Oscar Cahén 1916 - 1956

Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto

Gallery Moos, Toronto

Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada, Toronto, 2007, p. 98

Iris Nowell, Painters Eleven, The Wild Ones of Canadian Art, Toronto, 2010, p. 143

This watercolour is in excellent condition. There are some very minor spots of foxing in the unpainted portion of the paper along the upper edge. The paper is slightly buckled and there is a light horizontal crease along the center of the work.
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Cahén arrived from Europe in 1947, bringing with him a knowledge of avant-garde art movements there. Through his close friendship with Harold Town particularly, he came to influence and stimulate the artists in Toronto who became Painters Eleven. Roald Nasgaard noted that Cahén was considered to be not only the most sophisticated but also the most experienced of the members of Painters Eleven, having exhibited in Europe since 1934. His premature death in 1956 in a car accident (a coincidental parallel to Jackson Pollock) was a devastating blow to the budding artistic community.

Cahén's art rarely appears at auction. His crucial importance, as the studies of his generation of artists is revisited, is now being recognized more fully, and his strong and compelling work has now drawn a large following among collectors, curators and critics.