-1964) produced an incomparable record – or collective portrait – of a nation in flux. Shown here chronologically, alongside an informative textual timeline, the gelatin silver prints set the sociopolitical backdrop against which Dix’s dramas, across the hall, play out. While each exhibition is strong enough – and large enough – to stand alone, together they provide a comprehensive and fantastic insight into the life and times, the ups and downs, and the joys and horrors, of the Weimar Republic.

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Review of Visual Wit and Social Critique. Satire from Goya to Grosz at the Museum der Moderne, Rupertinum, Salzburg

10/10/16

Visual Wit and Social Critique. Satire from Goya to Grosz

Museum der Moderne, Rupertinum, Salzburg

30 July – 20 November 2016

Following the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January 2015, in which 12 people died when the satirical magazine’s office in Paris was attacked by terrorists, and, most recently, the killing of Nahed Hattar, outside a court in Amman where he was being tried for sharing an Isis-themed cartoon on Facebook, the subject of satire as a means of artistic expression is more salient than ever. These events have raised the question of just how far an artist ought to be allowed to go in his exaggeration and mockery of others, as a means of reflecting and questioning – and sometimes even working through – controversial issues of the time.

Drawing about 200 works from its own collection, the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg has, accordingly, decided to put on a thorough and timely exhibition, exploring this freedom of expression, from the 18th century to the present day. A roll call of powerful critics – William Hogarth (1697-1764), Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Honoré Daumier (1808-79), James Ensor (1860-1949), Otto Dix (1891-1969), George Grosz (1893-1959) and Ronald Searle (1920-2011), to name but a few – and publications, the exhibition offers a rip-roaring ride through turbulent events of politics, religion and gender battles.

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Portfolio: Jeanne Mammen

23/01/15

Portfolio: Jeanne Mammen

“I have always wanted to be just a pair of eyes, walking through the world unseen, only to be able to see others.”

Born in Berlin, brought up in the well-to-do Parisian suburb of Passy, and educated in art in Paris, Brussels and Rome, German painter and graphic artist Jeanne Mammen (1890-1976) returned to Berlin in her mid-twenties, where she set up a small studio at Kurfürstendamm 29. She lived and worked here for over 50 years, providing for herself by selling her illustrations to fashion and satirical magazines. She was never without her sketchbook and especially liked to draw women, whom she portrayed in a gentle and understanding way, poignantly depicting them in their social background.

Further information about Jeanne Mammen can be obtained at the website www.jeanne-mammen.de, or contact Cornelia Pastelak-Price at the Förderverein of the Jeanne-Mammen-Stiftung e.V., e-mail: cornpaprice@gmx.net

To read the rest of this portfolio and to enjoy the images, please see the February 2015 print issue of DIVA magazine