{"product_id":"charlotte-salomon-vie-ou-theatre","title":"Charlotte Salomon. Vie? ou Théâtre?","description":"When 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe work Salomon left behind is, in a very real sense, her pièce de résistance - 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDivided 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWithout 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.","brand":"TASCHEN","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42665496313892,"sku":"9783836598675","price":39.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0725\/9734\/0196\/files\/9783836598675.jpg?v=1774843822","url":"https:\/\/thamesandhudson.com.au\/products\/charlotte-salomon-vie-ou-theatre","provider":"Thames \u0026 Hudson Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}