Oscar Cahén: Life & Work

OSCAR CAHÉN
Life & Work by Jaleen Grove
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OSCAR CAHÉN
Contents
03
Biography
15
Key Works
42
Significance & Critical Issues
51
Style & Technique
61
Where to See
68
Notes
79
Glossary
90
Sources & Resources
95
About the Author
96
Copyright & Credits
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OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén (1916–1956) arrived in Quebec from Europe in 1940 as an

unwilling refugee. Yet in a few short years the vibrant and emotionally
complex artist would broaden the scope of illustration and painting in
Canada. Cahén died suddenly in 1956, but not before rising to be one
of the nation’s most celebrated illustrators as well as a major influence
on fellow abstract painters, with whom he formed the renowned artist
collective Painters Eleven.
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CHILD OF MANY NATIONS

There exists a photograph of a grinning, teenaged Oscar Maximilian Cahén
and two unidentified companions taken at the Zwinger Palace in Dresden,
Germany. Young Cahén had used a fake birth date in order to gain acceptance
into Dresden’s State Academy for Applied Arts in March 1932, at the age of
sixteen. 1 The photo, with a corner now ripped away, bears the scars of the
upheaval soon to come: Nazi aggression precipitated his family’s departure
from Germany, then his separation from his parents, and his eventual arrival in
Canada as an interned refugee.
Oscar Cahén, right, and an unidentified couple visiting Zwinger Palace in Dresden, c. 1932. The Zwinger Palace was mostly destroyed by
carpet-bombing raids in February 1945 and was reconstructed in the decades following the war.
Oscar was born to Fritz Max and Eugenie Cahén on February 8, 1916, in
Copenhagen; his Jewish father was first a professor of art history and then a
prominent Copenhagen correspondent for the German newspaper Frankfurter
Zeitung. 2 Fritz Max Cahén also translated the works of Apollinaire for the
Expressionist periodical Der Sturm and published art criticism. 3 By 1916 he
was a confidant of and assistant to Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, who represented
Germany during the negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles. Fritz Max also
became involved in espionage during the war. 4
From 1920 to 1932 Fritz Max Cahén’s journalism work brought the family to
Berlin, Paris, and Rome. Adolescent Oscar studied art in the latter two cities,
but no details are at present known. 5 In Dresden, Oscar took illustration and
commercial art instruction in the Academy studio of Max Frey (1874–1944). At
this time, advertising and popular illustration were thought by many to be the
art of modern times. Posters were considered “art for the people,” decorating
outdoor space and improving the public’s aesthetic sophistication.
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LEFT: Cover of the first American edition of Fritz Max Cahén’s Men Against Hitler, 1939. RIGHT: Oscar Cahén, Untitled (559), 1931, ink
on paper, 95.3 x 69.9 cm, The Cahén Archives, Toronto. This is a poster design Cahén made as a student at the State Academy for
Applied Arts, Dresden.
ON THE RUN
Fritz Max Cahén, a Social Democrat, was assaulted when he attempted to
address a Nazi meeting in 1930. Two years later, he began collaborating
with an underground network to oppose Hitler. 6 In 1933, when the Nazi
Party rose to power, the Cahéns’ German citizenships were revoked
because of Fritz Max’s Jewish blood.
Pursued by forty storm troopers, the family stole out of Dresden on

August 3, 1933—with Oscar in “a state of nerves” so bad that his father
feared it would betray their intent to defect at the Czech border. 7 By
May 1934 the Cahéns had shifted to Stockholm, where Oscar continued
to study art. 8 He also mounted a solo exhibition in Copenhagen that
attracted reviews offering encouragement for his “refined advertising
art."9
This cartoon drawn by Cahén appeared in

The Cahéns returned to Prague in March 1935, where Fritz Max Cahén the Czech paper Osveny in 1934. The
led a resistance group—and resumed espionage. 10 Oscar contributed to caption reads, “My husband is an angel!”
“Rejoice, mine is still alive.”
the desperate family finances with advertising art commissions, erotic
drawings, and cartoons. 11 Many were anti-Hitler jokes. 12 One, published
in the German refugees’ satirical magazine Der Simpl, shows two semi-nude
women. The first says, “My husband is an angel,” to which the other replies,
“Rejoice, mine is still alive!”
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Impoverished, Oscar was graciously given some studio space by William

Pachner (b. 1915), an established illustrator who later moved to the United
States. 14 Oscar and Pachner formed a partnership, and Oscar quickly
absorbed Pachner’s fluid style. 14
Oscar Cahén, Untitled, c. 1943, clippings of published work, publication unknown, approx. 9 x 6 and 10 x 7 cm, The Cahén Archives,
Toronto. Cahén’s cartoons depict Japan’s Emperor Hirohito, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, German Chancellor Adolph Hitler,
and SS leader Heinrich Himmler. Cahén has inscribed the cartoons “based on Szik [sic]” indicating the influence of cartoon artist Arthur
Szyk, a Polish-Jewish illustrator, whose satirical cartoons circulated widely during WWII.
Oscar not only became a member

of his father’s group but also
assisted by illegally crossing the
border into Germany for unknown
purposes, and helped complete an
arms deal his father brokered. 15 In
1937 Czech police interrogated
the Cahéns about illegal short-
wave radio equipment in Oscar’s
possession (for broadcasting anti-
Nazi propaganda) and searched
their apartment. 16 Soon after Fritz
Max travelled to the United States,
ostensibly to write about American
democracy for a Czech paper. 17 It LEFT: Poster designed by Vilém Rotter for the 1934 International Fair in Prague. RIGHT:
would be twenty years before he Oscar Cahén, Untitled (084), 1939, ink and watercolour on illustration board, 68.6 x 54
cm, The Cahén Archives, Toronto.
and Eugenie would be reunited.
In mid-1937 Oscar began working and teaching at the Rotter School of

Advertising Art in Prague and working at the related Rotter Studio. This large
ad agency founded by Vilém Rotter (1903–1960), one of the most progressive
graphic designers in Europe, handled automobile industry and other big
accounts. But Oscar was forced to quit after a few months because the state
did not permit refugees to work. 18 He therefore planned to emigrate to the
United States. 19
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Instead, Oscar and Eugenie made a narrow escape to England on March 3,

1939—twelve days before Nazi occupation of Prague. Czech officials who
remembered Fritz Max’s service got them passports, but only with difficulty
because of Oscar’s involvement with the radio and arms deal. 20
WARTIME IN QUEBEC
Cahén was prohibited from working in Britain too, but he kept drawing. In May
1940 the British government began to detain refugees, lest they be German
spies. Twenty-four-year-old Cahén was loaded onto the prison ship Ettric with
over two thousand mainly German Jewish men officially classed as prisoners of
war and enemy aliens. They arrived in Montreal on July 13, 1940. 21 Eugenie,
too, was interned from May 1940 to December 1941, in Great Britain. They
were not to see each other again for seven years.
Among Oscar Cahén’s effects is a

poem that he wrote in German:
I’m living in the filth of an old

factory. . .
I have a courtyard and a
machine hall,
Guards and a barbed wire
fence.
We are 700 of us, and can
only
Look out over it angry and
swearing.
They feed us well and dress

us warm
And look past us with
A group of internees behind the barbed-wire fences at the Camp N internment camp in
contempt.
Sherbrooke, Quebec, on November 19, 1945. Library and Archives Canada.
Never before in our lives were
we so poor –
And what's more once we were free. 22
The scene is Camp N, near Sherbrooke, Quebec, where Cahén was interned for
two years. Later, he equated Camp N with a Nazi prisoner of war camp in a
short-story illustration; the telltale jacket with the scarlet circle identifies it as
Camp N, where interns had to wear the hated red target on their backs.
According to former inmates, abuse ranging from schoolyard-level anti-
Semitism to rape was committed by Canadian soldiers there. 23 But Cahén’s
fellow “camp boys” remember him as cheerful, cracking jokes with a wry
“Berliner” wit. 24 These two faces—one dark and tragic, the other playful and
optimistic—characterize not just Cahén’s personality, but his later artwork as
well.
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LEFT: Cahén’s illustration for the short story, “Mail,” by John Norman Harris, Maclean’s, 1950. RIGHT: Photograph of an internee in a
camp uniform at Camp N in Sherbrooke, Quebec, c. 1940–42. Photograph by internee Marcell Seidler, who secretly documented camp life
using a handmade pinhole camera.
His intimate friend Beatrice

Shapiro Fischer relates that she
met Oscar Cahén when she—an
editorial staff member of Magazine
Digest in Toronto—came to
interview an internee, and Cahén
bribed the other men with
drawings so that they would drop
LEFT: Oscar Cahén, Untitled, c. 1941, watercolour on paper, 14.6 x 21.6 cm, collection of
out of the line-up to see her.
Beatrice Fischer. Cahén mailed this watercolour and its counterpart (right) to Beatrice
Crowded into a guard’s kiosk with Fischer while he was interned in Camp N. RIGHT: Oscar Cahén, Untitled, c. 1941,
no place to sit, standing eye to eye watercolour on paper, 14.6 x 21.6 cm, collection of Beatrice Fischer. This image and its
counterpart (left) likely depict the landscape around the camp in Sherbooke, Quebec.
as she asked her questions, they
fell in love. Cahén was
“wonderfully humorous,” she remembers, but clearly suffering from stress. He
was “this quivering, brilliant, agonized presence” and “his face was pain-filled . .
. that pain never entirely left him."25
In 1942 a liaison with the Central Committee for Interned Refugees took his
and other internees’ artwork to prospective employers in Montreal. The
Standard requested drawings of a rather clichéd ski chalet scene while
cautioning that “this trial is on a purely speculative basis."26 Soon The
Standard proudly told readers: “[Oscar Cahén’s illustrations] are so outstanding
that we’ve sent him some of our coming fiction offerings. . . . Watch for his
name because he is our ‘find’ in the world of commercial art."27 Contrary to
previous reports,28 the subjects Cahén illustrated were amusing and
lighthearted. He loyally remained a regular illustrator for The Standard until his
death.
Meanwhile Oscar and Beatrice kept
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up correspondence, and she

moved to Montreal in order to
help free the interns. Secure
employment was the prerequisite
for being released from Camp N,
so Beatrice found jobs for herself
and then for Oscar with
entrepreneur Colin Gravenor, who
ran a public relations firm. Oscar
Cahén was released from Camp N
on October 26, 1942. At
Gravenor’s firm, he and Beatrice
collaborated as writer and
illustrator.
Oscar Cahén and Beatrice Fischer photographed on the street in Montreal, c. 1943.
In November 1943 Gravenor used
his influence to get Cahén into a prestigious exhibition at the Art Association
of Montreal. 29 There was no better exposure for a Montreal artist. 30 A review
noted that Cahén “works by many methods, in many styles, and with many
subjects . . . there are good designs . . . neat caricatures and remarkably good
and suggestive sketches of heads and figures."31 Earlier the same year Cahén
had joined the Montreal office of Rapid, Grip and Batten, where he was the
highest paid artist, at $90 a week. 32
In 1943 American officials told Oscar that Fritz Max was mentally ill and
required “chemical therapy,” and could be deported back to Nazi-controlled
Europe. 33 His mother, meanwhile, was stuck in England, where she now
worked for the BBC. Despite these traumas, Oscar’s personal life improved.
STABILITY IN TORONTO
Although he retained his love for
Beatrice, in 1943 Oscar met and
married Martha (Mimi) Levinsky,
daughter of a Polish rabbi, who
had spent her childhood in the
Netherlands. 34 Sadly for Mimi, her
Orthodox parents disowned her
for marrying Oscar. Their only
child, Michael, was born May 8,
1945; Michael—affectionately
nicknamed The Noodnik and The
Monster—appeared in several cover LEFT: Michael, Oscar, and Mimi at their home in King Township, 1951. RIGHT: Oscar
designs for Maclean’s and other Cahén, Magazine Digest cover design, c. 1946, printer’s proof, The Cahén Archives,
Toronto.
magazines.
In late 1944 Oscar Cahén moved to Toronto to become art director for
Magazine Digest. He introduced cheerful covers and interior cartoons and, in
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utter contrast, two gut-wrenching visual essays concerning impoverished

