An examination of Chloë Cassens on how Jean Cocteau continues to influence contemporary art and culture

an article written by ARTICULATE
portraits of Chloë Cassens by Keenan Reed

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. Based in Los Angeles, she was raised between LA, Switzerland and France before receiving her BA in Comparative Literature from Barnard College. She is the author of SACRED MONSTER, a biweekly essay project dedicated to celebrating Cocteau and the Collection. As the Collection’s representative, she works to educate others about Wunderman’s legacy and popularize Cocteau’s work around the globe.
​
ARTICULATE had a talk with Chloë Cassens about her examination of how Cocteau continues to influence contemporary art and culture.

Jean Cocteau 
Lettera illustrata, Ritratto di Peggy Guggenheim
Illustrated Letter, Portrait of Peggy Guggenheim s.d. (1956 c.)
Inchiostro su carta
Ink on paper
22,5 x 15,5 cm
Collezione privata
Private collection
© Adagp/Comité Cocteau, Paris, by SIAE 2024.

What can you tell us about your project SACRED MONSTER? 
SACRED MONSTER is both the beginning and culmination of work I have been doing for over half my life. It’s a project of education and celebration around Jean Cocteau and the Severin Wunderman Collection. At present, it’s biweekly essays available on a subscription-based model through Substack. My goal is to make sure that everything is academic, but accessible. This is just the start of a lot more to come! 

How does Jean Cocteau’s work continue to influence contemporary art and culture? 
What I aim to teach people is that Cocteau is like the wings from which the butterfly effect starts, the stone that causes a ripple through the great body of water that is contemporary art and culture. His influence is enormous and a lot of the time invisible to the eye that cannot see it. It’s present in so many levels of culture, high to low. From Disney’s Beauty and the Beast taking liberal inspiration from his original film, to fashion—Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel collaborated with Cocteau to make incredible pieces of wearable art—his range extends well beyond fine art. There is something from Cocteau’s work that can appeal to everyone, it just depends what they like: is it poetry? Theatre? Film? Ballet? Fine art? Are they interested in queer history, or the 1920s party scene in Paris? Fairy tales, Bible stories, or myths? It is endless, but for everyone, there is an entry point to be found. 

Within fine art, I see so much of Cocteau in the works of young people today, in the curve and quality of their lines, in the subject matter, in the attitude. Something that I say often in SACRED MONSTER is that if Jean Cocteau is not your icon’s icon, he’s your icon’s icon’s icon. 

Philippe Halsman Jean Cocteau, New York, USA. 1949 © Philippe Halsman / Magnum Photos

Do you have a first memory of growing up surrounded by Jean Cocteau’s work? 
I’m not sure that I have a first memory, because the works were always there, all around us. Severin worked like a dog, and as a result maintained residences in La-Colle-Sur-Loup, Paris, London and Los Angeles. A piece that remains of particular sentiment to myself, my sister and my cousins is an enormous depiction of Judith holding the head of Holofernes that he kept in his formal living rooms at his home in Los Angeles. Because we were all so little, the art seemed that much larger! 

Why did your grandfather, Severin Wunderman, amass such a large collection of Jean Cocteau’s work? 
This is the question of my life, and to be honest the answer changes every time I think about it. I always come back to the idea that perhaps Severin and Cocteau had an ability to see beyond what we can and because of that Cocteau’s work was able to speak directly to Severin in a way that most people miss. 

Is there anything about Jean Cocteau’s work that continues to surprise you? 
I am always so moved by the humanity of Cocteau’s work, even when it’s at its most fantastical. 

Why did Jean Cocteau work in so many different mediums; what does this tell us about him as an artist? 
Cocteau, by all accounts, was an endlessly curious man. Even when others thought he was perhaps unserious or overstepping his boundaries when he would experiment in other mediums, he did it anyway. I think that this is a very brave quality to possess, and this bravery is evident in his work, which transcends definition a lot of the time. 

Cartier Paris
La spada d’Accademico di Jean Cocteau 
Academician’s Sword for Jean Cocteau 1955
Oro, argento, smeraldo, rubino, diamante, opale bianco (originariamente avorio), onice, smalto blu e lama in acciaio
Gold, silver, emerald, rubies, diamond, white opal (originally ivory), onyx, blue enamel, and steel blade)
Lunghezza: 87 cm
Cartier Collection
© Adagp/Comité Cocteau, Paris, by SIAE 2024.

Jean Cocteau Edipo o l’incrocio delle tre strade (Œdipe ou le carrefour des trois routes) Oedipus, or, the Crossing of Three Roads (Œdipe ou le carrefour des trois routes) 1951 Olio su tela Oil on canvas 97 x 129 cm Collezione privata Private Collection © Adagp/Comité Cocteau, Paris, by SIAE 2024.

What can you tell us about the exhibition Jean Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge at the Peggy Guggenheim? 
This is the first major international exhibition of Cocteau’s work in 20 or so years, and there are many pieces in the exhibition that have not been seen in decades! Even just as a fan of Cocteau, I am extremely excited to see these rare works for the first time. Some people may not know that Cocteau was the first person to show at Peggy Guggenheim’s first gallery in London in 1938, so it’s harmonious in its setting. Kenneth E. Silver, who organized it, is a leading expert of Cocteau and his approach to the exhibition is so intelligent in the way that it both contextualizes Cocteau while bringing him into 2024. There is also something very beautiful about it taking place in Venice, a city that, like a mirage, may disappear within our lifetime. 

Anything else you would like to add as the representative of the Severin Wunderman Collection? 
Severin was very private in his lifetime. He was extremely philanthropic, and gave away more cents on each dollar that he made than he kept, and always anonymously. It’s my hope that, via SACRED MONSTER and the work I do, I can honor his legacy on his behalf and on my family’s behalf. His art collection was a big part of his legacy, but not the whole of it.

Jean Cocteau Lo specchio di Orfeo (Miroir d’Orphée) Orpheus’s Mirror (Miroir d’Orphée) 1960/1989 Bronzo dorato, argento e rame Gilded bronze, silver, and copper 32 x 20 x 9 cm Edizione Artcurial 1/20 Edition Artcurial 1/20 Bruxelles, Collezione Kontaxopoulos Prokopchuk Collection Kontaxopoulos Prokopchuk, Brussels Photo ©[email protected] © Adagp/Comité Cocteau, Paris, by SIAE 2024.

---

This article about Chloë Cassens takes part of the ARTICULATE PROMOTE Programme.