ART MUST NOT BE BEAUTIFUL
Her artworks can now be found in museums all over the world. A major exhibition by Miriam Cahn is currently on show in Amsterdam.
Art that spares nothing and no one
A work by the artist Marina Abramović, which can be seen in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, among other places, shows Marina Abramović brushing her hair ever more wildly, almost desperately, while speaking into the camera: “Art Must Be Beautiful. Artist Must Be Beautiful “.
That seems to be the case. Exhibitions by Claude Monet, John Singer Sargent, Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt and William Turner are crowd pullers. The queues are endless and a spontaneous visit is almost always futile. Art that is perceived as beautiful always works.
Miriam Cahn’s art is quite different. For many, her pictures trigger the spontaneous reaction of wanting to leave the room of the museum or gallery in which they are on display immediately.
And only later, sometimes years or decades later, do we realize how powerful their works are. Other artists also depict war atrocities, sexualized violence, defenceless, maltreated people and grief in their works. Miriam Cahn, however, paints them so vividly that they remain in the memory.
Miriam Cahn
A major exhibition by Swiss artist Miriam Cahn, born in Basel in 1949, has just opened at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The title: Reading Dust.
It is impossible to escape the impression of her charcoal and pastel drawings. They force you to look where it hurts. This cannot be otherwise, because flight, violence, the Yugoslavian wars and the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 are almost indescribable and unbearable. The titles of the pictures, such as “WeinenMüssen”, “Nur weg hier”, attempt to describe the horror.
Describing paintings and installations, on the other hand, is almost impossible, you have to experience them. You can get a very good impression of the artist in the interview that Deutschlandfunk Kultur conducted with her this spring. It reveals a committed, youthful artist with her very own Swiss sense of humor and great self-confidence.
The works of the now established artist can be seen in many museums around the world.
The one and only Jean-Christoph Amann, director of the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main at the time, introduced us to Miriam Cahn during a tour in 1991. The enthusiasm with which he spoke of this artist was something we could only understand years later.
Amsterdam and Goslar
If you live in Amsterdam or will be there soon, we recommend visiting the exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum. Because experiencing rooms with her works gives a completely different impression than seeing just one or two of her works in the canon of contemporary art.
The titles of the works immediately show how well Miriam Cahn knows how to use words. Her homepage gives a good impression of this. Most of her texts can be read there.
The artist and some of her work can be seen here in a contribution by NDR Kultur.
The city of Goslar recently awarded her the prestigious Kaiserrings international art prize. She thanked her and sent the sculpture of a left arm, which was symbolically given the ring.
Cover picture: Miriam Cahn, exhibition “Everything is equally important” Madrid © Alamy Stock Photo
#Advertising #ProductPlacement #IndependentRecommendation #BecauseWeLoveIt