Native Americans and orphaned children in Europe.
Cahén began to put down roots, building a rustic house and studio himself on
Fogwood Farm near King City (just north of Toronto) in 1946. 35 The families
of illustrator Frank Fog (1915–unknown) and art director Bill Kettlewell (1914–
1988) already had houses there. That same year he was granted Canadian
citizenship; in June 1947 his mother arrived from England. With the stability of
steady freelance income and a home of his own at last, Cahén gave up
Magazine Digest and began painting for himself. It was finally safe to process
the years of exile and war, and he “began to release fine frenzies in paint [that]
if left pent-up torment him to the point of nervous breakdown,” as one news
feature put it. 36
Fritz Max, still not well, was at first not permitted and was then unwilling to join
his wife and son in Canada. 37 Perhaps these painful facts informed Oscar’s
images of suffering families and grief, their bodies marked with savage, heavy
strokes. Paintings from this time, known only from inscribed photographs,
depict an emaciated Holocaust victim and a drowned woman. During the late
1940s Cahén also produced a series of paintings and mixed-media works on
Christian themes, including the largest canvas he had completed to date, the
highly Cubist The Adoration, 1949.
Photograph of lost painting, captioned “This is Belsen inmate” on reverse, c. 1946.
Despite the darkness within, the charismatic Cahén hosted weekly summer
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gatherings,38 and his social circle expanded happily to include artists and
designers Harold Town (1924–1990), Walter Trier (1890–1951), Albert Franck
(1899–1973), and Walter Yarwood (1917–1996).
PROSPERITY AND PROMINENCE

Around 1949 Cahén began exploring wholly abstract forms, establishing his
personal vocabulary of crescents, spikes, ovoids, and hot, startling colour by
1952. He also explored printmaking and ceramics. His time seems to have
been split fairly evenly between illustrating and painting, the former providing
the financial stability and social prominence that allowed him to be as
experimental as he wanted in his self-directed works.
Oscar Cahén, illustration for “The Most Beautiful Girl I’ve Ever Known,” 1951, by Douglas Carmichael, Maclean’s, September 15, 1951,
rotogravure tearsheet. The location of original art for this illustration is currently unknown.
In about 1951 a New York firm purportedly was unsuccessful in their attempt to
recruit Oscar Cahén with an offer of a $25,000 salary (the average U.S. income
for 1950 was $3,216). 39 Between 1950 and 1957, Canadian magazines
published at least three hundred of Cahén’s illustrations. His rendering for
“The Most Beautiful Girl I’ve Ever Known” won the 1952 medal for Editorial
Illustration from the Art Directors Club of Toronto; it was then exhibited by the
Art Directors Club of New York, alongside Norman Rockwell (1894–1978), Al
Parker (1906–1985), and other American luminaries. 40 In Canadian Art
magazine Cahén said, “The trade of illustrator is often looked down upon by
‘fine artists’ which is regrettable.… Creative illustration combines fine artistic
values with literary and realistic interpretations."41
He was able to purchase a sports car, and around 1952 the Cahéns began to
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drive to resorts near Venice and Naples in Florida each winter, where many
American artists were active. Research on his time there, the connections
made, the art seen, and what cities they may have visited on the long journeys
back and forth has not yet been done. Near Oakville, Ontario, the Cahéns built
a sophisticated new house with a large studio space and moved there in 1955.
The house was a galaxy of difference from the makeshift barracks of Camp N,
where Oscar had made his first Canadian illustrations.
LEFT: Photograph of Cahén taken for an article in the Autumn 1950 issue of Canadian Art magazine, but unused. RIGHT: Oscar in his
beloved Austin-Healey sports car.
Creatively, illustration had the advantages of access to a wide audience and

licence to explore media and ideas not considered serious enough for gallery
art—but the obligation to communicate in easily understood pictures precluded
certain types of creative expression. Abstract painting permitted self-
expression in non-literal modes—but many Canadians and fellow artists did not
appreciate such art. The problem of broadening Canadians’ visual horizons was
a matter of concern for avant-garde and modern artists. In 1948 expatriate
painter James Imlach (untraced)—a friend of Cahén, Walter Yarwood (1917–
1996), and Harold Town (1924–1990)—writing from New York, urged them “to
work towards a true progressive school of art in Canada and show the world
what the soil of spacious freedom can do for mankind."42 In 1953 the three
discussed mounting an exhibition of abstract painting only, in order to show “a
unity of contemporary purpose."43
By coincidence, only weeks later,
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artist William Ronald (1926–1998)

convinced the Simpson’s
department store in Toronto to
display some abstract paintings
with their sleek postwar modern
furniture. Cahén submitted Candy
Tree, 1952–53, and Bird and
Flowers, 1953. According to Town,
during a publicity photo shoot of
participants, Cahén brought up the
group show idea, and an ensuing
meeting resulted in the formation
of the collective Painters Eleven to
do just that. 44 Active until 1960, LEFT: Members of the Painters Eleven during the Simpson's department store Abstracts
Painters Eleven members were at Home display, 1953. From left: Tom Hodgson, Oscar Cahén, Alexandra Luke, Kazuo
Nakamura, Ray Mead, Jack Bush, and William Ronald. Photo by Everett Roseborough.
Jack Bush (1909–1997), Cahén, RIGHT: Oscar Cahén, Candy Tree, 1952–53, oil on Masonite, 123 x 75 cm, private
Hortense Gordon (1889–1961), collection.
Tom Hodgson (1924–2006),

Alexandra Luke (1901–1967), Jock Macdonald (1897–1960), Ray Mead (1921–
1998), Kazuo Nakamura (1926–2002), Ronald, Town, and Yarwood.
LEFT: Oscar Cahén, Requiem, c. 1953, oil on canvas, current location unknown. RIGHT: Oscar Cahén, Untitled (616), 1956, oil on
Masonite, 58.4 x 84.2 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Untitled (616), 1956, is likely unfinished. It was on his easel at his time of
death in November 1956.
The group legitimized abstract art, inspired younger artists to follow avant-
garde directions, and brought Canadian art into conversation with
international contemporary art trends and critics.
The work Cahén now produced was playful, bright, and lyrical; it was also bold,
dark, and aggressive, reflecting the ongoing contrasts in Cahén’s life. A
growing, invigorating public profile encouraged his output: Cahén’s exhibition
record between 1953 and 1956 reveals that his art was on display almost
constantly,45 while his illustrations appeared every month.
Cahén was so well known by 1953 that he was asked to give a celebrity
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endorsement for a Crosley television set ad. 46 His canvas Requiem, c.

1953 (currently unlocated) was included in the 2nd Bienal de São Paulo,
Brazil, 1953–54. While success came rapidly now, dark corners remained:
his father, Fritz Max Cahén, still resided in the United States, and Oscar
said that he had “lost touch” with him. 47 His wife, Mimi, doubtlessly
suffering from her own family history, proved to be a difficult partner.
Oscar’s strong but secret feelings for his friend Beatrice Fischer, whom he
saw often, continued. 48
Oscar Cahén included mainly abstract works in his first solo art show
(Hart House, Toronto, October 16, 1954). Yet he continued to value Portrait of Oscar Cahén in his studio in
representational approaches: in 1956 he used a sun motif in a mural 1951. Photograph by Page Toles.
commissioned by Imperial Oil, and he completed the large canvas

Warrior, 1956. Stark contrasts power the abstract work Untitled (616) of the
same year: its forceful brushwork is both optimistically energetic and tersely
violent.
One late-autumn day in 1956, driving home in his new Studebaker Hawk,
Oscar Cahén died in a collision with an oncoming dump truck. He was forty
years old. There is a photograph of Oscar Cahén taken in 1951 and later
inscribed on the back by his mother, Eugenie: “My beloved son Oscar Cahén
shortly before his death 1956, 26 November.” The photo shows a much
different Oscar than the grinning boy seen in Dresden circa 1930. This Oscar,
filled with memories of disenfranchisement, flight, internment, and rebirth in a
strange country, does not smile: he stands erect with fists on hips before his
easel and numerous drawings, staring boldly, defiantly, into the lens, serious
about his work. 49
In the aftermath of Cahén’s death, Harold Town and Walter Yarwood arranged
a memorial exhibition held at the Art Gallery of Toronto in March 1959, and
other retrospectives have followed over the years. Nevertheless, Cahén’s
legacy was diminished by the lingering after-effects of wartime trauma:
Eugenie left to rejoin Fritz Max, who had returned to Germany in 1954; and
Mimi, suffering from depression, could not manage the estate well alone. As a
result, most of Cahén’s drawings and paintings lay unknown in storage for over
forty years. Happily, when his son, Michael Cahén, inherited the collection, he
began making it and related papers accessible, and scholars are re-evaluating
Oscar Cahén’s contribution to Canadian art.
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Oscar Cahén moved nimbly between media, style, and subject matter
as if he were twenty different artists in one. Consequently, the following
handful of works necessarily omits many facets relevant to his oeuvre.
Nevertheless, it is possible to tell a story of Cahén’s creative journey
through a selection of his art that marks some of the major themes and
formal aesthetic problems that concerned him, as well as through an
exploration of the important milestones in his rise to prominence.
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UNTITLED (PIANO PLAYER) 1943
Oscar Cahén, Untitled (Piano Player), 1943

Conté on wove paper, 50.8 x 38.1 cm
Private collection
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A jazz and nightlife aficionado,

Oscar Cahén played guitar and
clarinet. Gerry Waldston, who
apprenticed with Cahén at the
commercial art studio Rapid, Grip
and Batten in 1944, recalls that “he
was crazy for music and when he
drew the stuff he could shake it out
of his elbow like it was nothing
—nothing!"1 This facility is evident
in the immediate, gestural quality
of his sketch of a pianist.
In 1943 Cahén included this LEFT: Oscar Cahén with a guitar, c. 1945. Photograph by Geraldine Carpenter. RIGHT:
drawing in a show at the Art Oscar Cahén, illustration for “A Night Out in Montreal,” Weekend, December 28, 1956,
tearsheet.
Association of Montreal, the city’s
most prestigious art venue. 2 The
African-American musician’s features are simplified and exaggerated, in a
manner not unlike that of celebrity caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) and
Quebec political cartoonist Robert LaPalme (1908–1997). Although the
portrait’s racial stereotyping may be objectionable today, it was not intended
to be disrespectful by 1943 standards. In the assured, graceful curves of the
man’s arm, back, and dignified, elevated head, which contrast with the jumble
of the rapidly moving fingers, Cahén has captured the musician’s self-
confidence and dexterity. One reviewer commented, “Oscar Cahén has a flair
for figures in motion and succeeds very well,"3 while another said, “we found
[Cahén’s] rough of a boogey-woogey pianist superb."4
In following years Cahén was often asked to illustrate glamorous nightlife. In

