<strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> Life & Work by Jaleen Grove <strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong>, Untitled (Piano Player), 1943 Conté on wove paper, 50.8 x 38.1 cm Private collection A jazz and nightlife aficionado, <strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> played guitar and clarinet. Gerry Waldston, who apprenticed with <strong>Cahén</strong> at the commercial art studio Rapid, Grip and Batten in 1944, recalls that “he was crazy for music and when he drew the stuff he could shake it out of his elbow like it was nothing—nothing!” This facility is evident in the immediate, gestural quality of his sketch of a pianist. In 1943 <strong>Cahén</strong> included this drawing in a show at the Art Association of Montreal, the city’s most prestigious art venue. The African- American musician’s features are simplified and exaggerated, in a manner not unlike that of celebrity caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) and Quebec political cartoonist Robert LaPalme (1908–1997). Although the portrait’s racial 1 stereotyping may be objectionable today, it was not intended to be disrespectful by 1943 standards. In the assured, graceful curves of the man’s arm, back, and dignified, elevated head, which contrast with the jumble of the rapidly moving fingers, <strong>Cahén</strong> has captured the musician’s self-confidence and dexterity. One reviewer commented, “<strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> has a flair for figures in motion and succeeds very well,” while another said, “we found [<strong>Cahén</strong>’s] rough of a boogey-woogey pianist superb.” 2 In following years <strong>Cahén</strong> was often asked to illustrate glamorous nightlife. In 1956 he was living in Oakville, Ontario, but he ventured back to Montreal as an illustratorreporter to depict its club scene. Unusually, the outing was <strong>Cahén</strong>’s idea, and drawings were made in advance of the text—a mark of the esteem publishers held him in. LEFT: <strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> with a guitar, c. 1945. Photograph by Geraldine Carpenter RIGHT: <strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong>, illustration for “A Night Out in Montreal,” Weekend, December 28, 1956, tearsheet 4 3 5 Hiroshima Cover Illustration 1946 18
<strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> Life & Work by Jaleen Grove Hiroshima Cover Illustration 1946 19