Unica Zürn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unica Zürn

Unica Zürn (6 July 1916 in Berlin-Grunewald – 19 October 1970 in Paris) was a German author and painter. She is remembered for her works of anagram poetry, exhibitions of automatic drawing, and her photographic collaborations with Hans Bellmer. An exhibition of Bellmer and Zürn's work was shown at the Ubu Gallery in New York in the spring of 2012.^[1]

Biography

Zürn began writing after World War II, writing short stories and radio plays. In 1953 she met surrealist painter Hans Bellmer in Berlin. She moved with him to Paris, becoming his partner and model.^[2]

Together with Hans Bellmer, Unica Zürn frequented surrealist circles and befriended people such as Man Ray, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Henri Michaux and Max Ernst. From 1957 onwards she suffered from depression and was treated at various clinics in France. One of her doctors was Gaston Ferdière, a friend of the surrealists, who was also psychiatrist to Antonin Artaud. Her illness inspired much of her writing, above all Der Mann im Jasmin, written between 1963 and 1965.

She killed herself in 1970 by leaping from the window of the apartment she shared with Bellmer.

Works

Hexentexte [The Witches' Texts] (1954)
Dunkler Frühling [Dark Spring] (1970)^[3]
Der Mann im Jasmin [The Man of Jasmine] (1977)
Das Haus der Krankheiten, Brinkmann & Bose und Lilith, 1986
- L'Homme-jasmin: impressions d'une malade mentale, Translator Ruth Henry, Robert Valançay, Gallimard, 1971, ISBN 978-2-07-028042-1

Works in English

The House of Illnesses: Stories and Pictures from a Case of Jaundice, Translator Malcolm Green, Atlas, 1993, ISBN 978-0-947757-71-7
The Man of Jasmine, Translator Malcolm Green, Atlas, 1994, ISBN 978-0-947757-80-9
Dark Spring, Translator Caroline Rupprecht, Exact Change, 2000, ISBN 978-1-878972-30-9

Notes

↑ Oisteanu, Valery (May 2012). "Bound: Hans Bellmer and Unica Zurn". The Brooklyn Rail.
↑ Andrew Brink (2007). Desire and avoidance in art: Pablo Picasso, Hans Bellmer, Balthus and Joseph Cornell. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-9721-1.
↑ Exhibition catalog of Unica Zurn, Dark Spring, Drawing Center, New York, 2009

Sources

Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature
Franziska Schneider, Unica Zürn: zu ihrem Leben und Werk, Deutsches Seminar, 1979
Eric Robertson, Robert Vilain, ed. (1997). "Madness, Misogyny, and Feminism in Aesthetic Modernism". Yvan Goll--Claire Goll: texts and contexts. Rodopi. ISBN 978-90-420-0189-3.
Katharine Conley (1996). "Through the Surrealist Looking glass". Automatic woman: the representation of woman in surrealism. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-1474-3.
Marco Dotti, Hans Bellmer, Unica Zürn, Gaston Ferdière, in Saveria Chemotti (ed.) (2009). 'amante+marco+dotti&dq=ritratto+dell'amante+marco+dotti&hl=it&sa=X&ei=wumvUZ7wNIPEtQbpyoHoBA&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA Il ritratto dell'amante. L'artista,la musa, il simulacro. Il Poligrafo Press. ISBN 9788871156217.

External links

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 32008251 LCCN: n90614115 ISNI: 0000 0001 2126 6543 GND: 118928686 BNF: cb12017899f NDL: 00461937

Persondata
Name	Zurn, Unica
Alternative names
Short description	German writer and painter
Date of birth	6 July 1916
Place of birth
Date of death	19 October 1970
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.