1956 he was living in Oakville, Ontario, but he ventured back to Montreal as an
illustrator-reporter to depict its club scene. Unusually, the outing was Cahén’s
idea, and drawings were made in advance of the text—a mark of the esteem
publishers held him in. 5
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HIROSHIMA COVER ILLUSTRATION 1946
Oscar Cahén, Cover illustration for Hiroshima by John Hersey, published in The
Standard magazine, September 28, 1946
Tearsheet, 40 x 30 cm
Location of original art unknown
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Because of his experience as a refugee, Cahén was often asked to

illustrate war-related stories. Journalist John Hersey’s recounting of
Hiroshima’s obliteration by nuclear attack on August 6, 1945 (first
published in The New Yorker) describes the suffering of civilians from
radiation in grisly detail. In what may be a research sketch, illustrated
here, Cahén drew a horrifically injured woman. But Hiroshima required a
treatment suitable for the newspaper’s general audience—“Not too much
blood, please!” the client pleaded. 1 The illustrations also had to solicit
sympathy for the victims—no small feat given that Japan was regarded as
the deserving enemy at the time. Additionally, Cahén had to work in a
style that would translate well in solid colours on newsprint.
Cahén chose to portray realistically proportioned figures free of

caricature, rendered only in black line. The cover shows vulnerable
people: an elderly man, hat respectfully held in his hand, and foraging
women and children dwarfed by a wasted landscape. The menacing,
abstract shape of twisted wreckage in the foreground not only indicates
Oscar Cahén, Untitled (389), 1946, conté
the force of the blast but also nods to Japanese woodcut design, where on paper, 54.6 x 34.3 cm, The Cahén
refined use of asymmetrical shapes to frame a scene and make an Archives, Toronto.
interesting formal composition is esteemed. Similar devices appear later
in Cahén’s abstract works.
Hiroshima was a major commission, including an additional fourteen spot-

illustrations of survivors, wreckage, and rebuilding efforts, and four decorated
capital letters. When the American literary agents saw Cahén’s work, they wrote
him to say that of all the illustration done for the eight hundred publications
of Hiroshima worldwide, Cahén’s were their favourite. 2
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ILLUSTRATION FOR “THE CALIFORNIAN’S TALE” 1947
Oscar Cahén, Illustration for “The Californian’s Tale,” by Mark Twain, published in New
Liberty, January 24, 1947
60.6 x 44.8 cm
Private collection
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Oscar Cahén believed that illustration could and should stretch the
public’s aesthetic sophistication and that it was capable of embodying
“those fundamental emotions which are expressed in good [fine] art
work."1 German Expressionism, to which Cahén would have been well
exposed in Europe, and Gothic art, of which he collected reproductions,
inform his distortions of figures for Mark Twain’s tale about a
heartbroken, mentally unsound old miner. Rendered in heavily
outlined impasto gouache, the men enact a scene reminiscent of Gothic
iconography in which a hollow-eyed, cadaver-like Jesus descends from
the cross. The emaciated limbs and angular hands and feet of the Twain
characters recall lost paintings by Cahén of a Belsen concentration camp
victim and a drowned woman as well as his paintings of Christ
and Praying Man of 1947.
Oscar Cahén, Praying Man (170), 1947, oil
on canvas board, 59.7 x 49.3 cm, private
New Liberty—which had just been acquired by Canadian publishers and collection.
made independent from the originating American publisher of Liberty—
commissioned many such illustrations that were decidedly more outré than
other periodicals would risk, probably because it helped them secure a distinct
identity. The appearance of The Californian’s Tale and others provoked
complaints from readers: “Do you keep your illustrator Oscar in a padded cell?
No one in their right mind could think up such repulsive and hideous things to
represent human beings,” jeered one. 2 But among Cahén’s peers, the
illustration for “The Californian’s Tale” was well received. It was chosen for the
1949 exhibition of the Art Directors Club of Toronto by popular vote of its
membership. 3
The unnerving images Cahén drew for New Liberty marked an important turn
in Canadian illustration where Canadians began to break with prettified
American standards. These, and related Expressionist works such as Praying
Man, 1947, led his friend James Imlach, who had moved to the United States,
to say in 1948, “You [Cahén, Harold Town, and Walter Yarwood] can start a
new and lively school of art in Canada devoid of the stiff realistic rendering of
the British influence on the colonies."4/sup>
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THE ADORATION 1949
Oscar Cahén, The Adoration, 1949

Oil on Masonite, 122 x 133 cm
Private collection
“My ambition is to show people through my work that the fundamental thing is
to have faith,” said Cahén. 1 The Adoration, first shown at the Exhibition of
Contemporary Canadian Arts, 1950, and marked “Not for Sale,” was Oscar
Cahén’s most ambitious work made prior to his turn to abstract painting. It
depicts a traditional baby Jesus attended by Mary, Magi, and animals (and
some untraditional others, such as the foreground figure bearing a lantern).
However, the ethnically half-Jewish Cahén’s actual religious identity remains
enigmatic. A friend recalled, “He wished he could believe in God because he
wanted so much to know the peace from believing. He made a thorough study
of almost every religion in the world and had the uncomfortable habit of
suddenly saying, ‘Tell me, why do you believe in God?’"2
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OSCAR CAHÉN
Later, Cahén was to say his abstract paintings were in part a search for
faith;3 perhaps figuration could not sufficiently address his spiritual
questions. We might therefore think of The Adoration and other works
with Christian subjects as allegories of universal themes rather than
worshipful biblical illustrations. The prominent hanukkiyah (nine-candle
menorah used during Hanukkah) in the lower left suggests that, as in the
paintings of crucifixions by Marc Chagall (1887–1985), Cahén’s depictions
of Jesus’s suffering might function as oblique comments on the
persecution of Jews in general. 4/sup>
The Adoration brings Cahén’s interest in the work of Georges

Rouault (1871–1958) and Gothic-period German art together
with Cubism. The planes and edges of The Adoration’s figures are hidden
and revealed by a mosaic of interlocking, angular shapes. Bright colours,
more than narrative, direct the viewer’s eye from the yellow Star of
Bethlehem to the picture’s focal point, Jesus in Mary’s hands. But the
Oscar Cahén, Crucifixion (737), c. 1948,
focal point is overwhelmed by the blinding whiteness of Mary’s near- ink on illustration board, approx.
rectangular apron, signifying her purity. The resulting surface pattern and 31 x 23 cm, The Cahén Archives, Toronto.
visual dominance of the relatively secondary status of the apron to the

story anticipates Cahén’s impending exploration of abstraction rather than
illustration.
23
OSCAR CAHÉN
MACLEAN’S COVER ILLUSTRATION 1952
Oscar Cahén, Cover illustration for Maclean’s, January 15, 1952

Tearsheet, 35 x 27 cm
Original in illustration in a private collection
24
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén designed thirty-eight covers for Maclean’s, then Canada’s

dominant national magazine. Magazine covers were prestigious because they
allowed more freedom than most other kinds of illustration assignments; it was
the artist’s responsibility and privilege to come up with smart ideas, for which
he or she was well compensated. Seen across the entire nation, sometimes
framed to hang on people’s walls, Maclean’s covers were ideal for delivering an
important message in the guise of a playful cartoon.
Cahén and his colleagues were

confronting a Canadian art milieu
that saw abstract art as mere
“meaningless doodling."1 During
the 1951 exhibition of the Ontario
Society of Artists (OSA),
conservative artists resigned in
protest over the new swell of
modern art. In press coverage of
the controversy, Oscar Cahén’s
Expressionist Rooster, c. 1950–51,
was singled out. 1 Consequently,
Cahén designed this cover poking
fun at a cliché of Canadian art: the
wintery landscape, such as
the Group of Seven had painted. In
LEFT: Oscar Cahén, Rooster, c. 1950–51, current location unknown. RIGHT: Oscar Cahén,
the illustration, the art gallery wall
Cover illustration for Maclean’s, October 15, 1951, rotogravure tearsheet. Original art in
is lined with them, but the winter- collection of The Cahén Archives, Toronto.
weary visitors in their heavy
clothing have eyes only for the one summer scene—marked sold with a red
star.
In a related cover that ran a couple of months prior, Cahén designed a cover
showing an artist insistently painting a traditional landscape while the world he
is painting is unmistakably Cubist. The illustrator thus questions the
assumption that a conventionally representational view of the world is always
the “correct” one. In the corner appear the letters “N.M.O.S.A.”—likely standing
for “Non-Member of the Ontario Society of Artists.”
Cahén often put personal subject matter into his illustrations: in one work his
toddler son waits for Santa Claus, in another he eyes jam being cooked by his
mother. The church that the artist paints here appears on several covers.
According to the artist’s son, Michael, it was inspired by a church in the (then)
small village of King City on the outskirts of Toronto, where the Cahén family
lived from 1947 to 1954.
25
OSCAR CAHÉN
ASCEND 1952
Oscar Cahén, Ascend, 1952

Watercolour, pastel, and charcoal on illustration board, 97.5 x 75.9 cm
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
26
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén had been experimenting with abstraction since at least 1949, but
it was not until 1952 that he entered a completely abstract work, Ascend, into
an Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) show. This was also the first of his exhibited
pieces to adopt a verb for a title, inviting (or commanding) the viewer to
engage with the painting as an experience rather than a thing. Ascend, coming
on the heels of Cahén’s exploration of Christian themes and just as he was
entering a period of intense creative activity, conveys a powerful sense of
rebirth.
The painterly drawing hints at upward movement with hard-edged

vertical lines and shafts, the imperfectly rounded forms trapped in or
escaping geometric confines. Contrasts of dark and light and illusions of
transparency give an atmospheric impression of sun penetrating a
gloomy place. The composition tautly suspends its shapes and lines in
relation to the corners and sides of the canvas, each and every part vital
to the balance and dynamism of the whole. This concern with design
over the entirety is a departure from Cahén’s prior tendency to use the
edges of a work to merely frame a centred object.
Cahén continued Ascend’s dramatic contrasts of dark and light

in Requiem, c. 1953 (current location unknown), a canvas included in the
prestigious 2nd Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil, 1953–54; he rehearsed its
basic structure again in Object d’Art, c. 1953. The latter’s self-reflexive
title, which was typical of many of his from this period, shows Cahén Oscar Cahén, Object d’Art, c. 1953, oil on
becoming interested in the materiality and status of artworks as artifacts. Masonite, 121.9 x 91.4 cm, private
collection.
For the next few years the artist was preoccupied with paintings that treat
their spaces as design problems to be solved with strict
compartmentalizations defined with heavy, gestural lines and bold colours
calculated to elicit an emotional response. Ascend marks the beginning of this
important phase.
27
OSCAR CAHÉN
GROWING FORM 1953
Oscar Cahén, Growing Form, 1953

Oil on Masonite, 71.12 x 114.5 cm
RBC Corporate Art Collection
By 1953 Oscar Cahén was confidently painting many large abstracts in oil. He
participated in ten exhibitions that year alone and eleven more in
1954. Growing Form was included in his first solo show, held at Hart House in
Toronto in October 1954 at the invitation of the art committee there. 1
Conservative critic Hugh Thomson ridiculed the show, calling the paintings
“vague” and “screw-ball,” similar to “the work we used to do in kindergarten."2
Although he was exploring purely formalist problems at the time, Growing

Form is typical of Cahén’s ongoing interest in converting recognizable subject
matter into emotionally resonant abstracted forms. Like other painters of the
period, he was “fascinated” by popular British artist Graham Sutherland (1903–
1980), whose thorny organic compositions had been recently shown in
Toronto. 3 But Cahén had not simply adopted a trendy trope. For some time,
he had been developing the motif of a barbed, upward-thrusting tall shape,
crowned with a bloom of crescents.
28
OSCAR CAHÉN
In a number of illustrations, Cahén

depicts thorny roses, and in his
personal work he paints them in
ink or in oil. In his illustrations he
also frequently portrays a grasping
hand that stands in for disease, for
authorities stealing children, for
fate, and other ominous concepts.
In drawings he analyzes plants,
hands, and heads for
essential Cubist forms, as
in Untitled (405), c. 1952, which LEFT: Graham Sutherland, Thorn Trees, 1945, oil on cardboard, 108.6 x 101 cm, Albright
Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York. RIGHT: Oscar Cahén, Untitled (405), c. 1952, monoprint
shows a man’s upturned, open- and pastel, 58.4 x 61 cm, The Cahén Archives, Toronto.
mouthed head emerging from
neck and torso, arms raised. These mouths and hands become sharp, curved
talons, beaks, and spurs in Cahén’s multiple renditions of crowing and fighting
cocks. Reduced to their most pure expressions, at times these subjects appear
as simply a stick with a crescent at its end. In a work he captioned “Child Father
and Mother,” c. 1952–54, Cahén identified the stick-crescent as the “father.”
Growing Form—from its provenance of forms jabbing, seizing, fighting, and

crying out—is more than a tree or flower or simple stick and crescent. Rendered
in intense reds with complementary teal and defiant black strokes, its florid,
virile “growth” surges up like a fist, conveying a sense of challenge, a call to
battle, and a recognition that transformation and flourishing growth
accompany pain and suffering—that there is no rose without thorns.
29
OSCAR CAHÉN
SMALL COMBO 1954
Oscar Cahén, Small Combo, c. 1954

