CAHN, MIRIAM
1949 Basel

Title: Untitled.
Subtitle: 2 part.
Date: 2016.
Technique: Chalk and Pastel on vellum.


Description: a) 33 x 48 cm. Verso numbered on the lower left: 1. b) 48 x 59 cm. Monogrammed, dated and inscribed verso: M 22.12.2016 4191. Here additionally numbered: 2. Framed together



Provenance:
- - Private Collection of North Rhine-Westphalia



- A highly sought-after work by an internationally established, multi-award-winning artist with a significant museum presence

- An expressive diptych of intense emotional power, executed in Cahn’s unmistakable visual language



Swiss artist Miriam Cahn is one of the defining figures in contemporary European art. After studying at the School of Design in Basel, she has been developing a radically independent body of work since the 1970s, which emerged from drawing and incorporates performative, body-based methods. Politicized early on by the women’s and peace movements, Cahn focuses on existential themes such as violence, war, displacement, and gender relations. Her works, often created directly on the floor, are characterized by a raw, unadorned formal language and a powerful directness. Exhibited internationally since the 1980s, her work has received broad institutional recognition in recent years, including through major museum exhibitions and awards such as the Prix Meret Oppenheim and the Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen.

The two-part work from 2016 exemplifies Cahn’s drawing practice. Using chalk and pastel on vellum, she develops two corresponding pictorial fields of different formats. The smaller sheet depicts a female figure in profile, bending protectively over a child—an intimate, almost archaic symbol of care. In the larger sheet, several minimalist figures appear side by side; they seem isolated and lost. Mask-like faces and bodies crisscrossed by linear structures lend them both presence and detachment. The constellation evokes a family whose cohesion seems fragile, and brings to mind themes such as flight and existential insecurity, which Cahn has increasingly addressed since the 2010s. Characteristic is the reduction to elementary forms, which make the figures appear both physically tangible and vulnerable. The depiction remains deliberately open and eludes a clear interpretation.



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#Miriam Cahn #2010s #Contemporary Art.







In accordance with §26 UrhG (German Copyright Act), VAN HAM is obliged to pay a statutory resale royalty on the sale proceeds of all original works of fine art and photography whose authors have not been deceased for 70 years prior to the end of the calendar year of the sale. The buyer shall contribute 1.5% of the hammer price to this fee.