Oscar Cahén

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Oscar Cahén Life & Work by Jaleen Grove abstract painting to perform. The dry brush marks are telltale painterly spoor, indices to precisely how the artist’s hand moved and at what speed. The viewer, hunting for meaning, responds viscerally, vicariously experiencing the touching of brush to canvas, the springy push-back of the stretched cotton, the rough nap grabbing the pigment, the simultaneous slipperiness and stickiness of the oil. The composition’s tripartite patterns are like drumbeats: three dashes in black; three dashes in pink; three rounded forms floating one above the other; three slashes in black, red, and blue. It recalls deconstructed musical notation reminiscent of the jazz Cahén loved. Through the beat of brushstrokes, the shocking red and pink and blue that blare like horns, the painting calls heart and soul to respond. Its drama arises from an evocation of ephemerality: each graffito hovers over the grey and white underpainting as if caught just before bouncing away like an echo. The relation between paint on canvas and sound and movement paralleled the recent abstract animations to jazz tracks by Norman McLaren (1914–1987). These films were shown in 1952 at an abstract art exhibition that included two works by Cahén. Fittingly, McLaren was awarded the first Oscar Cahén Memorial Award by the Art Directors Club of Toronto in 1957, for personal and genuine creativity over a long period. 3 2 1 Norman McLaren, video still from Boogie Doodle, 1941, National Film Board of Canada. Boogie Doodle is an animated film made without the use of a camera, in which “boogie” played by Albert Ammons and “doodle” drawn by Norman McLaren combine to make a rhythmic, brightly coloured film experiment 42
Oscar Cahén Life & Work by Jaleen Grove Oscar Cahén lived a brief but intense life. Although he worked in Canada for only fourteen years and exhibited his paintings for a scant eight, his role in the development of both illustration and abstract painting in Canada was pivotal. He gave fellow artists and designers confidence to experiment and to stand up to conservative backlash, setting an inspirational example with his engaging art. 43
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