The painter and graphic artist Jeanne Mammen (1890–1976) is one of the most awkward and colorful figures of recent German art history. Chronicling the glittering life of 1920s Berlin, from “degenerate” experiments to magical-poetic abstractions, and from New Objectivity to Cubism as resistance to National Socialism, Mammen’s oeuvre critically reflects on the political and aesthetic upheavals of the twentieth century. Her productive output mirrors the extreme circumstances she experienced, from poverty and destruction, to her emergence from the ruins of World War II.

Delving into the 1920s and beyond through the artworks of an indomitable loner, this wide-ranging and beautifully illustrated book shows the complete work of a Berlin artist on the threshold of the modern age.