Images: Gender Roles
Langweilige Puppen (Boring Dolls)
Jeanne Mammen 1929 Jeanne Mammen’s career spanned over six decades. She worked as an illustrator of many popular publications in the Weimar years along side her male colleagues George Grosz, and Otto Dix. Mammen however did not approach her work with such biting satire and preferred a softer approach in her depiction of women.(1) The use of watercolors and warm tones lends a gentel depiction of these seemingly disaffected women that she portrays. Mammen typified the trope of ‘Neue Frau’ or ‘New Woman’ in both her dress and lifestyle. Mammen was an out lesbian who earned her own living and enjoyed the nightlife of Berlin.(2) (1)Berlinische Galerie Museum of Modern Art “Jeanne Mammen (1890-1976) Redheaded Woman circa 1928” Accessed October 16, 2012. http://www.berlinischegalerie.de/en/collection/prints-and-drawings/highlights/jeanne-mammen.html (2)Masha Meskimmon, We Weren’t Modern Enough: Women Artist and the Limits of Greman Modernism (University of California Press, CA) 1999 p180-183 |
Three Prostitutes
Otto Dix 1925 Dix was known for his harsh criticisms of and satirical depictions of German society. Although none of the women depicted come off as overtly sexual or seeking clients he embeds the scene with sexual innuendos. The woman on the far right clutches a phallic object in her hand and the motif of female genitalia is repeated in her garments at the fur collar of her coat and the embellishment of her hat. The window display depicts a woman’s shoe standing atop a globe, perhaps asserting a new female dominance. In addition it is worth noting that perhaps the women in this scene are the new ‘client’ in the sense that women are now actively seeking the pleasures attainable through financial independence. Dix juxtaposes this picture of modernity with his use of medium. Instead of the reflecting the grit of his subject matter through the texture of his paint he chooses a smooth and delicate approach to his surface. |
Count St. Genois d’Anneaucourt
Christian Schad 1927 In Count St. Genois d’Anneaucourt, the viewer is confronted with a scene of desire. The figures are each linked to one another, yet their social roles are subverted making an interpretation of their relationship in a traditional sense of gender challenging. It is difficult to judge who the object of desire maybe based on sex alone. The mystery of Schad’s painting is also paralleled in the fact that none of the subjects is shown in their entirety.(1) (1)Esther K. Bauer. "Penetrating Desire: Gender in the Field of Vision in Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg and Christian Schad’s Graf St. Genois d’Anneaucourt." Monatshefte 101, no. 4 (2009): 483-498. http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed October 23, 2012). |
Redheaded Woman
Jeanne Mammen 1928 Watercolours and pencil on paper34.7 x 31 cmDonation from the Jeanne Mammen Society, Berlin 1997© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011 Mammen uses the medium of watercolors to her advantage in capturing the ethereal nature of this seductive and powerful female. She is tangible yet hard to grasp ghostly yet unmoved. Her desirability as a sensual being is announced only in the red of her hair and lips, the color of passion. There is also no evident physical connection between this pair, as his gaze seems focused on the task at hand, serving her as a hairdresser. |
Self-Portrait with Son
Kate Diehn-Bitt 1930 In Self-Portrait with Son Diehn-Bitt is shown in a sober light sporting a cropped hairstyle with her arms affectionately around her son. She wears a red scarf tied around her neck, perhaps a nod to her sympathies to the proletarian cause, and is set in front of a backdrop of trees. She is all at once a worker, a mother, and still imbued with nature. As if to convey that all of these elements can and do intertwine, that being a women, worker, and mother can exist in harmony with natural order. |