Known primarily as a writer, Else Lasker-Schüler first devoted herself to drawing, which she also pursued throughout her life, before turning to literature. Her graphic work exhibits a sketchy and contrasting style; the combination of her two great talents, image and text, is evident. In her drawings, she often integrated the title of the image at the bottom of the picture. She illustrated many of her poetry books herself.
Even at a young age, the artist was confronted with death several times. Her favorite brother, Paul, died when she was 13, and her father and beloved mother, Jeanette, died a short time later. She married the doctor Berthold Lasker and went to Berlin. The first marriage was divorced after 9 years, the father of her son Paul remained unknown. Shortly after the divorce from Lasker, she married the writer Georg Lewin (Herwart Walden), editor of the magazine "Der Sturm". In Berlin she found a connection to the literary scene, moved in circles of avant-garde artists such as Oskar Kokoschka, Peter Hille and Gottfried Benn and was able to publish her lyrical work in magazines. However, as the political situation in Germany worsened, she found herself in an increasingly threatening position with her expressionist and avant-garde art. When her only son Paul - named after her late brother - died of tuberculosis at the age of 27, it plunged the artist into a deep crisis. Personal relationships and the many losses she suffered play a special role in her work. The reference to political current events can also be read from her works. At the same time, some of her works can be read as a kind of escape from reality into a colorful, oriental world. Despite her erratic life, Lasker-Schüler remained a person driven by a love of life, living her own myth, and a thoroughly avant-garde artist.
She maintained a poetic correspondence with Franz Marc, who wrote under the pseudonym "Blue Rider", while she herself appeared as "Prince Jussuf of Thebes". She thus dreamed up a new biography in which she had been born as a prince in Egypt. This artificial figure, which she also impersonated in costume, sometimes earned her ridicule, and her self-confident appearance led to a reputation as an eccentric who could not be taken seriously. Throughout her life, she was driven by a longing for the Orient. When she, a German Jew and religious artist, fled to Switzerland in the face of political circumstances, she undertook trips from there to Palestine and to her place of longing, Jerusalem. Because she was later denied a return trip to Switzerland, she remained in Jerusalem, where she lived impoverished but had connections to a scene of artists in exile. She died in Jerusalem in January 1945 and did not live to see the end of the Second World War.
Known primarily as a writer, Else Lasker-Schüler first devoted herself to drawing, which she also pursued throughout her life, before turning to literature. Her graphic work exhibits a sketchy and contrasting style; the combination of her two great talents, image and text, is evident. In her drawings, she often integrated the title of the image at the bottom of the picture. She illustrated many of her poetry books herself.
Even at a young age, the artist was confronted with death several times. Her favorite brother, Paul, died when she was 13, and her father and beloved mother, Jeanette, died a short time later. She married the doctor Berthold Lasker and went to Berlin. The first marriage was divorced after 9 years, the father of her son Paul remained unknown. Shortly after the divorce from Lasker, she married the writer Georg Lewin (Herwart Walden), editor of the magazine "Der Sturm". In Berlin she found a connection to the literary scene, moved in circles of avant-garde artists such as Oskar Kokoschka, Peter Hille and Gottfried Benn and was able to publish her lyrical work in magazines. However, as the political situation in Germany worsened, she found herself in an increasingly threatening position with her expressionist and avant-garde art. When her only son Paul - named after her late brother - died of tuberculosis at the age of 27, it plunged the artist into a deep crisis. Personal relationships and the many losses she suffered play a special role in her work. The reference to political current events can also be read from her works. At the same time, some of her works can be read as a kind of escape from reality into a colorful, oriental world. Despite her erratic life, Lasker-Schüler remained a person driven by a love of life, living her own myth, and a thoroughly avant-garde artist.
She maintained a poetic correspondence with Franz Marc, who wrote under the pseudonym "Blue Rider", while she herself appeared as "Prince Jussuf of Thebes". She thus dreamed up a new biography in which she had been born as a prince in Egypt. This artificial figure, which she also impersonated in costume, sometimes earned her ridicule, and her self-confident appearance led to a reputation as an eccentric who could not be taken seriously. Throughout her life, she was driven by a longing for the Orient. When she, a German Jew and religious artist, fled to Switzerland in the face of political circumstances, she undertook trips from there to Palestine and to her place of longing, Jerusalem. Because she was later denied a return trip to Switzerland, she remained in Jerusalem, where she lived impoverished but had connections to a scene of artists in exile. She died in Jerusalem in January 1945 and did not live to see the end of the Second World War.
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