<strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> Life & Work by Jaleen Grove <strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> became famous for his facility as a draftsman, his innovation in a multitude of media, and his use of vivid colour. As a cartoonist and illustrator, he interpreted hundreds of stories in an ever-changing range of visual languages. In his painting he conveyed monumentality and passion. 56
<strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> Life & Work by Jaleen Grove European Roots <strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong>’s formative years were spent in artistic milieux characterized by great diversity of style and approach. In the Dresden of 1932, the German avant-garde turned to the Neue Sachlichkeit movement, which for proponent Otto Dix (1891–1969) meant turning back to Northern Renaissance altarpieces and highly detailed traditional techniques for inspiration. Dix was concerned with social commentary, as were many other German artists of the 1930s, including George Grosz (1893–1959), whose distorted, debauched figures related to Germany’s strong tradition of caricature. At the same time, the lessons of the Bauhaus art school—such as the famous maxim “Less is more!”—influenced what young designers like <strong>Cahén</strong> were taught. 1 <strong>Cahén</strong>’s versatility was further developed in Prague, where émigré artists such as Dadaist John Heartfield (1891–1968) gathered. Artists Otto Dix, Portrait of Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann, 1922, oil on canvas, 90.8 x 61.0 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, © Estate of Otto Dix / SODRAC (2015) were encouraged to diversify: graduates of the Rotter School of Advertising Art, where <strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> worked in 1937, pursued combinations of graphic design, painting, glass, film, children’s book illustration, photography, theatre design, and editorial illustration. As a young painter <strong>Cahén</strong> seems to have been more interested in the psychology of portraiture, and in recording contemporary lifestyles and places, than in challenging the definition of “art” or breaking down form. He applied contemporary touches to traditional forms: his early moody-looking self-portrait, conventionally drawn and modelled, shows a proto-Cubist sensibility with Post-Impressionist colour reminiscent of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906). The “meticulously executed” drawings he exhibited alongside his portraits and landscapes portray “the superficial life of the big city . . . lively girls with high hats, stockings, and walking sticks.” In 1940 art historian Otto Demus wrote that <strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong> was difficult to classify because of his “Allerweltstalent”— universal talent—but that “decorative improvisation” was his strength; the “right” <strong>Cahén</strong> was to be found in jazz band drawings rather than in his “too-smooth portraits.” <strong>Cahén</strong> was to fight against his prowess at almost slick drawing for the remainder of his career, always looking for more immediate, original ways to express his inner feelings. 3 4 2 5 George Grosz, The Hero, 1933, lithograph on paper, 40.4 x 28.9 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto <strong>Oscar</strong> <strong>Cahén</strong>, Self-portrait, c. 1930–40, oil on board, 36 x 25 cm, The <strong>Cahén</strong> Archives, Toronto. As a young painter <strong>Cahén</strong> seems to have been more interested in the psychology of portraiture than in challenging the definition of “art” 57
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