Charlotte Salomon’s Life? Or Theatre? is series of seven hundred and sixty-nine small gouache paintings, some overlaid with sheets of script on tracing paper and some with text written directly on them together these make up the story of her life. Produced between 1940 and 1942 when she was living in precarious exile with her grandparents in the south of France Charlotte, a German Jew, undertook the task of capturing her experiences and family stories in paint. It is not a comfortable ‘read’ as far from being an illustrated autobiography, it encapsulates something of her; her feelings and her wit, filled with literary and musical references, in conveys the history of Germany and the rise of the Nazis as well as the shadow of mental illness she lived with and the suicides of several members of her family. Once completed Charlotte gave Life? Or Theatre? to Dr Moridis for safe keeping, who gave it to Ottilie Moore. In 1943, now five months pregnant, she was captured and deported to Auschwitz where she was executed on arrival. Life? Or Theatre? survived the war and was given to her parents in 1947 though it was not displayed until 1961. It now belongs to the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam.  

 

Familiar with the tragic story of Charlotte’s life I was surprised that on seeing the work, it was not the trauma of her experience that immediately struck me but her painting style. Using a variety of techniques from small episodes of the same story all on one page, like a medieval religious painting to free gestural mark making, executed as if aware that the time available to complete her task was limited, the way she paints draws you in to the narrative. Her colours are dominated by pale blue, pea green and dark blue all outlines and most of the text are in a deep crimson red. 

 

My favourite painting is of her parents on their honeymoon in a plush hotel it is shown as if cut through the centre and then compressed, so sections of three separate floors can be seen in one painting; a couple in bed, a bell boy and a couple disappearing up the red stair carpet and the couple in the middle register entering their room. The confidence with which she executes these three scenes in such unconventional style is as captivating as it is unusual. The way such detail is applied to other pages such as sheet 71 - showing several self-portraits painting by the sea, to the sheet showing the crumpled body of her dead mother on the pavement having, thrown herself from a third floor window, are disarming in their honesty.

 

Life? Or Theatre? is unique, it is not only a very individual testament to Charlotte Salomon’s tragic story but is a very singular artwork. Currently obsessed by the expression of trauma in the visual arts, Life? Or Theatre? prompts many questions for me personally about the psychological stress/trauma that Charlotte was living with as she produced the work. It is easy to read into the more frantic mark making her awareness that time was limited but in the superficially calm images of her grandmother trying to kill herself or her mother lying on the pavement, we can perhaps glimpse Charlotte grappling with questions about the true value and meaning of life when she herself was so determinedly and ultimately unsuccessfully, trying to escape Nazi execution.