Philippe Halsman Jean Cocteau, New York, USA. 1949 © Philippe Halsman / Magnum Photos
Donate
LISTEN VIA THE PLAYER BELOW courtesy of Acast (the episode is also available on the Apple podcast app, Spotify, iHeart, and YouTube.)
Chloë Cassens is the representative of the Severin Wunderman Collection, the largest in the world of works by iconoclastic French artist Jean Cocteau. It makes up the entirety of the contents of the Musée Jean Cocteau-collection Severin Wunderman in Menton, France.
She is a longtime scholar of Cocteau with a unique perspective, as she is Wunderman’s granddaughter. Her past research has centered around Cocteau’s Les enfants terribles and its echoes in the later life and work of Yves Saint Laurent, as well as Cocteau’s Opium: Journal d’une désintoxication and how it illuminates the role that drug addiction and sobriety plays in the lives of creatives.
Splitting her time between her native Los Angeles and Paris, she decided to return to her roots representing her grandfather and his collection as the Musée Jean Cocteau remains closed following a devastating storm in 2018. Her mission is to educate others about Jean Cocteau and popularize his work around the globe. She is the author of SACRED MONSTER, a biweekly essay project centered around Cocteau, and she is working on a book about her grandfather’s life and legacy.
In this extensive interview with Logan Royce Beitmen, Cassens discusses Cocteau’s massive cultural influence and her efforts to increase awareness about his life and legacy.
Severin Wunderman and Chloë Cassens
