Charlotte Salomon

“..even happens that each character has to sing a different text, resulting in a chorus. The varied nature of the paintings should be attributed less to the author than to the varies nature of the characters to be portrayed. The author [= Charlotte Salomon] has tried.. ..to go completely out of herself to allow the characters to sing or speak in their own voices. In order to achieve this, many artistic values had to be renounced, but I hope that.. ..this will be forgiven. - The author, St. Jean, August 1940/42”

“The creation of the following paintings is to be imagined as follows: A person is sitting beside the sea. She is painting. A tune suddenly enters her mind. As she starts to hum it, she notices that the tune exactly matches what she is trying to commit to paper. A texts forms in her head, and she starts to sing the tune, with her own words, over and over again in a loud voice until the painting seems complete. Frequently, several texts take shape, and the result is a duet, or it..”

“..Since I myself needed a year to discover the significance of this strange work, many of the texts and tunes, particularly in the first paintings, elude my memory and must - like the creation as a whole so it seems to me - remain shrouded in darkness.”

“'The tri-coloured play with music begins' (in Deutsch: Das Drei Farben Singespiel beginnt..)the cast is as followsDr. and MRS. Knarre, a married coupleFranziska and Charlotte, their daughtersDr. Kahn, a physicianCharlotte Kahn, his daughterPaulinka Bimbam, a singerDr. Singsong, a versatile personProfessor Klingklang, a famous conductorAn Art teacherProfessor and Students at an art academyand Chorus....The action takes places during the years 1913 to 1940 in Germany, later in Nice, France”

“Consisting of a 'Prelude', a 'Main Section', and an 'Epilogue' - (dedicated to Ottillie Moore)”

“'Life? or Theater?' - A Play with Music - C.S.”

“Keep this safe, it is my whole life.”

“My life began when my grandmother decided to take hers, when I found out that my mother's whole family did the same thing [told bij het grandfather c. 1941], when I found out that I am the only one surviving, and when I felt the same inclination deep inside of me, craving for despair and death.”

“I became my mother, my grandmother. I learned to travel all their paths and became all of them.. .I knew I had a mission, and no power on earth could stop me.”

“That which van Gogh attained later in life.. ..a brushstroke of unprecedented lightness, which unfortunately seems to have a distinctly pathological side, I have attained already..”

“..And with dream awakened eyes she saw all the beauty around her, saw the sea, felt the sun, and knew she had to vanish for a while from the human surface and make every sacrifice in order to create her world anew out of the depths.And from that cameLife or Theater???”