Oil on Masonite, 91.4 x 71.1 cm
Private collection
30
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén is most often remembered for the way he used colour: like
“a battering ram,” as a critic said in 1954. 1 Small Combo, with a daring
composition that emphasizes the right-hand edge of the painting as
much as the centre, is one of a series of chromatic studies that stems
from Masque, 1950, a breakthrough piece. Not only is Masque one of
Cahén’s first fully abstracted works, it is also, like The Adoration, 1949,
before it, one of his earliest forays into deep, intense analogous colours—
blues and greens—and the emotional register of blackened shades,
punctuated by contrasting reds, pinks, and oranges.
The strategy of darkness pierced by light that is introduced in The

Adoration and in Masquereaches maturity in Small Combo. Where these
earlier paintings and other strongly coloured works such as Growing
Form, 1953, emphasize drawn elements, Small Combo makes colour itself
the subject matter: the scalding hot magenta-and-orange mixtures seem
to jump off a background of midnight blues and blacks. But this is an
illusion; in fact the cold, dark colours are the foreground, painted over Oscar Cahén, Masque (181), 1950, oil on
Masonite, 76.2 x 50.8 cm, private
Cahén’s trademark tangerine and rose. As one looks, the force of the collection.
colour makes the foreground and background exchange places back and
forth, keeping the picture plane animated.
Cahén was at the forefront of exploring the phenomenological effects of

chroma, invoking joy, claustrophobia, sweetness, the sublime, hot, cold, or
haunted feelings. In 1968 the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida, mounted a
major exhibition of Cahén’s oeuvre, and an American critic described the show
in terms of sensual satisfaction: “a visual bash, an orgy for jaded eyes, a
veritable feast."2 Said fellow Painters Eleven member Tom Hodgson (1924–
2006), “I can’t think of anyone in any place, any country, any time who was a
better colourist; I just thought [Cahén] was the best colourist
anywhere."3 Small Combo was exhibited in the Art Gallery of Toronto in
1955. 4
31
OSCAR CAHÉN
ILLUSTRATION FOR “THE FIRST (AND LAST) OTTAWA STREET CAFÉ” 1955
Oscar Cahén, Illustration for “The First (and Last) Ottawa Street Café” by Ben Lappin,
published in Maclean’s, July 9, 1955
Gouache, watercolour, pencil; 42 x 99 cm
Original in The Cahén Archives
After the Second World War

Canada relaxed its immigration
policy, and people arrived from
around the world. Magazines
catered to the new readership with
pieces about the Old World or
Oscar Cahén, “Little Jong is Brave as a Tiger,” Weekend Magazine, May 14, 1955,
about new Canadians and their tearsheet. Original art and tearsheet in collection of The Cahén Archives, Toronto.
tales of escape and
acclimatization. Oscar Cahén was frequently chosen to illustrate such stories,
as with "Little Jong is Brave as a Tiger," a six-scene sequential narrative that
documents a Korean boy’s heroism, done for Weekend Magazine.
Cahén’s elaborate street scene illustrating the memoir “The First (and Last)
Ottawa Street Café” is a particularly excellent example of Cahén’s powers of
visual storytelling in one frame as opposed to using a sequence of panels.
Employing body language not found in the suspense-less Korean sequence,
the illustration depicts the tense moment when the writer’s mother, who does
not speak English, has found herself in trouble with the law over her innocent
attempt to open a European-style sidewalk café. As in a theatrical scene, the
dramatic event, the setting, and the characters are portrayed in such detail that
one can guess what is going on without reading the text—yet be drawn into the
story to find out what happens next.
32
OSCAR CAHÉN
Key to Cahén’s success as an illustrator was his ability to depict

personality and ethnicity without resorting to stereotypes: each of the
twelve people (and two cats) has a highly individualized face and
expression. Cultural backgrounds are only subtly hinted at: the Jewish
man’s kippah, the matron’s ankle-length skirt and embroidered apron,
the gingham tablecloths. Cahén personalizes the scene, as he did in
several magazine illustrations, by scrawling “Oscar loves Mimi” (his wife)
on the wall. Everyday familiar touches and behaviours—the paper boat in
the gutter, the potted plant on the sill, the littlest child peeping shyly
from the window, the worried senior on the right—and the wide-eyed,
naive optimism of the son translating for the policeman—elicit sympathy
Oscar Cahén, detail of The First (and Last)
for the European immigrants navigating Ottawa’s uptight environs. Ottawa Street Café. Cahén's personal
Especially effective is Oscar’s strategy of showing us only the policeman’s message “Oscar Loves Mimi” is scrawled
on the cornerstone.
back—his anonymity not only represents the faceless state, it focuses the
viewer’s attention on the personalities of the community rather than on
the officer’s judgment of them.
33
OSCAR CAHÉN
UNTITLED (040) 1955
Oscar Cahén, Untitled (040), c. 1955

Oil and felt pen on canvas, 76.2 x 91.4 cm
Private collection
Oscar Cahén often reworked his oil paintings many times before he was
satisfied. In contrast, Untitled (040), c. 1955, is a swift, confident, and
immediate work. Cahén intuitively renders sharply delineated elements with
thin orange, red, and pink oil paint, and a new medium, felt pen (the pen ink
was likely black, now faded to brown). Unlike oils, felt pen permitted no chance
to alter a single mark or line. This strategy of impulsive artmaking with no
editing originated in the Surrealist technique of automatism, which artists
hoped would facilitate access to the unconscious and thus achieve more
original creativity and self-knowledge.
34
OSCAR CAHÉN
Untitled (040) leaves bare primed canvas showing as if it were paper. The
forms play with the nuanced distinction between painting and drawing.
The solid mass of the large shape on the left is drawn with the felt pen—
while the ovoid shapes on the right are not masses but merely outlines
encircling weightless, empty spaces. The diagonal thrusts of the centre
lines and the slant of the other forms give the work a dynamic
appearance, as if all the elements were in motion. Yet their careful
placement with a balanced distribution of white space between each
object suggests deliberate design, as if someone had hit a “pause” Oscar Cahén, Untitled (077), 1953,
button at just the right moment, resulting in a suspenseful tension watercolour, ink, resist, monoprint,
50.8 x 66 cm, private collection.
between movement and stasis, accident and intent.
Although the forms in Untitled (040) are ambiguous, the shapes on the right
can be read as bird-like. Cahén had a long-time interest in birds, painting
roosters several times, and peacocks, doves, songbirds, and fantastical birds
such as Untitled (077), 1953. Although he left no record of what birds meant to
him, they fit with his frequent themes of growth, vitality, and freedom.
35
OSCAR CAHÉN
WARRIOR 1956
Oscar Cahén, Warrior, 1956

Oil on canvas, 201.7 x 260.6 cm
Private collection on loan to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Oscar Cahén’s largest painting, Warrior, abandons the formalist abstract works
he was concurrently developing and reaches back into his earlier repertoire
concerning the human condition. In 1952 he had shown an abstract ink
drawing with gold leaf titled Two Warriors and One of Their Little Machines,
and before that, soldiers appeared in crucifixion scenes and illustrations. The
old themes of suffering Cahén had explored in the late 1940s never left him,
for in October 1956 he exhibited Grief—a couple consoling one another—
rendered in black, grey, and brown oil on board. 1
36
OSCAR CAHÉN
Cahén’s personal experience with men caught in war was fraught with
contradictions: his father, voluntarily mobilizing his underground anti-Nazi
operation, was one kind of warrior; the thousands of average men (Nazi and
Ally) conscripted to fight to their doom were another; and Christ was a warrior
in a pacifist way. Cahén explored the victims of warriors (who themselves could
be failed warriors) in images of prisoners, refugees, and an amputee, as in The
Cripple (date unknown). In The Criminal (date unknown) the subject’s hanging
head and dangling arms make him appear more pitiable than guilty, a position
analogous to Cahén’s when Czech police had caught him with anti-Nazi
broadcasting equipment, and later when he was deemed an “enemy alien” and
interned during the Second World War.
Cahén made four related one-

metre-wide, black-ink line
drawings. Each shows a soldier
brandishing a lance with one arm,
the other holding a shield. Heads
take the form of medieval helmets,
and massive, angular greaves
protect calves. The block-like
torsos lack detail, although each is
given a prominent round
codpiece.
Bigger than life-size, Warrior was

rendered savagely in about four
swift passes: the first, a line
drawing in black paint on raw
canvas, followed by staining of the
background and colouring of the
chest, head, and greaves. Then the Oscar Cahén, Sketch for Warrior (050), 1955–56, ink on paper, 86.2 x 106.7 cm, private
collection.
impasto flesh-tones of a vulnerably
bloated, naked torso were laid in, a
penis-less scrotum where the codpiece used to be. The powerful lance-
wielding arms found in the drawings are now puny weak things—like the arm of
the figure in The Cripple—holding only a knife in an upright ceremonial way, as
the King does on a playing card. The shield oppressively squashes the figure’s
shoulder, with an effeminate pale pink field crowding in from the left.
This castrated figure in Warrior, its head now shattered as if by an explosion, is

a testament to the victimhood of “warriors” (conscripted soldiers) forced to
participate in conflicts not of their making. With the Second World War, the
Korean War, and the Cold War so fresh, Warrior functions as an archetype as
expressive of the period as any abstract painting. Cahén’s friends Walter
Yarwood (1917–1996) and Harold Town (1924–1990) hung Warrior in pride of
place on the title wall of the Oscar Cahén Memorial Exhibition at the Art Gallery
of Toronto in 1959.
37
OSCAR CAHÉN
MULTI-PART MURAL FOR IMPERIAL OIL EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING

1956
Oscar Cahén, Multi-part Mural, Staff Lounge and Cafeteria of the Imperial Oil Executive
Office Building, Toronto, 1956
Installation view of central panel from period photograph (cropped on the right) Acrylic
on canvas, approximately 294.6 x 670.6 cm
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
In 1955 construction began on

Imperial Oil’s executive offices at
111 St. Clair Avenue West, in
Toronto, a landmark high-rise that
accommodated 1,200 people.
Three Toronto artists were
commissioned to design murals for
it: Oscar Cahén was awarded the
eighth-floor cafeteria and lounge
Installation view of panels Cahén painted for the staff lounge and cafeteria of the
area, while York Wilson (1907– Imperial Oil Executive Office Building, Toronto, 1956.
1984) and Sydney H.
Watson (1911–1981) painted the foyer and boardroom murals, respectively. 1 It
was a highly prestigious assignment, for which Cahén was paid a princely
$7,200 (a man working in manufacturing made about $5,000 a year). 2 He
completed the commission just days before his death on November 26, 1956.
Cahén’s nature-derived, curvilinear design for three sections of wall and posts
directly contrasts with the grey building’s mercenary International Modern
structure with its even grid of windows. Intended to enliven this space of
leisure, Cahén’s barb and crescent forms interact playfully with wide fields of
38
OSCAR CAHÉN
pastel and vivid colours. The motif of a sun brightens the dim middle of the
vast, proportionally low-ceilinged room. Critic Robert Fulford opined that
Cahén “provided by far the most human touch to the new Imperial Oil building
. . . it’s one of the best Canadian murals I’ve seen and it may be the best work
of Cahén’s career."3 Harold Town (1924–1990) thought that the mural broke
with Cahén’s previous influences and “placed him, for the first time, in an arena
which was entirely his own."4
The even, flat, hard-edged application of paint here eliminates Cahén’s

characteristic calligraphic brushwork for the first time. Partly this may
reflect that the mural is an architectural feature: Cahén’s design of several
parts creates an installation that shapes a three-dimensional spatial
environment—as opposed to making the mural a two-dimensional objet
d’art as a decorative backdrop. Yet the flatness and composition of the
mural segments still bear similarities to washes of watercolours and ink
that Cahén was concurrently producing, such as Untitled (368), c. 1955–
56. Less personality is conveyed in these, and more attention to formal
Oscar Cahén, Untitled (368), c. 1955–56,
properties of colour, shape, space, and juxtaposition. After Cahén’s ink, watercolour, resist on illustration
death, other artists, such as Cahén’s fellow Painters Eleven member Jack board, 55.9 x 71.1 cm, private collection.
Bush (1909–1977), would go on to develop similar approaches, in colour-
field painting and what New York critic Clement Greenberg termed Post-
Painterly Abstraction.
Two of the mural sections were saved in 1979 before impending renovations
and now await conservation; the third large mural and smaller sections on
posts are presumed lost. The original mural panels are 258.8 x 904 cm,
297 x 685 cm, and approximately 294.6 x 670.6 cm.
39
OSCAR CAHÉN
UNTITLED (384) 1956
Oscar Cahén, Untitled (384), 1956

