Pioneering Surrealist photographers to feature at Gus Fisher

Notable artists associated with the Surrealist movement, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, will be on display for the first time in New Zealand in an exhibition opening at Auckland’s Gus Fisher Gallery on 29 May.

'Studies for a Keepsake: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore' brings together more than 70 photographic portraits, photomontages and archival material created by Cahun (1894–1954) and Moore (1892–1972), whose creative output is considered to have been decades ahead of its time.

The exhibition is co-curated by Lisa Beauchamp, curator of contemporary art at Gus Fisher Gallery, and Ruth Minh Ha, assistant curator.

As lifelong creative and romantic partners, Cahun and Moore are now recognised as forerunners of queer and gender nonconforming artistic practice, says Beauchamp, who first came across them during her own art history studies.

“They’re regarded as an early precursor and influence of American artist Cindy Sherman, and their work is taught on art courses globally. Cahun and Moore’s images have reached an iconic status and are revered by many worldwide.”

Beauchamp believes it’s a testimony to the power of the portraits that they remain enduringly relevant 100 years on.

“They are contemporary in every respect; Cahun’s defiant and direct gaze meeting that of the viewer, refusing to be objectified and holding an agency that’s omnipresent.”

The couple’s work spanned photography, writing, collage, performance and sculpture.

Born Lucy Schwob, Cahun adopted a gender-neutral pseudonym inspired by their grandmother, while Moore was born Suzanne Malherbe. The two met as teenagers, later moving to Paris before settling on Jersey in the Channel Islands, where they continued to collaborate on art and political activism.

“Although their work was never exhibited during their lifetimes, their partnership produced some of the most iconic portraits of the early 20th century,” says Minh Ha.

The exhibition highlights the Surrealist portraits the pair created in the 1920s and 1930s, which feature costumes, masks and staged tableaux, capturing Cahun’s exploration of identity and self presentation.

The exhibition also includes Moore’s avant garde photomontages for Cahun’s 1930 book Aveux non avenus, intimate photographs of their life on Jersey, and documentation of their resistance efforts during the five-year Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands.

The two produced anti-Nazi leaflets by listening to illegal BBC broadcasts and translating the news into German. They also disguised themselves to slip these ‘paper bullets’ into soldiers' pockets and vehicles, signing them as ‘The Soldier with No Name’ to make the Germans believe a vast underground resistance network existed. They were arrested in 1944 and narrowly escaped execution.

“This exhibition offers a rare, comprehensive view of two artists who risked their lives for their beliefs,” says Beauchamp.

Studies for a Keepsake: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore runs from 29 May to 22 August and coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Homosexual Law Reform Act in Aotearoa.

A public programme, supported by the Gerrard and Marti Friedlander Charitable Trust, will accompany the exhibition, featuring talks, performances, film screenings, poetry readings and more.

A media preview will be held on 28 May at 4.30pm.