Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Dada marionette

Freud Analytikus (Freudian Analyst), 1918
Sophie Taeuber (Swiss, 1889–1943)
turned, painted wood, brass ornament, and metal joints


A work from the Dada exhibition at the National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.) in 2006, the search for this artist sparked by a new book, Dada's Women by Ruth Hemus.

"In 1918 Taeuber received a commission to design the stage sets and marionettes for a production of Carlo Gozzi's play Il re cervo (König Hirsch/King Stag), adapted by Werner Wolff and René Morax. It was the first performance of its kind to integrate Dada and psychoanalysis. The animating conflict of the play was the 1913 controversy between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung over the character of the libido. Taeuber commented ironically on this antagonism by creating marionettes whose inherent freedom from the constraints of human anatomy and motion allowed them to manifest interior, or psychic, states in their physical forms." (Taeuber bio, nga.gov)

This is not a work that I should be neglecting due to my interests in art and psychoanalysis, but alas, I admit to severe laziness the last few days. I hope to return to it. Hope you enjoy the marionette! Follow the link in the work title and you can zoom in on the object as well as spend some time with the world of Dada.

2 comments:

DopeTasticQ said...

marcel duchamp had an alter ego Rrose Selavy! I did not know that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RroseSelavy.jpg

A.L. said...

Yup, it's fantastic. I also have to say, in what other encyclopedia are you going to have entry for Rrose Selavy?