Marcelle Cahn (1895-1981): Construction 1920s

Artist
Marcelle Cahn
 
Title
Untitled
 
Medium
Woodcut
 
Material 
Paper
 
Dimensions
24 x 17.5 cm
 
Editor
Edition Panderma, Basel
 
Year
1966
 
Signature
Signed in pencil 
 
Provenance
Edition Panderma, Carl Laszlo, Basel
Galerie von Bartha, Basel
Private Collection, Basel
 
Condition / Restauration 
mint archival condition 
 
Biography: 
Marcelle Cahn was a French Avant-Garde (1895-1981). Cahn studied literature and philosophy at the University of Strasbourg. At the age of 19, in 1914, Marcelle met Simon Lévy, a young Alsatian painter who introduced her to Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. The period from 1914 to 1918 is marked by a stay in Berlin where her brother Roger performs his military service. Marcelle took the opportunity to attend the Lewin-Funke-Kunstschule in Charlottenburg where Eugene Spiro (portraits) and Lovis Corinth (nudes) taught at this time. In this city, Marcelle discovers with interest the expressionist artists of the Sturm. In 1920 Marcelle stayed in Paris and took the opportunity to see and review the works of Cezanne which represents for her the summit of modern painting. She also attends Arraujo's studio where she draws, paints and experiments with geometric shapes. Finally, she spent two months at the Académie Ranson and then returned to Strasbourg to continue independently her own research. In 1923 she went to Zurich to study philosophy; those, in particular, of Hans Lipps, Kant specialist. Edvard Munch who resides in the same hotel as Marcelle will never know that she is a painter. In 1925, returning to Paris, Marcelle attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and practiced nudes, still lifes, cubist drawings and paintings. Gallerist Léonce Rosenberg is interested in her work and puts her in touch with Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant. She gets in contact with Willi Baumeister, Léopold Survage, Tutundjian, Ossip Zadkine, Suzanne Valadon, Louise Hervieu, Michel Larionov, Natalia Goncharova. In 1926 Marcelle participated in the exhibition of the Société Anonyme at the Brooklyn Museum in New York and at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants. In 1929, Michel Seuphor invited Marcelle Cahn in the group Circle and Square, where she meets Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Piet Mondrian, Vassily Kandinsky, Georges Vantongerloo, Jean Gorin, Joaquín Torres García, etc.. She exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Independants and, as early as 1948, at the Salon des realités nouvelles. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions in Germany, Belgium, the United States, Italy and Switzerland. It was the subject in the years 1972-1974 of a traveling exhibition organized by the National Center for Contemporary Art. In France, the following museums own and show her works frequently: Museum of Cambrai, Museum of Art and History of Cholet, Unterlinden Museum of Colmar, Museum of Fine Arts of Dijon, Museum of Grenoble, Palace of Fine Arts Museum, Museum of the Ursulines of Mâcon, the Space of Concrete Art in Mouans-Sartoux.