Collection Postcard
Mariam Cahn, aus der wüste, 6.4.+7.5.11

Miriam Cahn
aus der wüste, 6.4.+7.5.11
Oil on canvas
180 × 105 cm

Aus der wüste translates as ‘from the desert’. A figure emerges from the dark sandy dunes in Cahn’s characteristic hazy but brightly coloured style. The genderless character is clasping an orange doll in one hand, the other being left as a swirl of paint.

In Cahn’s paintings of human figures certain body parts take precedence, particularly hands or genitalia. These are either depicted more life-like than the rest of the body or left as blurry outlines, standing out amongst more careful brushstrokes that delineate the other parts of the body. This hazyness is what gives her paintings their ghostly dream-like quality, not least because they are sometimes actually inspired by them; ‘Before, I would write dreams down. But I do not try to paint the dream like a film. Rather, I imagine myself back in the dream again, and strange things occur.’ (Cahn interviewed by Peter Burri, 2003).