Miriam Cahn

Miriam Cahn is a Swiss artist whose emotionally charged paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs confront themes of vulnerability, violence, identity and the human condition. For more than five decades, she has developed a deeply personal visual language that explores the body as a site of political, psychological and social experience.

Born in Basel, Switzerland in 1949, Cahn studied at the Schule für Gestaltung before emerging in the 1970s with large-scale charcoal drawings made directly on gallery floors and walls. Rooted in the feminist movement, these works challenged conventional approaches to drawing by emphasising gesture, scale and physical presence.

In the 1990s, Cahn turned increasingly to oil painting, developing the haunting figurative style for which she is now best-known. These luminous, often androgynous figures appear suspended between the real and the imagined, as seen in herumstehen, 9. + 29.1. + 13.4.17 (2017), which sold for £201,600 at Christie’s in 2023. This change in her mature work also marked the artist’s embrace of colour. As she reflected: ‘For me, colour was always a complication. And because I wanted to work quite directly and physically at first, I intentionally left out colours in order not to slow it down with an intermediate step.’

Cahn has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at institutions including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid and Haus der Kunst in Munich. She represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale in 1984, and her work has appeared in multiple editions of both the Biennale and Documenta. Through her uncompromising engagement with the complexities of contemporary life, Cahn has established herself as one of the defining voices of contemporary European art.

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

herumstehen, 9. + 29.1. + 13.4.17 (standing around, 9. + 29.1. + 13.4.17)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

Mare Nostrum 11.1.16 + 10⁄11.2.17 (Our Sea 11.1.16 + 10⁄11.2.17)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

FLUCHT (mit geschwister fluchten), 2010 + 26.02.2020 (ESCAPE (fleeing with siblings), 2010 + 26.02.2020)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

(gebet / unklar) in die zukunft, 18.11.1997 + 24.11.2002 ((Prayer / Unclear) in the Future, 18.11.1997 + 24.11.2002)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

WAS MICH ANSCHAUT, 02.10.2016

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

gezeichnet 17.6. + 3.7.2018 (drawn 17.6. + 3.7.2018)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

Unklar (Unclear)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

Sarajevo

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

gezeichnet 6.+ 9./20.9.16 (drawn 6.+ 9./20.9.16)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

Alpenrose

Miriam Cahn (née en 1949)

A + H Test

Miriam Cahn (née en 1949)

Farbigich

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

ereignis

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

flüchtenmüssen 01.02.2011 (have to flee 01.02.2011)

Miriam Cahn (née en 1949)

Sans titre (Gesicht)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

KINDER

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

pl ö tzlich herbst

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

13.9.05

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

herumliegen, 28.8.20 (lying around, 28.8.20)

Miriam Cahn (née en 1949)

A+H Test

Miriam Cahn (née en 1949)

träumen (bl.arb.) 5.11.92

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

schnell weg! (Let's go!)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

lachenmüssen 15. + 22.12.2017 + 7.1.2018 (have to laugh 15. + 22.12.2017 + 7.1.2018)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

Iachenmüssen

MIRIAM CAHN (1949)

Schlechter Tag, 1985 (fünfteilig)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

o.t.

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

Das Fliehen des Mannes

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

Denken, 8.4.06 (Think, 8.4.06)

MIRIAM CAHN (1949)

Fehlende Konzentration, 25.10.1985

MIRIAM CAHN (1949)

Den Tieren zu nahe, 1987

MIRIAM CAHN (1949)

Abschied vom griechischen Mann/Mensch, 11. Juli 1980

Miriam Cahn (b. 1949)

Lis unklar (a triptych)

MIRIAM CAHN (B. 1949)

urtierchen