"Take good care of them. They are my whole life."

August 31, 2002 7:04 AM

"Take good care of them. They are my whole life." A young woman painted her life as an autobiographical series of over 1000 gouaches (in 2 years)--image and text, with planned complementing music and songs--and called it Life? or Theater? Charlotte Salomon's life. more inside
posted by amberglow (13 comments total)

-Annotated and translated small selection of the work.
-the book version (I treasure it), or ask for it at a library.
posted by amberglow at 7:06 AM on August 31, 2002

Cool. It's an interesting idea.

I was looking all over for a complete presentation which would be the best way to present this on the Web (I think). For some reason, and I'm not sure why, it took me forever to notice the "Complete Work" link at the bottom of their left Nav.

Even once I did find that, the images where a little smaller than I would have preferred. amberglow - I hope somebody expands the approach used in your annotated and translated small selection of the work link to include the whole work. Throw in some next and previous arrows, and this would be a superb resource.

Still, very interesting work.
posted by willnot at 9:42 AM on August 31, 2002

i wish they had a better interface myself but it's rare and valuable in itself to see a complete series of work online. (if i ever come into money i'd donate to the museum for just what you said willnot--and add the multimedia elements Charlotte thought went with her work.)

also, My "Life? or Theater? link (the 2nd one in the post) goes straight to the work itself, for other interested viewers...
posted by amberglow at 9:59 AM on August 31, 2002

here's a direct link to the "werk" :) i was just thinking if charlotte salomon were alive today her work might look something like florence miailhe's au premier dimanche d'août (but with dialogue and narrative) like it sounds cool animated!
posted by kliuless at 10:51 AM on August 31, 2002

It's a funny (sad funny) thing kliu--if Charlotte was alive today she might have used film or flash or done performance/installation work, etc--but she mightn't have felt the need to do the work at all, given the historical circumstances of her time....the fact that she had to use an easily transportable and executable medium but that in her mind it encompassed so much more makes it a sort-of proto-everything to me. (prototype graphic novel, multimedia work, etc)

and thanks for info on miailhe's work.
posted by amberglow at 11:00 AM on August 31, 2002

How beautiful, and how tragic:

Foam, dreams - my dreams on a blue surface. What makes you shape and reshape yourselves so brightly from so much pain and suffering?

I also came across a fairly interesting study guide created by the Art Gallery of Ontario for their Saloman exhibition.
posted by taz at 11:39 AM on August 31, 2002

Terrific find. Thanks for introducing me to a wonderful artist who I have, sadly and amazingly, never heard of before today.
posted by evanizer at 1:20 PM on August 31, 2002

What evanizer said ;) (I learn so much from this place)

Thank you for sharing, amberglow.
posted by vacapinta at 1:26 PM on August 31, 2002

How very....transporting. Thanks for the experience.
posted by semmi at 1:33 PM on August 31, 2002

if anyone gets to Amsterdam, the museum always has a few hundred on display at any given time (they never loan out the whole set at once)--a roomful of her work is amazing!
Her changing use of color and detail (dependent on the subject) needs to be seen in real life...
posted by amberglow at 1:33 PM on August 31, 2002

...and while there, take a trip to the Hague's Van Gogh museum, some of his paintings must be seen in the original. It's the only museum, in my experience, where the paintings successfully compete with the windows.
posted by semmi at 1:40 PM on August 31, 2002

..and while there, take a trip to the Hague's Van Gogh museum

There's a Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, semmi, is that the one you mean? Right across the square from the Rijksmuseum? I agree, it's a stagg ering collection and a must-see on any world tour of art. I wish I'd known of Charlotte Salomon on my one brief visit to Amsterdam. Thanks, amberglow, great post.
posted by sennoma at 10:56 PM on August 31, 2002

All these years I remembered the Hague, but you must be right sennoma, because I can't find any reference to a Van Gogh museum there. It's been a while ago, I must be mixing things up.
posted by semmi at 11:49 PM on August 31, 2002