Artist
An artist (from Middle Latin artista and French artiste ) is one of the performing artists . Since the end of the 18th century he has been practicing a highly specialized artistry of physical dexterity , the artistry , as a stage artist mostly in theaters , variety shows , circuses or as a street artist . The International Artist Lodge acts as a professional association for performing artists in Germany .
Cultural meaning
Artists have been part of cultural life since ancient times. Then as now, artists, z. B. jugglers , artists who make their audience astonish, laugh and wonder. In addition to appearances, for example in the circus, artistry also plays a key role in some sports, especially artistic gymnastics . It also has a meaning in some dance forms such as rock 'n' roll and breakdance . By and large, the cultural significance of artistry is rather underestimated today, although it also plays a major role in numerous “modern” extreme sports such as free climbing , parkour , and skateboarding .
In addition to the typical cultural events, there are also traditions with artistic elements, such as that of the Düsseldorf bike racket .
Forms of artistry
The term artistry includes several forms: Antipodists balance and throw objects or people (as Icarians ) with their feet. The contortionists ( contortionists ) show their mobility on pedestals or on a trapeze. Artists on the sling board or the Russian parallel bars impress with complicated somersaults and twists . The high wire and trapeze artists present their tricks in the dome of the circus. Voltigeurs perform acrobatic figures on horseback . A discipline that has gone out of fashion is the strength acrobat, here particularly strenuous figures are emphasized.
On the one hand, the clowns bridge the conversions between the numbers with little jokes (reprises), on the other hand they also present longer scenes (entrances). Animal trainers or trainers and horse riders work with animals. The equilibrists deal with all kinds of balances. The performances of the handstand, perch artists and tightrope walkers are therefore also part of the equilibrism . Jugglers mostly juggle cigar boxes, hats, rings, clubs and balls. Like the fire-eaters or fire-eaters , they often act as street artists. One of the great jugglers was Enrico Rastelli . Art shooters and knife throwers are rarely seen today . Escape artists amaze their viewers with a special skill, as does the paper manipulator with its tearing techniques. Furthermore, one should also classify the hand shadow player and the almost forgotten art of chapeau graphics in the artist category.
In the last few years, artists such as painters or musicians are sometimes mistakenly referred to as artists. This is due to a translation error, because in English, in contrast to German, the artist is an artist in general.
History of women in acrobatics
Women and girls were integrated into the work and professional world of the circus from the start. As artists, extras, ballet girls , etc., they worked on an equal footing with their male colleagues. All positions in the circus hierarchy, from ring director to extra, were open to them. Women were also found in all genres of circus art. Women worked as art and school riders, as trainers, sensation artists, tightrope walkers , as snake women and jugglers , but also, albeit far less often in these genres, as clown dinners or sorceresses.
The circus of the 19th and early 20th centuries was a place of great contradictions: On the one hand, female artists could work there independently and sometimes earn very well, travel around the world and, beyond the normative gender roles of wife and mother, alternative work, life and Try out love models. Many of the “big numbers” renounced marriage and motherhood and lived, for example, in “wild marriage” or in lesbian love affairs. On the other hand, the circus was a place of strict hierarchies and rules to which all employees had to submit.
In the arena , female artists demonstrated to their audience that women were capable of completely unexpected performances: women tamed wild beasts, caught cannonballs, threw men through the air or flew death-defyingly on wooden sleds through the big top. Even if the circus has always been a place that offered space for the unheard of and the extraordinary, the performances of the artists could still make us think about things that were supposed to be taken for granted. This is how radical women's rights activist Lily Braun justified her demand for an opening of the professional world for women around 1900 with the physical strength of female artists:
"If the development of female muscular strength were given as much attention as that of male, then women would undoubtedly be on a par with the average male, that is what female acrobats teach."
Art and school riders in the 19th century
The art and school riders of the European circus of the 19th century were real celebrities who can be compared with today's. Artists such as Caroline Loyo , Ellen Kremzow, Mathilde Monnet, Adah Menken, Kätchen Renz or Therese Renz delighted their audience, earned very high salaries, traveled around the world and were married by the men of the nobility, often coming from even the simplest social backgrounds . The American equestrian Omar Kingsley even appeared for years as a woman, as Miss Ella , around 1850 in order to benefit from the fame of the great female equestrians.
Around 1900, the Breslau art rider Jenny von Rahden took a critical look at the working and living conditions of the female artists at the circus .
“The profession of an art rider (...) is only outwardly glamorous; this deceptive appearance soon loses its shine if you only look at it up close, if you take a seriously inquiring look behind the scenes ... "
In fact, the working and living conditions in the 19th century circus were tough. Competition, resentment, bad employment contracts, the short duration of the engagements of the non-permanent artists, the physical exertion and the frequent changes of location were equally stressful for the artists.
Power acrobats around 1900
A well-known early strength woman was Elise Serafin Luftmann, who is considered "Germany's first professional athlete" and lifted heavy weights such as dumbbells and cannonballs in the first half of the 19th century. The strength acrobats around 1900 were in obvious contradiction to all of the “ virtues ” required of bourgeois women. Women like Katharina “Sandwina” Brumbach (* 1884 in Vienna, † January 21, 1952) or the Belgian Athleta impressed with unimaginable physical strength. Wrapped in leotards or predator skins, in evening wear or gladiator costume, these artists lifted elephants, several men at the same time, or let automobiles run over them.
Predatory tamers
Even in the first traveling menageries, women presented animals. In the wandering menageries of the 19th century it was mostly the wives, daughters and maids of the menagerie owners who stepped into the predator cage and presented tigers, lions, hyenas, snakes and other animals. Because women in the predator cage exerted a special attraction on the audience from the start.
The most famous early trainers include the French Nouma-Hawa (1861–1926), the Englishwoman Ellen Blight, who was killed by a tiger at the age of 17, Miss Senide (her real name was Henriette Willardt), Claire Heliot and the Austrian Tilly Bébé . Many of the trainers were killed by their animals in demonstration vehicles or in the arena. In 1915 the well-known tamer Mieze Haupt was killed by her lions in front of her husband, the tamer Hermann Haupt.
literature
- Paula Busch: The game of my life. Eulenspiegel, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-359-00641-0 .
- Lothar Groth: The strong men. A history of strength acrobatics. Henschel, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-362-00223-4 .
- Stephanie Haerdle: Don't be afraid, that's our job! Artistic riders, trainers and other circus performers. AvivA, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-932338-29-8 .
- Jenny von Rahden: Le Roman de l'Ècuyère. Paris undated
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Groth: The strong men. A history of strength acrobatics. P. 71.