“It’s only once in a blue moon that days like these can happen but, when they do, they add a new dimension to the years that follow.” – Opening text of In a blue moon by Nell Dorr.
Nell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: from “In a Blue Moon”, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1939.
In a Blue Moon, a small hardcover made up of many of the same images from Mangroves (*) but printed in photogravure. Lettering by George A. DuBerg. (*) Mangroves, a softbound portfolio of her photographs was self-published in a limited edition, under her first married name, Nell Koons. It comprises two of her poems and fifteen tipped-in halftones of flowers and nude girls and women, often perched in trees.
Nell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: from “In a Blue Moon”, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1939.Nell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: from “In a Blue Moon”, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1939.Nell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: from “In a Blue Moon”, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1939.Nell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: from “In a Blue Moon”, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1939.Nell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: from “In a Blue Moon”, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1939.Nell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: Florida Keys, 1928. # 9 From In a Blue Moon, published 1939. Amon Carter MuseumNell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: from “In a Blue Moon”, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1939.Nell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: from “In a Blue Moon”, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1939.Nell Dorr ~ Nell Koons :: The Secret Pool, 1928. # 18 also # 58, From In a Blue Moon, published 1939. Amon Carter Museum
In a blue moon combines dream-like images of nude women with close-up and abstracted images of flowers. The narrative of this photo-novella is the transition into adulthood. The effect of this book is that something that has so much potential to be lame – pictures of girls, pictures of flowers, girls and flowers and girls with flowers in their hair – actually comes across as being quite profound and unashamedly beautiful. Nell Dorr photographed with a Rollei camera only ever using available natural light. The simplicity of her approach did not necessarily mean simplicity in the results that she achieved. Her imagery is filled with amazing abstract constructions and her portraits have an almost primal quality. Her photographs are the autobiographical work of a strong and sensitive woman who created an internal place where beauty and truth could still flourish. [quoted from an article by Matthew Carson (Head Librarian & Archivist at the International Center of Photography) on Monsters & Madonnas]
Nell Dorr (1893-1988) :: Flower Laden, 1928. Gelatin silver print. # 7 From The Blue Moon. Amon Carter Museum of American ArtNell Dorr (1893-1988) :: Vine Leaves; 1928. Gelatin silver print. # 8 From The Blue Moon. Amon Carter Museum of American ArtNell Dorr:: Flower Laden, 1928-29. Gelatin silver print. # 7 From The Blue Moon. Amon Carter Museum of American ArtNell Dorr:: The Sea Grape Tree, 1927-29. # 36 From In a Blue Moon, published 1939. Amon Carter MuseumNell Dorr:: The Sea Grape Tree, 1923, printed after 1923. # 28 From In a Blue Moon, published 1939. Amon Carter MuseumNell Dorr:: The Coco Loba Tree, ca. 1923-1929. # 44 From In a Blue Moon, published 1939. Amon Carter MuseumNell Dorr:: Harp of the Wind, 1929. # 38 From In a Blue Moon, published 1939. Amon Carter MuseumNell Dorr:: Wonder, 1928. # 75 From In a Blue Moon, published 1939. Amon Carter MuseumNell Dorr:: [Negative image of ‘Matin’], 1929. Amon Carter MuseumIn a Blue Moon published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1939. [1st edition]; Nell Dorr; lettering by George A. DuBerg.
Otto Dix :: »Kupplerin«, 1923. Farbige Lithographie auf Maschinenbütten. Signiert unten rechts. Herausgegeben von Karl Nierendorf. | src Karl and Faber Kunstauktionen
Im Jahr 1921 zieht Otto Dix für vier Jahre nach Düsseldorf, wo er sich in druckgraphischen Techniken weiterbildet. Er liebt die Großstadt, die Typen und Randgruppen, die er vor allem während der Nacht auf den Straßen und in den Lokalen trifft: Matrosen oder Artisten, Kriegsversehrte und Kriegsgewinnler, ebenso wie Prostituierte und ihre Kunden. Die „goldenen“ Zwanziger zwischen allumfassender Traumatisierung, Vergnügungssucht und frühem Konsumismus, zwischen schillernder Oberfläche und abgestorbenem Innersten reizt ihn zu grotesk-enthüllenden Bildsujets. In seinen Werken – wie auch in der vorliegenden Lithographie „Kupplerin“ – führt Dix dem Betrachter schonungslos den körperlichen Zerfall, die Defizite und Eigenarten seiner Modelle vor Augen. Sein neuartiger Realismus, für den die Zeitgenossen den Begriff „Verismus“ prägen, macht Dix – zusammen mit Max Beckmann und George Grosz – nicht nur zum Hauptvertreter dieser Kunstströmung in Deutschland, sondern auch zu einem der bedeutendsten Realisten in der Geschichte der Kunst überhaupt.
