A photomontage featuring quadrupled, merged, and mirrored bust-length surreal portraits of the artist with a bald head surrounded by collaged images, including statues of Hermaphroditus and Aphrodite.
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Claude Cahun

Aveux non avenus (Disavowed Confessions)

Maker

Claude Cahun (French, 1894-1954 b. in Nantes, France)
Marcel Moore (French, 1892 - 1972 b. Nantes, France)
Carrefour Press, publisher

Title

Aveux non avenus (Disavowed Confessions)

Year

1930

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

collotype

Supports

Dimensions

2.5 x 17.1 cm (1 x 6 3/4 inches)

Identification

Edition

349/500

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

2005.57

Type

Exhibition History

The Performative Self-Portrait
May 13, 2023 – Nov 12, 2023

Label copy

In this photomontage, Claude Cahun’s head and face—styled differently each time—repeats 11 times and is bordered with French words that translate to “Under this mask, another mask. I will never finish removing all these faces.” Some of the faces suggest masculinity, others femininity, pointing to Cahun’s interest in the mutability of gender.

Aveux non avenus is a semi-autobiographical work Cahun made in collaboration with their longtime romantic and creative partner, Marcel Moore. Both artists adopted male names. The book’s title is sometimes translated as Canceled Confessions, and in many of the images Cahun explores the neuter and androgyne as alternatives to the binary poles of female and male.

–Conor Moynihan, assistant curator of prints, drawings, and photographs

Re-Viewing the Twentieth Century
Jul 21, 2006 – Apr 22, 2007

Image use

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In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Claude Cahun (French, 1894-1954 b. in Nantes, France)
Marcel Moore (French, 1892 - 1972 b. Nantes, France)
Carrefour Press, publisher
Aveux non avenus (Disavowed Confessions), 1930
Illustrated book with 11 collotypes
2.5 x 17.1 cm (1 x 6 3/4 inches)
Mary B. Jackson Fund 2005.57

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