Oscar Cahén

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Oscar Cahén (born February 8, 1916 in Copenhagen , † November 26, 1956 in Oakville , Ontario) was a Canadian painter and graphic artist and an important representative of the contemporary artistic avant-garde and abstract painting of Canada.

Life

Oscar Cahén was the son of Eugenie Caroline Auguste Stamm and Fritz Max Cahén , a professor of art history , correspondent and journalist . Fritz Max Cahén was an advisor to Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau during the Weimar Republic and was involved as a resistance fighter against National Socialism . Between 1930 and 1932 the Cahén family settled successively in the cities of Berlin , Paris and Rome . Osacer Cahén studied art in Paris and Rome.

From March 1932 to August 1933 Oscar Cahén studied at the State Academy for Applied Arts in Dresden in Max Frey's graphic class . After the seizure of power of the Nazis in 1933, the Cahen family was the German citizenship revoked. The family fled to Stockholm across the Czech border . Oscar Cahén continued his art studies in Stockholm. In November 1934, Ole Haslund's Hus, Ostergade in Copenhagen organized a solo exhibition with works by Oscar Cahén.

In March 1935 the Cahén family moved to Prague , where Fritz Max Cahén led a resistance group and was active as a spy . Oscar Cahén designed advertising graphics and political cartoons during this time . He worked temporarily in the studio of William Pachner (* 1915). William Pachner was a well-known Czech graphic artist and illustrator who later moved to the USA . Oscar Cahén was also involved in his father's activities as a resistance fighter.

In 1937 Oscar Cahén started teaching at the Rotter School of Advertising Graphics in Prague. The Rotter School for Commercial Graphics was founded by Vilém Rotter (1903–1960), one of the most modern commercial graphic artists of the time. Oscar Cahén, however, had to give up his teaching activity after a few months because he did not receive an official work permit.

On March 3, 1939, 12 days before the Nazi occupation of Prague, Oscar Cahén and his mother Eugenie fled to London . His father Max Fritz was already in the United States at that time . Oscar Cahén was imprisoned in England as a "German" and a possible spy and in May 1940 he was shipped to Toronto along with over 2,000 German-Jewish prisoners . His mother, Eugenie Cahén, was imprisoned in England from May 1940 to December 1941. Oscar Cahén was interned in Detention Center N in Sherbrooke . Thanks to the use of personal acquaintances, Oscar Cahén was released from the prison camp on October 26, 1942.

In Montreal Oscar Cahen worked in advertising agency of Rapid Grip and Batten as highly paid artists of the agency with a content of 90 CAD per week. In November 1943 Oscar Cahén was able to exhibit at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal . In 1943 Oscar Cahén married Martha Levinsky. Their only son Michael was born on May 8, 1945.

In 1944 Oscar Cahén and his family moved to Toronto, where he became the artistic director of Magazine Digest . In 1946 he received Canadian citizenship. In 1947 his mother came to Toronto from London. As a sought-after illustrator, Oscar Cahén had a regular income from self-employment, so he gave up his position at Magazine Digest to devote himself entirely to painting. To 1951 Oscar Cahen turned down an offer for a permanent position with a New York company with a salary of 25,000 USD from. The median wage in 1950 was $ 3,216.

Around 1949 Oscar Cahén began to devote himself to abstract painting . He participated in the Abstracts at Home exhibition held in 1953 at the Robert Simpson Company in Toronto. Oscar Cahén co-founded the Painters Eleven group , which included ten other abstract painters from Ontario: Harold Town , Jack Bush , Hortense Gordon , Tom Hodgson , Alexandra Luke , Jock Macdonald , Ray Mead , Kazuo Nakamura , William Ronald and Walter Yarwood . The group was founded as a counter-movement to the conservative art scene in Canada, especially in Toronto, and existed until 1960. In October 1954, Oscar Cahén received a solo exhibition of abstract works at Hart House in Toronto.

Oscar Cahén died in a car accident in 1956.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Max Cahén: Men Against Hitler . Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis 1939.
  2. ↑ a b Jaleen Grove: Oscar Cahén. Life and work . Art Canada Institute, Toronto 2015, ISBN 978-1-4871-0067-4 , pp. 6 ( digital copy [PDF]).
  3. ↑ Jaleen Grove: Oscar Cahén. Life and work . Art Canada Institute, Toronto 2015, ISBN 978-1-4871-0067-4 , pp. 12 ( digital copy [PDF]).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cahén, Oscar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian painter and printmaker
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1956
Place of death Oakville , Ontario