Mask self-portrait no. 11
(Maskenselbstbildnis Nr. 11)
(1930)
Medium
gelatin silver photograph
Measurements
22.9 × 14.7 cm (image and sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bowness Family Fund for Photography, 2024
© Gertrud Arndt/Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
While living and studying at the Bauhaus school, Gertrud Arndt created a series of forty-three self-portraits she called ‘mask portraits’. To create this series, Arndt dressed in costumes, placing herself in various stylised settings to produce highly imaginative self-portraits. In this photograph, Arndt is shown draped in textured materials, posing against a patterned fabric backdrop. Straying from the sharp angles and abstracted patterns typical of the modernist photography that was popular at the time, she instead explores her own identity through an experimental portrait. Her work is often compared to that of early avant-garde photographers such as Claude Cahun.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Dessau, Germany
Inscription
stamped in brown ink on reverse l.r.: Foto Gertrud Arndt
inscribed in pen and ink on reverse l.r.: FOTO GERTRUD ARNDT / DESSAU – BAUHAUS / GERMANY
Accession Number
2024.988
Department
International Photography