Unica Zürn is born in Berlin-Grunewald in 1916. Obliged to stop prematurely her studies, she becomes archivist, then film editor and art advisor, before to become a journalist (in 1950) for several newspapers in Germany and Switzerland. Then she leads a life of bohemian in artistic circles in Berlin. In 1953, Unica Zürn meets Hans Bellmer with whom she discovers the automatic drawing; in...

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  Biography of Unica Zurn

  Unica Zürn is born in Berlin-Grunewald in 1916. Obliged to stop prematurely her studies, she becomes archivist, then film editor and art advisor, before to become a journalist (in 1950) for several newspapers in Germany and Switzerland. Then she leads a life of bohemian in artistic circles in Berlin. In 1953, Unica Zürn meets Hans Bellmer with whom she discovers the automatic drawing; in love with him, she follows him to Paris. The couple meets surrealist artists like Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Victor Brauner, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, but also writers such as André Breton and Henri Michaux. She creates her first anagrams, performs many automatic drawings and exhibits in various galleries. In 1954, her first book entitled "Hexentexte" is published in Berlin, a combination of drawings and anagrams. In 1957, Pieyre de Mandiargues prefaces a major exhibition of her drawings and gouaches, when she falls into a deep depression. In 1962, she begins to write a new book entitled "The Jasmin Man: impression of a mentally ill" (published in 1971). Her anguish schizophrenia leads her to reside in several psychiatric clinics. She also writes "Holidays at the White House", then, in a few days only, "Dark Spring" (1967). In 1970, Unica Zürn returns to Paris to spend a few days with Hans Bellmer and commits suicide by jumping from the balcony of his apartment. Between madness and creativity, imagination, fiction and the reality of her own life mingle in her graphic work, as in her literary work.
  
  

  

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