In 1921, Otto Dix moved to Düsseldorf for four years, where he continued his education in printmaking techniques. He loves the big city, the characters and marginal groups he meets on the streets and in bars, especially at night: sailors or artists, war invalids and war profiteers, as well as prostitutes and their customers. The “golden” twenties between comprehensive traumatization, pleasure-seeking and early consumerism, between shimmering surfaces and dead innermost parts provoked him to grotesquely revealing pictorial subjects. In his works – as well as in the present lithograph “Kupplerin” – Dix ruthlessly shows the viewer the physical decay, the deficits and the peculiarities of his models. His new type of realism, for which his contemporaries coined the term “Verism”, made Dix – together with Max Beckmann and George Grosz – not only the main representative of this art movement in Germany, but also one of the most important realists in the history of art in general. (Roughly translated by us from source)
Zander & Labisch :: Foto von Margo Lion mit Marlene Dietrich und Oskar Karlweis in “Wenn die beste Freundin…” [If your best friend…] aus der Revue “Es liegt in der Luft” [It is in the Air] , Berlin, 1928. From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künst, Berlin
Privatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der KünstePrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der KünsteRolf Mahrenholz ~ Margo Lion in den “Hetärengesprächen”(Dialogue of the Courtesans). Der Querschnitt B.7, H.8, August 1927 | src arthistoricumPrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der KünsteAtelier Willinger :: Porträtfoto von Margo Lion, signiert (Seitenprofil). | src Akademie der Künste, BerlinPrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der KünstePorträt und Atelierfoto von Margo Lion. Postkarte, signiert. | src Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künste
Privatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künste, BerlinPrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künste, BerlinPrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künste, BerlinPrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künste, BerlinPrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künst, BerlinPrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künste, BerlinPrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künste, BerlinPrivatfoto von Margo Lion, from a Fotoalbum (1920-1932). From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künste, Berlin
In the pleasure-hungry Berlin of the 1920s, theatres vied for attention with spectacular variety shows. Chorus girls in scanty costumes provided an erotic touch. As links in the chain of swinging legs, they were usually depicted as a type, not as individuals. But the two women in “Chorus Girls” by Jeanne Mammen (1890–1976) could hardly be more different. The artist centres on their weary faces, sallow skin and garish lipstick. The real attraction – the dancers’ long-limbed bodies – are only visible down to the breast. They pause for breath, no trace of glamour here.
Mammen, a free-lance artist and a prototype of the emancipated “New Woman”, often highlighted female clichés of the day. The chorus girl in front has the facial features of the artist. The figure behind resembles her sister Mimi. [quoted from Berlinische Galerie]
Jeanne Mammen :: Josephine Baker, ca. 1926. [Revue Neger]. Barbican Centre | src Flickr
Weimar Clubs and cabarets – German cities, 1920s
After the collapse of its Empire and the defeat of the First World War, Germany became a democracy, the Weimar republic. In the early 1920s, people yearned for excitement, there was a sense of liberation and the economy started to recover. Night clubs appeared which fused cabaret, literature, art, music, theatre and satire in multi-sensory experiences. American jazz and dance crazes including the foxtrot, tango, one-step and Charleston became popular and exotic dances by Anita Berber, Valeska Gert and famously Josephine Baker were performed.
Fantasy spaces were created such as the dance-casino called Scala where the ceiling was sculpted into jagged structures that hung down like crystalline stalactites. The pulsating energy of such clubs and bars was captured by artists including Otto Dix, Jeanne Mammen and Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler.
[Barbican Centre] From Into the Night: Cabarets & Clubs in Modern Art (October 2019 to January 2020)
Visions of a dark world in the art of Weimar Germany [Apollo magazine]
Review on the exhibition Magic Realism: Art in Weimar Germany 1919-33 (Tate Modern, 2018-19)
[…] towards the end of the exhibition, a small cluster of drawings introduces the work of Jeanne Mammen. Mammen’s drawings – gauzy depictions of women in watercolour, pen and ink – illustrated fashion magazines and poetry publications throughout the 1920s, until the Nazis shut down the journals she worked for and she went into inner exile, refusing to show her work. Here, they fill an important gap in describing women’s experiences of city life. Mammen observed women on the streets of Berlin and in nightclubs, and often depicted them in conversation, smoking, or playing cards. In Brüderstrasse (Free Room) (1930), the women are intimate and aloof; in Boring Dolls (1929), they’re defiant, out for their own pleasure.
[…] The exhibition doesn’t quite tease out the paradoxes between trauma and humour, leaving both to loiter in the murkiness of Dix’s circus tent. What we’re given is a vision of a world that hinges on reality yet twists from view. It’s a distortion of the truth, full of landscapes littered with war debris and nightclub corners filled with smoke. It’s the same world, but darker than before.
quoted from the review by Harriet Backer for Apollo magazine
Miss Vera Cooper poses for journalists on the beach of the French resort of Deauville, France, August 21, 1925. Glass negative. Agence Rol. | src Gallica ~ BnFMiss Vera Cooper poses dancing on the beach of the French resort of Deauville, France, August 21, 1925. Glass negative. Agence Rol. | src Gallica ~ BnFMiss Vera Cooper poses for journalists on the beach of the French resort of Deauville, France, August 21, 1925. Glass negative. Agence Rol. | src Gallica ~ BnFMiss Vera Cooper poses dancing on the beach of the French resort of Deauville, France, August 21, 1925. Glass negative. Agence Rol. | src Gallica ~ BnF
![Yvonne Chevalier :: Sans titre [Nu féminin], ca. 1930, gelatin silver print. © Photo Centre Pompidou | src AWARE · Women Artists
nude, female nude,](https://unregardoblique.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/yvonne-chevalier-sans-titre-nu-feminin-ca.-1930-gelatin-silver-print-39.4-x-20.9-cm-c2a9-succession-yvonne-chevalier-c2a9-photo-centre-pompidou-aware.jpg)
![Zander & Labisch :: Foto von Margo Lion mit Marlene Dietrich und Oskar Karlweis in "Wenn die beste Freundin…" [If your best friend...] aus der Revue "Es liegt in der Luft" [It is in the Air] , Berlin, 1928. From Marcellus Schiffer und Margo Lion Archiv at Akademie der Künst, Berlin](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52115789620_9d39c8c29a_o.jpg)
un regard oblique 