Lil Picard, born Lilli Elisabeth Benedick (October 4, 1899 – May 10, 1994), was a cabaret actress, artist, journalist and critic, born in
Landau
Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990) ...
, Germany, who took part in several generations of
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
and
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
art in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
and in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
Biography
Early life
Lil Picard was born Lilli Elisabeth Benedick October 4, 1899 in
Landau
Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990) ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
She was the only child of Jakob, a wine producer and merchant, and Rosalie Benedick. She spent her childhood and adolescence in
Strasbourg, Germany, which is now in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.
Seeking solace from her parents, Lil found meaning in books. ''
Westermanns Monatshefte
Westermann Verlag (English: "Westermann Publishing") is a German publishing firm, founded in the 19th century in Braunschweig, Duchy of Brunswick by George Westermann (23 February 1810 in Leipzig; 7 September 1879 in Wiesbaden). Several other ge ...
'' introduced her to art and inspired her to draw at an early age.
Marriages and Life in Berlin
Upon completing school, Lil studied literature and art in Berlin.
In 1918, at the age of 19, Lil met Fritz Picard, an antiquarian bookseller
and intellectual with whom she lived in Berlin against her parents' wishes. Surrounded by dynamic artists, writers, composers, and filmmakers who moved to Berlin after World War I, the couple married in 1921. Lil Picard became a cabaret performer, acting in a small part in the film
Variété
Variété is a new-wave and cold-wave band from Poland, considered the leading pioneers of that genre in 1980s. The group is continually evolving and their music can be now described as an original blend of jazz, minimal and trip-hop.
Histor ...
.
Picard also became involved in the Berlin
Dadaist
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...
movement, associating herself with Dadaists
George Grosz,
Hugo Ball
Hugo Ball (; 22 February 1886 – 14 September 1927) was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry.
...
, and
Richard Huelsenbeck
Carl Wilhelm Richard Hülsenbeck (aka Charles R. Hulbeck) (23 April 189220 April 1974) was a German writer, poet, and psychoanalyst born in Frankenau, Hessen-Nassau who was associated with the formation of the Dada movement.
Life and work
Huel ...
and artists
Bertolt Brecht,
Otto Dix
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along with George ...
, and
Hans Hoffman.
In 1926, she separated from Fritz Picard. Struggling with the skin condition
shingles, her career in show business ended and Picard turned her attention to journalism.
She wrote
feuilleton
A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of french: feuillet, the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art critici ...
for the ''Berliner Börsenkurier'' and worked as a fashion designer and model. In 1933, the year of
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's accession to power, she became fashion editor of ''Zeitschrift für Deutsche Konfektion'', and a cultural reporter for the fashion and women's supplements of the ''
Berliner Tageblatt
The ''Berliner Tageblatt'' or ''BT'' was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872 to 1939. Along with the ''Frankfurter Zeitung'', it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time.
History
The ''Berline ...
'', among other publications.
She also worked as Art-correspondent for
Kunstforum International and
Die Welt
''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE.
''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter All ...
.
In 1935, Picard married banker Hans Felix Jüdell.
Due to the persecution of Jews and Hans' career pursuits, he changed his name to Henry Odell or O'Dell.
New York
In November 1936, Picard and her husband immigrated to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
following the revocation of Picard's press credentials due to her Jewish heritage and growing antisemitic policies.
In New York, Picard began to paint and exhibit works, and also worked as a journalist for over three decades, writing for ''Arts Magazine,'' ''East Village Other,'' and ''Interview.''
In the 1960s, Picard produced painting, collage and assemblages, and was known as a frequenter of
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...
's
Factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...
. Her 1967 performance, "Construction-Destruction-Construction," at the
Judson Church
The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street, near Gould Plaza, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. I ...
Gallery, was filmed by Andy Warhol. She also participated in feminist performance art with
Carolee Schneemann and
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up i ...
. In 1976 she appeared in
Rosa von Praunheim
Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky (born Holger Radtke; 25 November 1942), known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, painter and one of the most famous gay rights activists in the German-speaking world. In ov ...
's
New York film ''
Underground and Emigrants
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground ...
''.
In New York, Lil Picard dated Alfred Jensen and
Ad Reinhardt
Adolph Dietrich Friedrich Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 – August 30, 1967) was an abstract painter active in New York for more than three decades. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and part of the movement center ...
.
Exhibitions
* Solo Show. David Anderson Gallery. 1960. (first solo show)
*''Protest-Action''. With
Wolf Vostell
Wolf Vostell (14 October 1932 – 3 April 1998) was a German painter and sculptor, considered one of the early adopters of video art and installation art and pioneer of Happenings and Fluxus. Techniques such as blurring and Dé-coll/age are c ...
at the Italian Pavilion at the 34th Venice Biennale, 1968.
*
Goethe House
The Goethe House is a writer's house museum located in the Innenstadt district of Frankfurt, Germany. It is the birthplace and childhood home of German poet and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is also the place where Goethe wrote hi ...
. 1976.
* Ronald Feldman Gallery. 1976.
* Holly Solomon Gallery. 1976.
* Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin. 1978.
* "Lil Picard and Counterculture New York."
Grey Art Gallery
The Grey Art Gallery is New York University’s fine art museum, located on historic Washington Square Park, in New York City's Greenwich Village. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, in ...
,
NYU
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
. 2010 (premiere). University of Iowa Museum of Art. Spring, 2011.
"Lil Picard and Counterculture New York."
Brooklyn Rail.
References
External links
University of Iowa. Lil Picard Retrospective.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Picard, Lil
1899 births
1994 deaths
People from Landau
German artists
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Jewish American artists
20th-century American Jews