Oskar Schlemmer

(Stuttgart 1888–1943 Baden Baden)
Nusch Nuschi, c. 1921, execution by Carl Schlemmer, plaster and wood, handpainted, 30 x 10 x 10 cm
Model of Nusch Nuschi, from the opera named after it by Paul Hindemith, premiere June 4, 1921, Landestheater Stuttgart.

The authenticity of the work was confirmed by Tut Schlemmer and Karin von Maur, Oskar Schlemmer Archiv, Stuttgart, by letter, December 27, 1984

Provenance:
Private Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (a gift directly from the artist, since then in family ownership)

Exhibited:
Städtische Galerie, Böblingen, Oskar Schlemmer. Das Stuttgarter theatralische Abenteuer 1921, Böblingen 1989, exh.-cat. Böblingen 1988, p. 73 with b/w-ill.

Literature:
Dirk Scheper, Oskar Schlemmer. Das triadische Ballett und die Bauhausbühne, Berlin 1988, no. 18, p. 352

Oskar Schlemmer, whose actual teaching activity at the Bauhaus began in the summer semester of 1921, travelled to Stuttgart at the end of April of that year in order to collaborate at the Württembergisches Landestheater on the world premiere of two short operas by Paul Hindemith, Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen and Das Nusch-Nuschi: Spiel für burmanische Marionetten. Schlemmer was responsible for the design of the stage sets and costumes, and in part also for the choreography. In scholarship, these productions have since been collectively subsumed under Schlemmer’s so-called “Stuttgart theatrical adventure”, marking the beginning of his artistic career.

Das Nusch-Nuschi presents itself as a “comic satyr play in the manner of a Commedia dell’Arte transposed into an Oriental setting” (Dirk Scheper, Oskar Schlemmer. Das triadische Ballett und die Bauhausbühne, Berlin 1988, p. 31). In abbreviated form, the plot unfolds as follows: “The four wives of the Burmese emperor Mung Tha Bya, named Bangsa, Osasa, Twaise and Ratasata, are seduced by the handsome Zatwai, with the assistance of the cunning servant Tum tum. As punishment, the innocent field general Kyce Waing is to be castrated. This, however, proves unnecessary, as Kyce Waing has already been emasculated by the Nusch-Nuschi, a fabulous creature, half rat, half caiman, upon whose back rides Kamadewa, the god of desire.” (Hans-Dieter Mück, Oskar Schlemmer 1888–1943. Das Stuttgarter theatralische Abenteuer 1921, exhib. cat., Städtische Galerie Böblingen, 1988/1989, p. 58)

At its premiere in Stuttgart on 4 June 1921, the work caused a scandal on account of its allusions to contemporary sexual morality: “The performance was a success; I heard my name being called backstage, ever more insistently, and was dragged onto the stage before 1,400 people! The production, it is said, gained me friends who had hitherto found no relation to my painting. […] But this was the first evening. The following day the newspapers appeared, and with them a flood of filth over the whole affair, because the text of the second piece was deemed indecent (its point being the castration of the imperial field general). Everything was now interpreted as pornographic; a phallus was seen in every form, and both music and staging were suffocated by this frenzy.” (Oskar Schlemmer quoted after Dirk Scheper, Oskar Schlemmer. Das triadische Ballett und die Bauhausbühne, Berlin 1988, p. 31)

As a consequence of the scandal, Das Nusch-Nuschi was performed in its entirety only once thereafter (on a puppet stage in Pforzheim) until as late as 1990. As rare and unusual as the opera itself is this polychromed sculpture of the Nusch-Nuschi from 1921, conceived by Schlemmer as a model for the stage figure and executed by his brother Carl Schlemmer.