Oil on canvas, 61 x 76.2 cm
Private collection
By 1956 Painters Eleven members were well aware of the New York Abstract
Expressionists. Oscar Cahén’s Untitled (384), 1956, is kin to the foreboding
masses of Robert Motherwell (1915–1991), the abstracted symbols of Adolph
Gottlieb (1903–1974), and the draftsmanly constructions by Franz Kline (1910–
1962). Like theirs, Cahén’s painting retains a calligraphic flair, its hasty-looking
yet deliberate black swashes resembling hieroglyphs. But Cahén chose to work
at a more intimate size than the grandiose formats made for soaring white wall
space favoured by the New Yorkers. Less than a metre wide, Cahén’s painting is
scaled for the average home or office, where it would provide a focal point
among furniture, windows, books, and ashtrays.
40
OSCAR CAHÉN
Such a setting would invite long,

frequent contemplation by its
owner, allowing him or her to form
a personal relationship with the
artwork. Its hieroglyphic touches
supply the “escape from loneliness
through communication” that
Cahén intended his abstract
painting to perform. 1 The dry
brush marks are telltale painterly
spoor, indices to precisely how the
artist’s hand moved and at what
speed. The viewer, hunting for
Norman McLaren, Boogie Doodle, 1941, National Film Board of Canada. Boogie Doodle
meaning, responds viscerally, is an animated film made without the use of a camera, in which “boogie” played by
vicariously experiencing the Albert Ammons and “doodle” drawn by Norman McLaren combine to make a rhythmic,
brightly coloured film experiment.
touching of brush to canvas, the
springy push-back of the stretched
cotton, the rough nap grabbing the pigment, the simultaneous slipperiness
and stickiness of the oil.
The composition’s tripartite patterns are like drumbeats: three dashes in black;
three dashes in pink; three rounded forms floating one above the other; three
slashes in black, red, and blue. It recalls deconstructed musical notation
reminiscent of the jazz Cahén loved. Through the beat of brushstrokes, the
shocking red and pink and blue that blare like horns, the painting calls heart
and soul to respond. Its drama arises from an evocation of ephemerality: each
graffito hovers over the grey and white underpainting as if caught just before
bouncing away like an echo. The relation between paint on canvas and sound
and movement paralleled the recent abstract animations to jazz tracks
by Norman McLaren (1914–1987). These films were shown in 1952 at an
abstract art exhibition that included two works by Cahén. 2 Fittingly, McLaren
was awarded the first Oscar Cahén Memorial Award by the Art Directors Club
of Toronto in 1957, for personal and genuine creativity over a long period. 3
41
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén lived a brief but intense life. Although he worked in

Canada for only fourteen years and exhibited his paintings for a scant
eight, his role in the development of both illustration and abstract
painting in Canada was pivotal. He gave fellow artists and designers
confidence to experiment and to stand up to conservative backlash,
setting an inspirational example with his engaging art.
42
OSCAR CAHÉN
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL RELEVANCE

After his death, Oscar Cahén’s oeuvre and personal papers were not available
for many years, and not much was known about his life, creative process, and
thoughts on art. As a result, comparatively little in-depth research on him has
been completed, and the assessment of Cahén’s contribution to Canadian art
and design has been largely based on people’s fond memories and on
erroneous reports (some given by the artist himself, some from faulty
journalism, some from well-intentioned but mistaken friends). Recently, Oscar’s
only child, Michael Cahén, has done much to right the situation by establishing
The Cahén Archives, which now enables scholarship to proceed. New research
has corrected much of the record and is confirming that Oscar Cahén played
an instrumental part in revitalizing illustration and legitimizing abstract art in
Canada.
Oscar Cahén at an easel, 1951. Photograph by Page Toles.
43
OSCAR CAHÉN
As a visual communicator bound up in networks of social alliances,

business, institutions, and technologies, the artist is a mediator of the
zeitgeist, uniquely positioned to select some elemental idea and re-
present it to the community in new contexts, renewing, adjusting, or
inventing meaning in the process. Oscar Cahén did not theorize about
painting very much, preferring instead to act instinctively. When asked
what his abstract pictures meant, he retorted: “Why don’t you go out and
ask a bird what his song means? I’m not interested in telling a story . . .
when I paint, I set down the pushing and pulling of my emotions."1 But
his friend Harold Town (1924–1990) saw in Cahén’s work a “voracious
appetite for living . . . [expressed in] joyous colour . . . [and] forms that
suggest growth in exultant upward thrust . . . a sense of his deep concern
with the life force."2 This expression of surviving and thriving
encapsulates not just Cahén’s life but also Canadians’ postwar energy
and rapid economic and cultural development. Oscar Cahén, Animal Structure, 1953, oil
on Masonite, 122 x 91.4 cm, Museum
London.
“Painting can be capable of transmitting emotions beyond the
representational value therein, and consequently [can] influence the onlooker,”
Cahén wrote. Visual power in media could “contribute actively towards the
cultural development of our society."3 Born during the First World War,
coming of age in the Nazi era, and living during a period of enormous social
and technological change, he was well placed to express the times: as an
editorial illustrator of war and daily life; as a painter of themes of trauma and
rebirth; as a producer of abstract works that were said at the time to be
expressive of modern life.
Cahén’s illustrations run from the

documentary to the wholly
imaginative. Even the most
whimsical give insight into daily
events, into the things people
wore and had in their homes, and
into their relationships. With his
commercial illustration, Cahén
affected public opinion and social
values by means of charm or
horror. His illustration for an
investigative journalism article on
the alleged trafficking of babies of
unwed mothers in Alberta features
LEFT: Oscar Cahén, illustration for “Babies For Export,” by Harold Dingman, The
a menacing claw reaching toward a
Standard, December 27, 1947, tearsheet, The Cahén Archives, Toronto. RIGHT: Oscar
despondent woman, rendered in a Cahén, Praying Man (170), 1947, oil on canvas board, 59.7 x 49.3 cm, private collection.
flattened, hard-edged and angular
manner. One reader complained, “The drawings . . . resemble the doodlings of
a surrealist the morning after."4
44
OSCAR CAHÉN
In the paintings of suffering figures or with religious themes that Cahén

painted from 1946 to 1951, such as Praying Man, some viewers see an
archetypal expression of communal Jewish experience. 5 It remains to be
seen how much of Cahén’s point of view can be ascribed to his part-
Jewish ethnicity; when filling out forms, he always gave his religion as
“none.” Yet whether Cahén thought of himself as part-Jewish or not, he
had been treated like a Jew in Europe and in the British and Canadian
refugee camps, and he maintained a connection to Toronto’s sizeable
and culturally important Jewish community through friendships with
other ex-interns and his work on the largely Jewish-staffed Magazine
Digest. Given the systemic oppression of Jewish people in Canada during
Oscar Cahén, illustration for short story,
the postwar period, it can be argued that some of Cahén’s works were “Mail,” by John Norman Harris, Maclean’s,
superficially aimed at general audiences but were subtly coded for a 1950. Prisoners in internment camps wore
denim jackets with large, red circles on
different reading by those who understood his background more the back. The circles were targets for
intimately. The scarlet circle on the back of a jacket in a Maclean’s armed guards if a prisoner attempted to
escape.
illustration—a reference to the internment camp Cahén endured—can be
read as one such coded message. Images such as Praying Man, 1947,
which was accepted to the 1947 Ontario Society of Artists exhibition, spoke to
a general postwar audience as easily as to an individual or a defined group
because, like his depictions of Christ, it captured lament and rejuvenation at
the same time.
For its fans, abstract art signified

Canada’s growing equivalence to
the cultural sophistication of the
United States and Europe. Modern
artists’ experimentation met with
the optimism and affluence of the
postwar period when Canadians’
receptivity to new art forms was
cracking open. At the same time,
the Cold War was descending,
bringing with it rampant fears of
communism and nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile the trauma of returning
veterans, the acceleration of
transportation, communication,
and business, and advances in
science were affecting everyday
Oscar Cahén, Traumoeba, 1956, oil on canvas, 91 x 122 cm, private collection.
life and adding new stresses. In art,
people were preoccupied with the
idea that old ways of painting could not adequately reflect such a changed
society.
45
OSCAR CAHÉN
The disorienting break with the past alongside lingering memories of the
Depression and Second World War atrocities meant that expressions of feeling
in colour, rhythm, and shapes allowed for more personal interpretation and
processing of emotion than did realistic depictions. Take, for example, the
radiantly thrusting Traumoeba, 1956, whose title amalgamates the word
trauma, the German word traum (dream), and the word amoeba. The licence of
the artist to act outside of convention symbolized the right of all individuals to
self-determination in a democratic society. Yet Cahén’s paintings frequently
brought chaos under the yoke of design, containing his wild gestures and
vibrating colour combinations in taut, compartmentalized, carefully balanced
compositions. Cahén’s work can be seen to signify a humanistic hope for a kind
of orderly freedom of expression in a tolerant, progressive Canada. 6
RECEPTION IN DESIGN
After only four years as a paid
commercial artist, Oscar Cahén
was already “generally considered
one of the best freelancers in
Canada."7 Canadian art books first
mention him in 1950 and 1952. 8
Between 1949 and 1957, he
received five medals and six
awards for illustration, and his
work was featured in the New York
Art Directors’ annual exhibition
and in several European design
journals. 9 Canada’s most
accomplished designer, Carl Dair
(1912–1967), noted that Cahén
held a “pre-eminent position."10
Art Director Gene Aliman and Oscar Cahén at the Art Directors Club annual exhibition,
1955, looking at Cahén’s silver-medal-winning illustration for “What It’s Like to See,”
Cahén’s biography parallels that of Maclean’s.
émigré artists in the United States
such as Marcel Breuer (1902–1981), Leo Lionni (1910–1999), and Max Weber
(1881–1961). Some scholars have supposed that Cahén must have been, like
them, a conduit for transmission of European modernism. 11 However, it is
difficult to gauge his actual experience with Cubism, Expressionism, or the
Bauhaus teachings because little is yet confirmed about what he saw before
coming to Canada in 1940. But no matter what his actual intimacy with
experimental art was, by 1947 Cahén was exhibiting an Expressionist canvas at
the Ontario Society of Artists’ annual exhibition, and his oil painting Christus, c.
1949–50, was held up in the press as the most quintessentially modernist work
in a 1950 Royal Canadian Academy exhibition. 12
46
OSCAR CAHÉN
By 1950 Cahén was sending Canadian illustration samples by his peers to

