{"product_id":"9783836598651","title":"Charlotte Salomon. Life? or Theatre? by Evelyn Benesch","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e PRE-ORDER NOW - Published: 29\/09\/2024 \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen German artist Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943) handed her gouache series Life? or Theater? over to a friend, she beseeched him to \"take good care of it, it is my entire life.\" A few months later, the five-months pregnant Charlotte was picked up by a Gestapo truck, deported to Drancy, and then on to Auschwitz, where she died upon arrival at the age 26.   The work Salomon left behind is, in a very real sense, her pi?ce de r?sistance - in her own words, \"something wildly eccentric.\" A cycle of nearly 1,300 autobiographical gouaches, it combines creative force with pioneering personal narrative into one shattering document of self-expression.   Divided into three sections, the gouaches unveil a vivid self-portrait spanning across all facets of Charlotte's existence: from a complicated family life, marked by the suicides of nearly all female relatives; growing up in Berlin; her close relation to singing teacher Alfred Wolfsohn; the rise of the Nazis; to her exile to France in 1939. Throughout, the artist challenges these destructive forces by deploying playful pseudonyms and fantastical elements alongside emotional candor, remarkable observation, and a meticulous visual memory. Her film strip-like sequences are interspersed not only with words but also musical suggestions, making Life? or Theater? the storybook for a whole musical, years before the heyday of that genre.   Without comparison, the gouaches are a triumph of personal truth and individual expression. Published here with a selection of the 400 most important pieces, Life? Or Theatre? is an unrivaled opus magnum from a great and ambitious artist, dark with her early death, but luminous with her precision, her lyricism, and her courage. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44582793511090,"sku":"9783836598651","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9783836598651_839ccc85-19a5-44b1-9ee9-90604922f8b2.jpg?v=1737625700","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9783836598651","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}