Oscar Cahén

Oscar Cahén
Life & Work by Jaleen Grove
Untitled (040) leaves bare primed canvas showing as if it were paper. The forms
play with the nuanced distinction between painting and drawing. The solid mass of the
large shape on the left is drawn with the felt pen—while the ovoid shapes on the right
are not masses but merely outlines encircling weightless, empty spaces. The diagonal
thrusts of the centre lines and the slant of the other forms give the work a dynamic
appearance, as if all the elements were in motion. Yet their careful placement with a
balanced distribution of white space between each object suggests deliberate design, as
if someone had hit a “pause” button at just the right moment, resulting in a suspenseful
tension between movement and stasis, accident and intent.
Although the forms in Untitled (040) are ambiguous, the shapes on the right can
be read as bird-like. Cahén had a long-time interest in birds, painting roosters several
times, and peacocks, doves, songbirds, and fantastical birds such as Untitled (077),
1953. Although he left no record of what birds meant to him, they fit with his frequent
themes of growth, vitality, and freedom.
Oscar Cahén, Untitled (077), 1953, watercolour,
ink, resist, monoprint, 50.8 x 66 cm, private
collection
Warrior 1956
36