Swiss artist Miriam Cahn, born in Basel in 1949, has launched a major retrospective exhibition at the age of 73. From a young age, Cahn participated in the anti-nuclear and feminist movements, which have had a profound impact on the themes of her personal artistic career. Cahn expresses her demands for women's rights and anti-nuclear weapons through painting, and her more than 30 years of work reflects the various conflicts of contemporary society, including the Gulf War, the Balkan War, geopolitical changes after the Arab Spring, and the recent war in Ukraine and refugee issues in Europe.
Using various art forms such as painting, photography, film, and writing, Miriam Cahn freezes the unstable state of contemporary geopolitics in an instant, presenting it to the audience. Her works deeply explore various events around the world, including wars and refugee crises, and present them directly. Cahn's works are strong and direct, with intense colors and bold brushstrokes, which deeply attract the audience. Through her artistic expression, Cahn presents the existence of these events to the world, advocates resistance, and ultimately embodies the panic and oppression brought by turbulence.
Inspired by Francisco Goya's black paintings, Miriam Cahn uses black to depict war, sacrifice, and uncompromising artistic declarations. As an artist, she uses personal feelings and emotions as the driving force of her creation, and uses emotional expression to transform anger into the motivation for artistic creation, and turn spirit and emotion into her own painting language. In her creative process, Miriam Cahn often puts paper on the ground and uses various postures of the body to paint on the paper in a performativity manner, or blindfolds herself to release emotions. This way, she integrates her bodily sensations into her paintings. The traces left during the painting process also become a part of her creation, demonstrating her passion for art and courage in creation.
Recently, Miriam Cahn's works were exhibited at the Paris Tokyo Palace. This exhibition is her first solo exhibition held in France, displaying more than 200 works from 1980 to the present. Her unique creative style blends portraits, landscapes, historical paintings, personal and collective consciousness into an organic whole. In her works, she not only pursues balance but also deeply explores the strength and chaotic nature of the world, finding new shapes and faces for this chaotic world.
"Ma Pensée Sérielle" Miriam Cahn
Date: 2023.2.17-5.14
Venue: Palais de Tokyo
Top photo: Miriam Cahn, liegen, 1. + 13.10.96, 1996, oil on canvas, 20.5 x 25.5 cm , courtesy of the artist and galeries Jocelyn Wolff and Meyer Riegger, photo : François Dour/Palais de Tokyo.
Photo 2：Exhibition view. Crédit photo: Aurélien Mole/ Palais de Tokyo
Photo 2 middle bottom: Miriam Cahn, in meinem garten, 16.7.21, 2021, oil pastel on paper, 70 x 51 cm , courtesy of the artist and galeries Jocelyn Wolff and Meyer Riegger, photo: François Doury/ Palais de Tokyo
Photo 2 lower right: Miriam Cahn. Photo by Jocelyn Wolff.
All images courtesy of Palais de Tokyo, Paris
