Chiming with worldwide celebrations of Women’s History Month, last week London’s National Portrait Gallery opened Behind a mask, another mask, an exhibition dedicated to the work of female artists Claude Cahun and Gillian Wearing. Née Lucy Schwob, Cahun was a radical French writer, artist and performer, whose polymorphous practice upended conventional notions of femininity and subjectivity. Hailed as ‘one of the most curious spirits of the 20th century’ by her Surrealist contemporary Andre Bréton, it was not until the second wave of feminism that Cahun’s prescient art began to be ‘rediscovered’. Her apparent kindred spirit is the Birmingham-born Turner Prize winner, associated with the YBAs, whose bold video, photographic and installation art gained traction in the mid 90s for its participatory approach to exploring the idea of ‘public’ and ‘private’ selves.
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