Miriam Cahn

Karlsruhe

Miriam Cahn initially delved into drawing before turning to color and oil painting in the early 1990s. She has repeatedly emphasized how drawing, with its more transient character, offers a welcome counterpole to the conventional conception of the oil painting as an autonomous, self-contained artwork shadowed by chiefly male connotations. In this respect, Cahn’s drawing practice may be considered a feminist one in that she spawned her large-format drawings with the full force of her body, crawling on hands and knees, sometimes even in the nude and with eyes closed. Movement and performance are key concepts in her art, with the body becoming the pivotal moment—not only as motif in the representations, but also as medium of its execution. As the artist proclaimed in an earlier work in interior and exterior space, „my womanhood is the public facet of myself,“ and she accordingly oriented the rhythm of her work to the female cycle. Works that centered on menstruation and ovulation came to life, and pictorial motifs were divided into male and female categories.

In her approach to painting, Cahn remains faithful to the process-oriented character of drawing by initiating pictures without carefully charting the direction ahead of time, sometimes following an imaginary image or the memory of a dream. And though Cahn’s painting may be characterized as figurative, her bodies, faces, plants, and animals are never executed with attention to every detail.

Badischer Kunstverein is pleased to present Miriam Cahn. LACHEN BEI GEFAHR, the largest exhibition in Germany to date by Swiss artist Miriam Cahn. A selection of works will be shown ranging from the late 1970s to today. Alongside her large-format chalk drawings, bright individual pictures encounter series created in oil, aquarelle, pastel, or watercolor.

Miriam Cahn

Badischer Kunstverein

September 28th – November 25th, 2012
Waldstraße 3
76133 Karlsruhe
Germany

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