Unica Zürn
Unica Zürn (6 July 1916 in Berlin-Grunewald – 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.
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[edit] 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.[1]
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.
[edit] Works
- Hexentexte [The Witches' Texts] (1954)
- Dunkler Frühling [Dark Spring] (1970)[2]
- 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 9782070280421
- Works in English
- The house of illnesses: stories and pictures from a case of jaundice, Translator Malcolm Green, Atlas, 1993, ISBN 9780947757717
- The man of jasmine, Translator Malcolm Green, Atlas, 1994, ISBN 9780947757809
- Dark spring, Translator Caroline Rupprecht, Exact Change, 2000, ISBN 9781878972309
[edit] Notes
- ^ Andrew Brink (2007). Desire and avoidance in art: Pablo Picasso, Hans Bellmer, Balthus and Joseph Cornell. Peter Lang. ISBN 9780820497211. http://books.google.com/books?id=WlLSwQPB3o4C&pg=PA85&dq=Unica+Z%C3%BCrn&lr=&ei=ByIsT4XaBZGkzQSc0vWRAw&cd=14#v=onepage&q=Unica%20Z%C3%BCrn&f=false.
- ^ Exhibition catalog of Unica Zurn, Dark Spring, Drawing Center, New York, 2009
[edit] 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 9789042001893. http://books.google.com/books?id=q90xoHliGPwC&pg=PA153&dq=Unica+Z%C3%BCrn&ei=zB4sT6SXIo_WzAS285mGCQ&cd=8#v=onepage&q=Unica%20Z%C3%BCrn&f=false.
- Katharine Conley (1996). "Through the Surrealist Looking glass". Automatic woman: the representation of woman in surrealism. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803214743. http://books.google.com/books?id=DFTQjV0gDEAC&pg=PA79&dq=Unica+Z%C3%BCrn&ei=zB4sT6SXIo_WzAS285mGCQ&cd=9#v=onepage&q=Unica%20Z%C3%BCrn&f=false.
