http://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk November 2019 | HARPER’S BAZAAR | 157
TALK ING POINTS
own invention, Fuller would light
up her costumes in an ever-
changing spectrum of colours to
create fluid, abstract designs that
mutated as she danced. While
there is no surviving film footage
of her in action, a series of ghostly
looking lithographs by Toulouse-
Lautrec and vibrant posters by the
painter Jules Chéret capture her
dynamic, serpentine movements.
Another avant-garde female performer was the Danish-born
Gertrude Barrison, whose bold form of expressionist dance cap-
tivated audiences at Vienna’s Cabaret Fledermaus following its
opening in 1907. Her quest to liberate herself from the rigorous
codes of ballet, which she claimed had ‘very little soul’, typified the
emancipated ethos of the Wiener Werkstatte – the co-operative of
forward-thinking designers who founded the cabaret with the
mission of creating a Gesamtkunstwerk, or synthesis of the arts.
Visually, the group eschewed strict academic traditions in favour of
embracing the allure of the decorative and Expressionist move-
ments; the Viennese artist Fritz Zeymer’s brightly coloured, highly
ornamented drawings of Barrison on stage are a good
example of this more whimsical, folkloric style.
While Cabaret Fledermaus was not to stand the test of
time, closing in 1913 due to financial difficulties, it was in
many ways the spiritual antecedent of Zurich’s Cabaret
Voltaire (indeed, an Oskar Kokoschka play that had pre-
miered in the former went on to become a success in the
latter). Now remembered as the birthplace of Dadaism, Cabaret
Voltaire was established in 1916 as a refuge from the outside world
- a place where literature, poetry, art, theatre and dance could con-
verge in an anarchic protest against the absurdity of war. One of its
major innovations was the emergence of ‘sound poetry’, a form of
verse recital that reduced human speech to mere noises and rhythms,
perhaps echoing the inherent lack of logic in the violence that was
raging across Europe at the time. Emmy Hennings, the cabaret’s
impoverished co-founder and a poet herself, encapsulates its demo-
cratic spirit. ‘She could talk at length about the verse of Apollinaire,
and yet she was also a singer, a troubadour, a
puppeteer...’ says Ostende. ‘For me, she epito-
mises what cabaret is all about: the merging
of high art with vernacular entertainment.’
Despite this utopian ideal, the reality is
that many women have, like Hennings, been
excluded from the annals of so-called high
culture, preventing us from making a proper
assessment of their contribution to the history
of art or showbusiness. The German painter
and illustrator Jeanne Mammen, for example,
deserves far greater international recognition
for her lyrical, sensual depictions of women
living and working in Berlin between the
wars. Inspired by her visits to underground
clubs, in particular those that welcomed gay
and lesbian communities, Mammen’s works
on paper have a carnivalesque feel, albeit with an undercurrent of
sadness and alienation. She captured several of the Weimar
Republic’s most radical female performers, including the dancer
Valeska Gert, who caused a scandal by enacting the experience of
orgasm live on stage in 1922.
Countless other trailblazing women make appearances in the
exhibition, including Josephine Baker, an entertainer who began
her career in cabarets and went on to become the world’s first
African-American film star. Her story, like that of so many of the
performers featured in the show, is testament to the way informal,
egalitarian spaces can foster creativity, collaboration and – aptly
for the Barbican – the convergence of all forms of art.
‘Into the Night: Cabarets & Clubs in Modern Art’ is at the Barbican Art
Gallery (www.barbican.org.uk) from 4 October to 19 January 2020. Join
Harper’s Bazaar for a curator-led tour of the exhibition with Florence
Ostende on 9 October at 6pm; for more information and to book tickets, visit
http://www.bazaarartweek.co.uk.
Above: the first programme
of the Cabaret Fledermaus,
featuring the dancer Gertrude
Barrison, from 1907.
Left: a lithographic poster
by Jules Chéret
Far left:
‘Damenkneipe
(Women’s Club)’ by
Rudolf Schlichter
(about 1925). Near
left: ‘Tiller Girls’ by
Karl Hofer, from
the 1920s