the prestigious Graphismagazine in Zurich, thus forming a tangible link
between the Canadian artists and Europe. 13 His role as a trans-Atlantic
intermediary, his proclivity for calling most slick advertising art “American
junk,” and his belief in the power and social responsibility of commercial
artists14 fit with the rhetoric of the postwar design reformers who wanted
Canada to prosper along modernist, anti-American lines. 15 He figured in
design criticism as an example of Canadian sophistication that was
consistent with the movement toward the professionalization of graphic
design along international—meaning European, especially Scandinavian
and Swiss—lines. As art director Stan Furnival (1913–1980) was to say in
1959, “With a sense of freedom and vitality, [Cahén’s illustrations]
radically changed a tight slick Americanized attitude almost overnight. . .
. Oscar realized that Canada was probably the only country left in the Oscar Cahén, Christus (322), c. 1949–50,
world where a fresh, alive influence would not only be accepted, but oil on Masonite, 91.4 x 71.1 cm, The
Cahén Archives, Toronto.
praised and honoured."16
A less politically invested view

today must concede that Cahén’s
illustration was more culturally
hybridized than his
contemporaries cared to admit.
Although his work initially
appeared “typically European,"17
he had already absorbed American
illustration in Prague and
Germany, where Americana was in
vogue,18 and it is more accurate
to say that he combined European,
American, and Canadian
influences.
Nevertheless, the design awards

he won from juries of his peers
were based firmly on his technical
and creative prowess, not his
ethnicity. Cahén certainly
Oscar Cahén, Untitled (128), 1938, watercolour, gouache, and graphite on illustration
impressed everyone with board, 35.9 x 26 cm, The Cahén Archives, Toronto.
virtuosity: junior artists delighted
in timing how fast he could whip off a figure (about seven minutes). 19 Younger
illustrators Gerry Sevier (b. 1934) and Tom McNeely (b. 1935) kept his work
pinned up in their studio. 20 A letter from art director Dick Hersey (dates
unknown) once advised Harold Town (1924–1990), “[Your] drawing is too
involved, also highly reminiscent of Oscar. I prefer to go to the source."21
Since the first exhibition of Cahén’s illustration art in 2011, and with the
circulation of the exhibition’s catalogue, a new following of contemporary
illustrators and comics artists has begun to grow. 22
47
OSCAR CAHÉN
RECEPTION AMONG PAINTERS ELEVEN AND OTHERS

Oscar Cahén’s memory is inevitably linked to his participation in Painters
Eleven, an artists’ group whose promotion of abstract painting and
artistic freedom was described by critic Paul Duval in 1957 as having
“performed a service for Canadian art."23 What Cahén brought to the
group, member Jack Bush (1909–1977) stated, was “a wonderful sense of
European colour and daring, but with it was also the wonderful tolerance
and understanding."24 Again owing to his background, Cahén held a
powerful place in Painters Eleven, for he helped give the group a
semblance of international flair that set them apart. When countering Jack Bush, The Old Tree, 1951, oil on
hardboard, 43.2 x 55.9 cm, Art Gallery of
accusations that Painters Eleven was derivative of the New York School, Ontario, Toronto, © Estate of Jack Bush /
for instance, member Ray Mead (1921–1998) could conveniently point SODRAC (2015). Like Cahén, Jack Bush
began his career as an illustrator and
out that Cahén’s paintings looked “German."25 Cahén once more acted realist painter and made the transition to
as trans-Atlantic intermediary, helping member Jock Macdonald (1897– abstract painting in the early 1950s.
1960) scout opportunities for a Painters Eleven show in Europe by writing

to venues in Germany. 26 Cahén’s foreign identity gave the Painters Eleven
group an air of authenticity, authority, and legitimacy that commanded respect
in the face of the snide remarks their abstracts received in much of the press.
Through Cahén, a European flavour was thought by one critic to have been
passed on to Toronto painters at large. 27
Many historians and critics have

found that Cahén—nicknamed
“Doc” by his friends for unknown
reasons28—commanded
considerable influence in Painters
Eleven and among other Toronto
artists. 29 Some have compared his
role to that of the eminent Jock
Macdonald; fellow member Tom
Hodgson (1924–2006) even felt
that “Cahén was by far the giant of
the group,” although it had no
leader per se. 30 Upon hearing of
Oscar Cahén’s death, the artist
Toni Onley (1928–2004) wrote,
“Some did not always agree on his
departure in painting, but he
taught us to re-examine ourselves—
and thinking, find a mind’s-eye—
LEFT: Tom Hodgson, It Became Green, 1956, oil on canvas, 242.7 x 100.9 cm, Robert
and through this his boundless McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa. RIGHT: Oscar Cahén, Object d’Art, c. 1953, oil on Masonite,
imagination and resourcefulness 121.9 x 91.4 cm, private collection.
has rubbed off on us young

painters."31
48
OSCAR CAHÉN
Cahén is especially recognized for his colour. First noted in 1952 to be

“subtle,"32 his palette then underwent a shift, and the words used to describe
it—astonishing, unexpected, striking, intense, joyous, peculiar, eccentric, and
uncommon—demonstrate that for Torontonians of the early 1950s this new
colouration was unusual. Jack Bush noted that Cahén introduced a pastel
palette into Toronto. 33 In one of the more critically rigorous pieces written in
the period, Clare Bice asserts that “the spirit of OC still dominates and
motivates the group,” and accuses other members of producing “derivative
exercises . . . reflecting the dominant inspiration of Cahén”—two years after he
had died. 34 Scholars have found that Cahén had a particular impact upon
Harold Town (1924–1990), Jack Bush, Tom Hodgson, Ray Mead, and Walter
Yarwood (1917–1996). 35 The competitive instinct in both Town and Cahén
stimulated each,36 and Cahén’s passing interest in printmaking also spurred
Town into exploring that medium. 37 Upon news of Cahén’s death, William
Ronald (1926–1998) told Jock Macdonald privately, “When I was attending
college I would eagerly await the arrival of each local exhibition to see Oscar’s
latest work. He was working in a creative manner in a mature way and on a
grand scale before most of us."38 According to Mead, Cahén “used dyes on
large sheets of paper, and his drawings. It had a bit of influence on all of us.
You could say a bit of Oscar would turn up in all of us eventually."39
LEFT: Harold Town, Day Neon, 1953, oil on Masonite, 91.1 x 63.5 cm, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa. RIGHT: Walter Yarwood,
Cathedral, c. 1960, oil on canvas laid on Masonite, 107 x 122.3 cm, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa.
A CAREER CUT SHORT

In 1975 Oscar Cahén was posthumously awarded the Royal Canadian Academy
Medal to honour his contribution to Canadian art. The Canadian Association
Of Professional Image Creators (CAPIC) awarded their Lifetime Achievement
Award to Cahén in 1988.
49
OSCAR CAHÉN
Attempts to hypothesize Cahén’s unrealized future are irresistible. But

should one indulge? In the catalogue of the 1983–84 Oscar Cahén
retrospective, David Burnett wisely advises not to focus on what Cahén
might have done had he lived longer, because the fictional masterpieces
we extrapolate in our imagination will always unfairly diminish the works
he did leave us40—paintings such as Subjective Image, c. 1954, which
summarizes Cahén’s dramatic colour sense and characteristic
iconography in a succinct composition.
It is exactly such speculation that can lead one, mulling over Cahén’s
diverse works and early death, to conclude that he might not have
reached artistic maturity. But here the concept of “maturity” is flawed: it
assumes the artist must refine and sustain a unique mode of self- Oscar Cahén, Subjective Image, c. 1954,
oil on canvas laid on Masonite, 121.9 x
expression. This expectation has been greatly promoted by the art 106.7 cm, collection of Jim and Melinda
market, which thrives when an artist becomes known for an easily Harrison.
spotted, brand-like “signature style.” The risk is that this bias could
oversimplify or erase aspects of the artist’s full range of art activities and quash
promising but unfashionable creative potential.
A narrow, focused effort is not

valid for all artists—Pablo Picasso
(1881–1973), for instance, never
stayed in any one vein of work.
Cahén remained ever curious,
pressing visual exploration in all
directions, returning as needed to
earlier and concurrently
developing forms. Cahén’s bodies
of work can be considered
complete and interrelated entities
rather than sequential steps
toward some unrealized goal. That
Cahén’s own peers in the 1950s
accepted them as advanced
accomplishments rather than
preparatory trials should satisfy us
today that his quality is stable and
consistent, a factor that transcends
mere stylistic constancy.
It is the strength and fecundity of

the artworks Oscar Cahén left us
that validate his multi-disciplinary
approach as a fully rounded visual
research methodology. The
“tremendous scope of his Portrait of Oscar Cahén on the staircase of his home in 1951. Cahén’s 16th Century Lady,
1948, and Rooster, c. 1950–51, are hanging on the wall in the background. Photograph
magnificent painting talent,” as by Page Toles.
one reviewer put it in 1960,41 is
what make him a pivotal figure in Canadian art, and it is the contribution by
which we may appreciate him most.
50
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén became famous for his facility as a draftsman, his

innovation in a multitude of media, and his use of vivid colour. As a
cartoonist and illustrator, he interpreted hundreds of stories in an ever-
changing range of visual languages. In his painting he conveyed
monumentality and passion.
51
OSCAR CAHÉN
EUROPEAN ROOTS
Oscar Cahén’s formative years
were spent in artistic milieux
characterized by great diversity of
style and approach. In the Dresden
of 1932, the German avant-garde
turned to the Neue Sachlichkeit
movement, which for proponent
Otto Dix (1891–1969) meant
turning back to Northern
Renaissance altarpieces and highly
detailed traditional techniques for
inspiration. Dix was concerned
with social commentary, as were
many other German artists of the
1930s, including George Grosz
(1893–1959), whose distorted, LEFT: Otto Dix, Portrait of Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann, 1922, oil on canvas, 90.8 x 61.0 cm,
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, © Estate of Otto Dix / SODRAC (2015). RIGHT: George
debauched figures related to
Grosz, The Hero, 1933, lithograph on paper, 40.4 x 28.9 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario,
Germany’s strong tradition of Toronto.
caricature. At the same time, the
lessons of the Bauhaus art school—such as the famous maxim “Less is more!”—
influenced what young designers like Cahén were taught. 1
Cahén’s versatility was further developed in Prague, where émigré artists

such as Dadaist John Heartfield (1891–1968) gathered. Artists were
encouraged to diversify: graduates of the Rotter School of Advertising
Art, where Oscar Cahén worked in 1937, pursued combinations of
graphic design, painting, glass, film, children’s book illustration,
photography, theatre design, and editorial illustration. 2
As a young painter Cahén seems to have been more interested in the

psychology of portraiture, and in recording contemporary lifestyles and
places, than in challenging the definition of “art” or breaking down form.
He applied contemporary touches to traditional forms: his early moody-
looking self-portrait, conventionally drawn and modelled, shows a
proto-Cubist sensibility with Post-Impressionist colour reminiscent of Paul
Cézanne (1839–1906). The “meticulously executed” drawings he
exhibited alongside his portraits and landscapes portray “the superficial
life of the big city . . . lively girls with high hats, stockings, and walking
Oscar Cahén, Self-portrait, c. 1930–40, oil
sticks."3 In 1940 art historian Otto Demus wrote that Oscar Cahén was
on board, 36 x 25 cm, The Cahén
difficult to classify because of his “Allerweltstalent”—universal talent—but Archives, Toronto. As a young painter
that “decorative improvisation” was his strength; the “right” Cahén was to Cahén seems to have been more
interested in the psychology of portraiture
be found in jazz band drawings rather than in his “too-smooth than in challenging the definition of “art”.
portraits."4 Cahén was to fight against his prowess at almost slick
drawing for the remainder of his career,5 always looking for more immediate,
original ways to express his inner feelings.
52
OSCAR CAHÉN
ESTABLISHING HIMSELF IN CANADA

