Provenance

Private Collection, Toronto
Heffel, auction, Toronto, 26 November 2009, lot 8
Private Collection, Toronto
Heffel, auction, Toronto, 21 November 2018, lot 60
Private Collection, Toronto

Literature

Jaleen Grove, “Oscar Cahén: Life & Work” [online publication], Art Canada Institute, Toronto, 2015, pages 13, 27
Jaleen Grove et al., “Oscar Cahén”, Fredericton, 2017, reproduced page 82 and listed page 307, no. 058

Born in Germany in 1916, Oscar Cahén arrived in Quebec in 1940 as an interned refugee. By November 1943, Cahén’s art was included in a prestigious exhibition at the Art Association of Montreal, and the following year he moved to Toronto. Around 1949, Cahén began exploring abstraction, establishing his personal vocabulary of crescents, spikes, ovoids, and hot, startling colour by 1952. He became a founding member of the Toronto abstract artists’ group Painters Eleven, active from 1953 to 1960, including Harold Town, Jack Bush, and William Ronald. They joined together in an effort to increase their exposure, given the limited interest in abstract art in Ontario at the time. Author Jaleen Grove remarks that “the group legitimized abstract art, inspired younger artists to follow avant-garde directions, and brought Canadian art into conversation with international contemporary art trends and critics. The work Cahén now produced was playful, bright, and lyrical; it was also bold, dark, and aggressive, reflecting the ongoing contrasts in Cahén’s life. A growing, invigorating public profile encouraged his output: Cahén’s exhibition record between 1953 and 1956 reveals that his art was on display almost constantly.”

With nods to the Abstract Expressionists and Cubists in Europe, the artist’s formal training at the Kunstakademie in Dresden as well as various art schools in Paris, Italy and Stockholm shines through in his execution. Cahén’s gestural style, use of bright colours and experimentation with mixed media on paperboard, as seen in this striking work from 1954-55, influenced and complemented the other Painters Eleven members. The movement of the artist’s hand is apparent in this untitled work, with both quick and slow sweeps of the brush and pastels, as well as areas of collage. Unafraid of experimentation, mixing mediums and testing their limitations, Cahén embraced an art practice that challenged traditional art theory and techniques, particularly in the Canadian art canon.