Tag: Jeanne Mandello

“Jeanne Mandello. Los bríos de la memoria”, art magazine DOSSIER

Article by Guillermo Baltar Prendez, Dossier, Nov/Dec 2012, republished by Centro de Fotografía Montevideo http://indexfoto.montevideo.gub.uy/articulo/jeanne-mandello-los-brios-de-la-memoria Jeanne Mandello. Los bríos de la memoria. Por Guillermo Baltar Prendez Retrato de Rafael Alberti, Punta del Este, 1947. Foto Jeanne Mandello. Las fotografías rescatan tanto la memoria de lo representado, como la de quienes supieron plasmarla sobre el…
About, Part 1: Introduction

Jeanne Mandello, an avant-garde German-Jewish woman photographer re-invented in exile Chances are you have never heard of Jeanne Mandello…proof that sometimes even the biggest talents are not recognized because of the historical circumstances surrounding their lives. In Jeanne’s case, world events of the 1930s and 1940s took her from Germany to France, then to…
About, Part 2: Early Life

Johanna Mandello (she later changed her name from the German-sounding Johanna to the French Jeanne) was born in 1907 in Frankfurt, Germany, into a relatively progressive, secular and art-loving Jewish family. In the 1920s she studied photography at the Lette-Haus in Berlin, an institution set up in 1866 for the professional training of women and…
About, Part 3: The 1930s – First Exile in France

Publicity for fashion and perfume label Maggy Rouff, Paris, approx. 1935-38 The economic and political turmoil in Germany in the 1930s prompted Mandello to uproot herself and begin a new life and career in Paris. Johanna was 26 years old in 1933 when the National Socialists seized power in Germany. Life quickly became unbearable for…
About, Part 4: New Threats and Second Exile

Jeanne and Arno Mandello With the outbreak of the Second World War and the imminent invasion of France by the Germans, Jeanne and Arno had to flee Paris. First threatened by the Third Republic as “foreign enemies”, they were probably interned for some time in spring 1940 in the south of France – Jeanne was,…
About, Part 5: Uruguay, Haven of Refuge

Customs Building Montevideo, approx. 1950 They could hardly have come to a better place: Uruguay has a long history of European immigration and was, at this time already, a relatively stable country with an advanced political and educational system. The country’s immigration laws have traditionally been very generous, allowing “every honest foreigner apt to work”[1]…
About, Part 6: A New Beginning

In Montevideo, Jeanne started her career for the third time – and succeeded once again. She was extremely resilient, as one of her main personal skills was her capacity to rebound and to overcome life’s trials by drawing on her creative skills. Jeanne and Arno loved Montevideo and Uruguay. Jeanne would comment later on that…
About, Part 7: A New Artistic Identity

Light (black photogram), 1948/49 (Jeanne and Arno Mandello) Jeanne’s personal artistic identity changed on arriving in Uruguay and became “arte foto-gráfica”[1]. She now expressed herself by creating compositions which seem to float outside of a physical space. In addition to her adopting a new country and new cultures, she began to explore a new, resolutely…
About, Part 8: Uruguay, Land of Cultural Exchange

Uruguayan poet, editor and arts patron Susana Soca in front of her portrait by Picasso, photo André Ostier, Paris, 1947, Coll. J. Alvarez Márquez In the 1940s, Uruguay was sufficiently open, prosperous and democratic to be able to accept and to integrate these new citizens and their avant-garde ideas. Their new ideas were in sync…
About, Part 9: Later Life

Joan Miró, Barcelona, 1963 In 1953, Jeanne left Uruguay for Brazil to join her second husband, journalist Lothar Bauer, who was an old acquaintance from Frankfurt. At the end of the 1950s, the couple moved to Barcelona, where Jeanne would live until the end of her life. In 1970, she adopted her daughter Isabel. She…
About, Part 10: Her Work

Composition (photogram), approx. 1952 Jeanne Mandello, a Jewish woman forced to flee Nazi Germany and occupied France, like so many others of her generation, did not achieve, due to historical circumstances, her deserved recognition as an artist.[1] Most of her early work has been lost. The studio she and her husband Arno had in Paris…
Jeanne Mandello Exhibitions

Exhibitions 1943 “Exposición del Niño. Fotografías artísticas de la Señora Jeanne Mandello”, Club Banco de la República, Montevideo 1944 “Exposición de fotografías Mandello”, Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes, Montevideo 1950 “Exposición de fotografías de Mandello”, Gallery Amigos del Arte, Montevideo 1951 “Exposición de un relieve de Eduardo Yepes y de 13 fotografías ilustrativas de Mandello”,…