4Frauenkopf

The collection also contains sculptures. By the end of the 1930s Jeanne Mammen had made herself somewhat known as a painter. Her sculptural oevre remains almost unknown and consists of just a few pieces, but for her artistic development it plays an important role. Mammen always worked with whatever was at hand. At the end of the 30s paint was difficult to obtain, so she began working with clay and sculpted. During this period she lived mostly as a recluse, was no longer making drawings for magazines, illustrations for books or cinema posters. At the same time she was retreating from realistic forms of the European art tradition, such as masks – as is the case with this ”Frauenkopf” (Head of a woman). The mask motif can be found in her paintings into the 1940s – and bears influences from her Cubist phase, using masks or grimaces instead of faces. This piece was originally made in plaster, and like all of the rest of her sculptures was first cast in bronze after her death in 1976. The triangular relief of the clay mask is painted with stripes and columns. This also is a reference to African masks. The facial area is worked smooth, while the rest remains rough and uneven.