When Oscar Cahén arrived in Canada in 1940, he was already an experienced
illustrator with a recognizable style: a kind of cross between fashion illustration
and caricature, drawn with a calligraphic painted line. He also used a harsh,
high-contrast crayon technique for subjects that warranted an element of
horror, such as a poster warning soldiers to stay away from prostitutes, and a
funny, cute style for spot illustrations.
Cahén made a major transition

around 1946, when—as in Praying
Family, 1948—he began painting
canvases portraying people
suffering, using thick paint and
simplified yet exaggerated body
proportions and facial expressions,
in dull, depressive colours. He also
painted Christian imagery using
Cubist and Expressionist qualities
and more intense, uplifting
colours. In 1949 he made his first
abstract works, characterized by LEFT: Oscar Cahén, poster warning against venereal disease, c. 1944, The Cahén
Archives, Toronto. RIGHT: Oscar Cahén, Praying Family, 1948, oil on canvas board, 60 x
unusual colour combinations and 51 cm, private collection.
an energetic synthesis of
intersecting and overlapping shapes and lines. These were executed in oils and
in pastels.
By 1951 he was working in bright

aniline dyes on large sheets of
paper or canvas, letting the dyes
bleed wet into the highly wetted
surface, yielding characteristic soft
feathering of edges and lines. In
1951 Cahén increased his
production, after receiving
attention in national newspapers,
in Canadian Art magazine, and in
the competitive Art Directors
Annual. 6 From that point on his
works show the hot colour and
cohesiveness in composition that
made him so influential. By 1955
he was using an increasingly
gestural line in his abstract
Oscar Cahén, Watercolour 131-12, c. 1956, ink and watercolour with rubber resist, 75.6 x
painting, reminiscent of his 101.3 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
illustration work, and he
sometimes returned to a more sombre palette. He also began a large series of
watercolours on paper using rubber cement resist and transparent layers of
colour. In other works he turned again to figurative subjects.
53
OSCAR CAHÉN
INFLUENCES
The twentieth century saw an explosion of art movements, which would
account for the myriad influences that have been read into Oscar Cahén’s
work. Elements of Gothic art, Cubism, Expressionism, Abstract
Expressionism, Surrealism, Bauhaus, English modernism, American
modernism, caricature, Czech and German illustration, American
illustration, and the influence of his fellow Toronto painters can all be
plausibly detected in Cahén’s oeuvre. Only a handful of artists, however,
are documented as having any connection with Cahén.
In 1935 Cahén and William Pachner (b. 1915) formed a partnership in

Prague, Cahén-Pachner Advertising Designs and Painted Posters. 7
Cahén’s illustrations circa 1940 are often dead ringers for Pachner’s:
young women with jutting chins and cheekbones and a shadow just
under the eyes, skirt hems rippling, rendered in calligraphic outlines
heightened with wash. Cahén added flat textured patterns and unusual
Oscar Cahén, illustration for “Don
compositional devices (such as hands in the foreground). Giovanni,” by Herbert Lestocq, The
Standard, October 3, 1942.
Cahén spoke highly of the French poster designer and painter Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901); the Jewish-American illustrator and anti-Nazi
caricaturist Arthur Szyk (1894–1951); David Stone Martin (1913–1992), who
designed jazz music record covers with Picassoesque line drawings; and the
comic strip artist Milton Caniff (1907–1988). 8 When Cahén began painting
religious themes, he looked to Gothic art for inspiration. 9 He also praised
Miserere by Georges Rouault (1871–1958), a series of etchings relating to the
tragedy of war and the question of faith, produced in 1916–17 and 1920–27
but not published until 1948. Cahén’s Christus, c. 1949–50, shares Rouault’s
simplified forms delineated in black, like stained glass.
Special note must also be made of

American artists Rico Lebrun
(1900–1964), whom Cahén called
an “artist of stature,"10 and
Abraham Rattner (1895–1978);
both artists made major works on
biblical themes. It is to Lebrun that
Cahén owes the occasional
slumped-over figure seen from the
RIGHT: Abraham Rattner, Procession, 1944, oil on linen, 65.4 x 92.4 cm, Hirshhorn
front, drawn in heavy, scratchy Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. LEFT: Oscar Cahén, The Adoration,
lines, its body parts distorted with 1949, oil on Masonite, 122 x 133 cm, private collection.
angst. Cahén first saw Rattner’s
work on a visit to the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario)
with Harold Town (1924–1990), who later recalled that Cahén was hugely
impressed. 11 Rattner may have been behind Cahén’s 1949 turn to a Cubist
design over an entire canvas and to the use of intense colour, as in The
Adoration, 1949, but this remains speculative.
54
OSCAR CAHÉN
Much has been made of the impact of British modernists on Toronto artists
around 1950; Graham Sutherland’s (1903–1980) abstractions of nature using
exaggerated thorns have been especially noted. 12 Two postcards of
Sutherland images exist in Cahén’s estate; Harold Town claimed that Cahén
was “fascinated” by him. 13 Cahen’s Vegetation, 1951, is indeed reminiscent.
Sutherland saturated the art of so many Toronto artists that the
hook/thorn/crescent became a ubiquitous visual phoneme calling out to those
striving to be au courant. 14 Cahén also distilled thorny motifs from his analysis
of claws and beaks, as in Untitled (230), 1950–51, but he was no doubt
encouraged to keep with them because they resonated so well with peers and
supporters. He was, after all, concerned with communicating, and he looked
forward to “turning out pictures which will please both me and the public at
large."15
Oscar Cahén, Untitled (230), 1950–51, oil on board, 46 x 61 cm, private collection.
55
OSCAR CAHÉN
MAKING ILLUSTRATIONS
In photographs, we see Oscar
Cahén working at a drafting table
in one studio for his illustration
and at an easel in another studio
for oil painting and for making
exploratory sketches. Water-based
media would have been executed
on a flat surface.
In fiction and non-fiction

illustration, the art director
discusses with the illustrator what
might be depicted and what style
would be suitable. Usually the
illustrator submits a rough drawing
or a detailed comprehensive
sketch for approval before
executing a polished final.
Oscar and Mimi at the drafting table in Montreal, c. 1943, The Cahén Archives, Toronto.
However, Cahén said:
In my illustrations I rarely make such preliminary drawings. In fact,

much to the dismay of art directors, my “roughs” are usually so
sketchy that I can't make them out myself. What I do is to start my
finished drawing with a hard pencil right on the board, then I ink in
the final design and erase the pencil marks which made up the
initial draft. Thus, by eliminating first roughs, I feel I am able to
retain in the completed illustrations the full quality of the initial
enthusiasm. As for media used, I mix my techniques as subject or
purpose dictates. 16
Indeed, Cahén used ink, graphite, pastel, casein, scratchboard,

watercolour, wax, dyes, and oils—often several together. He also
employed “Bourges sheets”—transparent plastic overlays in process Oscar Cahén, illustration for “When
Johnny Lifted the Horn,” Weekend Picture
colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) that made it easy and Magazine, December 29, 1951, gouache,
inexpensive to do multi-hued illustrations without the cost that colour- watercolour, India ink, graphite on
illustration board, 58.4 x 52.4 cm, The
separating full-colour paintings would entail.
Cahén Archives, Toronto.
MAKING FINE ART

In contrast to his illustration work, Cahén made sketches before embarking on
a painting. He usually stuck to traditional media, such as oil on canvas or
Masonite and watercolour, pastel, or ink on paper, though he sometimes
painted with aniline dyes. Aniline dye is made from petroleum by-products
and came in hues far more vibrant than any other art material of Cahén’s day—
even neon pink. Unfortunately, many of these dyes have faded in his works.
56
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén, Still-life, 1950, pastel on illustration board, 71 x 91.3 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Although he may have begun with sketches, Cahén built up his oil
paintings in several passes on different days; he even went back into
canvases he had formerly considered finished and had already signed—as
we can tell by comparing the finished state of Untitled (221), 1953, with
how it appears in period photographs of the interior of Cahén’s home.
Cahén apparently made few lithographs. He did, however, often ink up a

stone, place paper on it lightly, and then rub it and draw on it with a
sharp object. When the paper was lifted off, it picked up the ink and the
stone’s pleasingly soft, dappled texture. The scored lines came out black.
Drawing on the paper with the pointed tool left no visible mark, meaning
Cahén could not be exactly sure what he was doing. This exercise would
have countered the slick facility that he was ever-wary of slipping into.
Cahén experimented with ceramics, probably with Blue Mountain Pottery Oscar Cahén, Untitled (427), c. 1952,
founders Jozo Weider (1907–1971) and Denis Tupy (b. 1929). 17 He reverse drawing from lithography stone,
ink, and pastel, 71.1 x 50.8 cm, private
glazed a small number of plates with abstract designs and, according to collection.
his son, also designed a set of dishes with a blue fish pattern, now lost.
Cahén also enjoyed woodcarving; his small figures emote the same keening
passions of his paintings circa 1947.
57
OSCAR CAHÉN
LEFT: Oscar Cahén, plate, c. 1950–56, glazed terracotta, approx. 20 x 20 x 0.9 cm, The Cahén Archives, Toronto. RIGHT: Oscar Cahén,
Untitled (1141), c. 1947–50, wood, approx. 15 x 17 x 12 cm, The Cahén Archives, Toronto.
TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS
Cahén did most of his technical
innovation in illustration before
taking it into his self-directed
painting. A 1943 spot illustration
of two roosters, rendered with a
touch of analytic Cubism,
anticipates the highly Expressionist LEFT: Oscar Cahén, illustration for “The Runner,” by Kerry Wood, The Standard, March 27,
Cockfight of 1951. Cahén also first 1943, tearsheet, The Cahén Archives, Toronto. RIGHT: Oscar Cahén, Cockfight, 1951, ink
on paper, 50.8 x 66 cm, private collection.
used collage in his commercial
work, papering the background of
a domestic scene with newspaper in one picture, sticking a real postage stamp
onto a letter in another.
One of his most noticeably different illustration styles was used for “The
Californian’s Tale,” exaggerating the figures’ bony limbs and giving them
oversized feet and hands, practically sculpting them in heavily applied paint
contained by rugged black outlines recalling Gothic art and Expressionism.
Perhaps Cahen’s most original contribution was a technique he called

“monoetching,” which he began using around 1950 for both figurative and
abstract works. The result was not actually an etching—a print made from a
metal plate with the image eaten into it with acid—but it looked like one. The
monoetching was in fact a thin layer of wax on illustration board that Cahén
then scratched through with a needle. Water-based pigment applied overtop
seeped through the scratches into the exposed board beneath.
58
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén, illustration for “The Pirate,” by John Steinbeck, The Standard, February 14, 1948, ink and casein on illustration board,
30.5 x 50.8 cm, private collection.
Monoetching carried with it an

element of uncertainty because,
until the final pigment wash was
applied, it was almost impossible
to see whether the wax had
covered all areas, or whether the
scratches had gone too deep or
too shallow. Indeed, it would have
been difficult for Cahén to even
see what he was drawing. This may
account for the spidery hand and
missing lines of the woman’s
shoulder and head in We Don’t
Understand Our DPs, 1951. But the
awkwardness of the draftsmanship
in wax gave emotional meaning to
these wraithlike, alienated
refugees. In a depiction of the
Crucifixion, c. 1950, Cahén used
the monoetching to advantage Oscar Cahén, illustration for “We Don’t Understand Our DPs,” The Standard, 1951,
when he literally gouged out the encaustic with watercolour wash, 33 x 41 cm, private collection.
illustration board and filled it with
red paint to represent the wound in Christ’s side.
59
OSCAR CAHÉN
Cahén continued exploiting water-resist approaches with rubber cement after

