Oscar Cahén

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Oscar Cahén Life & Work by Jaleen Grove Key to Cahén’s success as an illustrator was his ability to depict personality and ethnicity without resorting to stereotypes: each of the twelve people (and two cats) has a highly individualized face and expression. Cultural backgrounds are only subtly hinted at: the Jewish man’s kippah, the matron’s ankle-length skirt and embroidered apron, the gingham tablecloths. Cahén personalizes the scene, as he did in several magazine illustrations, by scrawling “Oscar loves Mimi” (his wife) on the wall. Everyday familiar touches and behaviours—the paper boat in the gutter, the potted plant on the sill, the littlest child peeping shyly from the window, the worried senior on the right—and the wide-eyed, naive optimism of the son translating for the policeman—elicit sympathy for the European immigrants navigating Ottawa’s uptight environs. Especially effective is Oscar’s strategy of showing us only the policeman’s back—his anonymity not only represents the faceless state, it focuses the viewer’s attention on the personalities of the community rather than on the officer’s judgment of them. Oscar Cahén, detail of The First (and Last) Ottawa Street Café. Cahén's personal message “Oscar Loves Mimi” is scrawled on the cornerstone Untitled (040) c. 1955 34
Oscar Cahén Life & Work by Jaleen Grove Untitled (040) c. 1955 Oscar Cahén, Untitled (040), c. 1955 Oil and felt pen on canvas, 76.2 x 91.4 cm Private collection Oscar Cahén often reworked his oil paintings many times before he was satisfied. In contrast, Untitled (040), c. 1955, is a swift, confident, and immediate work. Cahén intuitively renders sharply delineated elements with thin orange, red, and pink oil paint, and a new medium, felt pen (the pen ink was likely black, now faded to brown). Unlike oils, felt pen permitted no chance to alter a single mark or line. This strategy of impulsive artmaking with no editing originated in the Surrealist technique of automatism, which artists hoped would facilitate access to the unconscious and thus achieve more original creativity and self-knowledge. 35
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Oscar Cahén

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