1953. Taking advantage of the medium’s fluidity, he drooled and drizzled
abstract forms onto paper, then painted over them with thin watercolours and
inks, layer after transparent layer. Again, he would not have been able to see
exactly how the image was turning out until he removed the rubber cement.
The element of surprise preserved spontaneity and again provided Cahén with
a way of disrupting his facility at painting and drawing, allowing him to break
through to new visual languages.
Probably more than any other of

his talents, Cahén is best
remembered today for his
luminous colour sense. Orange
and pink come together often;
fiery reds and limpid blues and
greens characterize some of his
best-known works. At Cahén’s
1954 solo show at Hart House in
Toronto, critic Hugh Thomson
said, “As soon as you enter, the
colors and startling designs come
out at you from the wall."18
Another described his colour as a
“battering ram."19
Oscar Cahén was unusual in his Oscar Cahén, Austin Healey 100 Engine, 1954, oil on cradled Masonite, 91 x 122 cm,
ability to move from one medium private collection.
to another and from

representational to abstract idioms with equal success. For instance, he often
illustrated beloved automobiles with elegant curves, staying true to their make
and model—but when painting his own Austin-Healey, he began sketching in
pencil the fan, pistons, and other elements of its engine that, by the time he
moved to oils, became an exuberantly coloured concatenation of forms
synesthetically conveying sound. Although he was quick to absorb myriad
sources and could initially seem derivative when embarking on a new path, he
rapidly amalgamated each influence into expressions of his own and became
innovative. As a result, his work never became stale, and he was often a
trendsetter. As critic Robert Fulford surmised, “If any one man can be given
credit for the vitality of Toronto art in the 1950s, the man is Oscar Cahén."20
60
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén’s paintings are featured in museums and galleries

throughout Canada. Other paintings, illustrations, prints, ceramics,
and personal papers are held by The Cahén Archives. Although the
works listed below are held by the following institutions, they may not
always be on view.
61
OSCAR CAHÉN
ART GALLERY OF GREATER VICTORIA

1040 Moss Street
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
250-384-4171
aggv.ca
Oscar Cahén, Structure with Blue, Oscar Cahén, Structure with Pink
1951 Line, 1954
Pastel and charcoal on paper Watercolour on paper
87.7 x 63.6 cm 50.7 x 66.3 cm
ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO

317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1-877-225-4246 or 416-979-6648
ago.net
Oscar Cahén, Herod Oscar Cahén, Bouquet, Oscar Cahén, Trophy, Oscar Cahén, Untitled,
No. 2, 1949 1952 1955–56 1956
Crayon on paperboard Watercolour on paper Oil on Masonite Watercolour with
57.5 x 44.5 cm 65.7 x 50.8 cm 121.6 x 83.1 cm rubber resist on paper
72.7 x 46.1 cm
62
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén, Untitled, 1956 Oscar Cahén, Watercolour 131-

Oil on Masonite 12, c. 1956
58.4 x 84.2 cm Ink and watercolour with rubber
resist
75.6 x 101.3 cm
ART GALLERY OF WINDSOR

401 Riverside Drive West
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
519-977-0013
agw.ca
Oscar Cahén, Little Structure, n.d.

Oil and ink on canvas
40 x 69 cm
BRITISH MUSEUM
Great Russell Street
London, United Kingdom
+44 20 7323 8299
britishmuseum.org
Oscar Cahén, Untitled, 1954

Monotype
46.4 x 64 cm
63
OSCAR CAHÉN
CONTEMPORARY CALGARY – C2 AT CITY HALL

104-800 Macleod Trail, SE
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
403-262-1737
contemporarycalgary.com
Oscar Cahén, A Hero Comes

Home, 1952
India ink, watercolour on high-art
illustration board
63.5 x 43.1 cm
JUDITH & NORMAN ALIX ART GALLERY

147 Lochiel Street
Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
519-336-8127
jnaag.ca
Oscar Cahén, Untitled, 1956

Gouache and watercolour on
board
68.6 x 87.3 cm
64
OSCAR CAHÉN
MUSEUM LONDON
421 Ridout Street
North London, Ontario, Canada
519-661-0333
museumlondon.ca
Oscar Cahén, Animal Structure,

1953
Oil on Masonite
122 x 91.4 cm
NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

380 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
613-990-1985
gallery.ca
Oscar Cahén, Still-life, Oscar Cahén, Animated Oscar Cahén, Untitled,

1950 Item, c. 1955 1956
Pastel on illustration Oil on canvas Pen and black ink with
board 71.5 x 87 cm yellow watercolour on
71 x 91.3 cm illustration board
25.5 x 40.5 cm
65
OSCAR CAHÉN
ROBERT MCLAUGHLIN GALLERY

72 Queen Street
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
905-576-3000
rmg.on.ca
Oscar Cahén, Herod, c. Oscar Cahén, Railroad Oscar Cahén, Ascend, Oscar Cahén, Small
1950 Signs, 1952 1952 Structure, 1955
Oil on canvas Watercolour, ink on Watercolour, pastel, Oil on canvas
60.9 x 35.6 cm paper and charcoal on 40.6 x 50.1 cm
59.9 x 47.5 cm illustration board
97.5 x 75.9 cm
Oscar Cahén, Black

Trophy, 1956
Oil on Masonite
122 x 91.2 cm
66
OSCAR CAHÉN
VANCOUVER ART GALLERY

750 Hornby Street
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
604-662-4700
vanartgallery.bc.ca
Oscar Cahén, Untitled, n.d. Oscar Cahén, Child, Father and

Conté on cardboard Mother, c. 1952–54
97.4 x 71.5 cm Monotype
49.2 x 60.6 cm
THE CAHÉN ARCHIVES

Toronto, Ontario, Canada
250-247-8742
Viewings by appointment
Researcher access to database at oscarcahen.com
Email: [email protected]
67
OSCAR CAHÉN
NOTES
BIOGRAPHY
1. Archives of the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Dresden.
2. MI5, National Archives, Kew, England, file: Cahen, Ferdinand Max [sic], April
24, 1916–March 29, 1946.
3. Fritz Max Cahén, Bobbs-Merrill Questionnaire (1939), Lilly Library, Bobbs-

Merrill papers; Willard Bohn, Apollinaire and the International Avant-Garde
(Albany: State University of New York, 1997), 103–6, 126; Fritz Max Cahén, “The
Alfred Richard Meyer Circle,” in The Era of German Expressionism, ed. Paul
Raabe (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1974), 103–18.
4. Fritz Max Cahén, Der Weg nach Versailles: Erinnerungen, 1912–1919

(Boppard/Rhein: Harald Boldt Verlag, 1963); Fritz Max Cahén, Men Against
Hitler (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939), 22–23; MI5, National Archives, Kew,
England, file: Cahen, Ferdinand Max [sic], April 24, 1916–March 29, 1946.
5. Oscar Cahén, questionnaire, Library of the National Gallery of Canada;

McKenzie Porter, “Volcano with a Paint Brush,” The Standard, April 7, 1951, 18–
23; Fritz Max Cahén, Men Against Hitler (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939), 64–
65, 95.
6. Fritz Max Cahén, Men Against Hitler (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939), 67,
74, 163; Ursula Langkau-Alex, “Der Parteivorstand der SPD im Exile: Protokolle
der Sopade 1933–1940,” International Review of Social History 41, no. 2
(August 1996): 248–51; Karel Pale?ek, interrogation record (November 27–28,
1949), Security Services Archives, files of Second Department of Military
Intelligence, Prague; Czech National Archives, Presidium of the General Land
Office, Prague.
7. Fritz Max Cahén, Men Against Hitler (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939), 100,
102.
8. Fritz Max Cahén, Men Against Hitler (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939), 125.
9. Ole Haslund’s Hus, Ostergade, Copenhagen, November 1934. In an

interview Cahén says he had already exhibited in Prague as well. “Forfalsket Sin
Daabsattest,” unidentified Danish newspaper, November 14, 1934; “Ung Tysk
Tegner,” unidentified newspaper; “Ustilling Hos Ole Haslund,” unidentified
newspaper, The Cahén Archives.
10. MI5, National Archives, Kew, England, file: Cahen, Ferdinand Max [sic];
Karel Pale?ek, interrogation record (November 27–28, 1949), Security Services
Archives, files of Second Department of Military Intelligence, Prague; Czech
National Archives, Presidium of the General Land Office, Prague.
11. Fritz Max Cahén, Men Against Hitler (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939),
114; interview with William Pachner, September 29, 2014.
68
OSCAR CAHÉN
12. McKenzie Porter, “Volcano with a Paint Brush,” The Standard, April 7, 1951,
18–23.
13. William Pachner, interview by Jaleen Grove, September 29, 2013.
14. Czech National Archives, Police Headquarters Prague II, General Registry
file: Cahén, Oskar.
115–25; Karel Pale?ek, interrogation record (November 27–28, 1949), Security
Services Archives, files of Second Department of Military Intelligence, Prague;
Czech National Archives, Presidium of the General Land Office, Prague.
224–27; Czech National Archives, Ministry of Interior I, Presidium, Prague.
244.
file: Rotter, Vilém.
20. Karel Paleček, interrogation record (November 27–28, 1949), Security

Services Archives, files of Second Department of Military Intelligence, Prague.
21. Eric Koch, Deemed Suspect: A Wartime Blunder (Toronto: Methuen, 1980).
22.Oscar Cahén, “Song for a Fading Difference” (manuscript; translation by

Gerta Moray), The Cahén Archives.
23. Eric Koch, Deemed Suspect: A Wartime Blunder (Toronto: Methuen, 1980),
136–44.
24. Eric Koch, Deemed Suspect: A Wartime Blunder (Toronto: Methuen, 1980),
157.
25. Beatrice Fischer, interview by Jaleen Grove, July 12, 2013; August 12,
2014.
26. Ben Turner, letter to Samuel Goldner, May 2, 1942, archives of the United
Jewish Relief Agencies, collection Series BC.
27. The Standard, unidentified news clipping, c. June 1942.
28. Stan Furnival, “Notes on Oscar Cahén,” Northward Journal: A Quarterly of

the Northern Arts, no. 18/19 (November 1980): n.p.
69
OSCAR CAHÉN
29. Colin Gravenor, letter to C.F. Martin, President, Art Association of

Montreal, June 4, 1943, The Cahén Archives.
30. Rachel Boisclair, “Les impacts du contexte canadien de la Deuxième Guerre

mondiale sur le fonctionnement et les orientations esthétiques de l’Art
Association of Montreal” (MA thesis, Université du Québec à Montréal,
forthcoming).
31. “Three Painters at Art Gallery,” Montreal Star, November 9, 1943.
32. Gerry Waldston, interview by Jaleen Grove, September 26, 2013.
33. Documentation of Fritz Max Cahén’s illness and efforts to bring him to
Canada are in letters in the Archives of the Ontario Jewish Association, and
Archives of the United Jewish Relief Agencies, collection Series BC.
34. J.E. Duggan, Department of the Secretary of State, Ottawa, letter to Martha
Levinsky, January 3, 1941, The Cahén Archives.
35. Everett Roseborough, letter to Michael Cahén, May 31, 2004, The Cahén
Archives; “Former City Artist Happy on Secluded Farm,” Globe and Mail,
October 25, 1947, 15.
18–23. "
37. Documentation of Fritz Max Cahén’s illness and efforts to bring him to
Canada are in letters in the Archives of the Ontario Jewish Association, and
Archives of the United Jewish Relief Agencies, collection Series BC.
18–23.
18–23.
40. The New York Art Directors Club, 1951–1952 (New York: Pellegrini and
Cudahy, 1952), 287.
41. Cahén in Donald Buchanan, “An Illustrator Speaks His Mind,” Canadian Art
8, no. 1 (Autumn 1950): 2–8.
42. Jim Imlach, letter to Harold Town, August 23, 1948, Harold Town fonds,
Library and Archives Canada. Imlach reiterated this in another letter, October
16, 1948.
43. Harold Town, untitled manuscript in three drafts, Harold Town fonds,
Library and Archives Canada.
44. Harold Town, untitled manuscript in three drafts, Harold Town fonds,
70
OSCAR CAHÉN
45. Jeffrey Spalding, “Chronological List of Exhibitions,” unpublished

manuscript, The Cahén Archives. n.d.
46. “Pictures Are My Business” (advertisement), Globe and Mail, October 28,
1953, 7.
18–23.
48. Beatrice Fischer, interview by Jaleen Grove, July 12, 2013; August 12,
2014.
49. The statement and the images were made in connection with McKenzie
Porter, “Volcano with a Paint Brush,” The Standard, April 7, 1951 (photographs
by Page Toles), The Cahén Foundation.
KEY WORKS: UNTITLED (PIANO PLAYER)

1. Gerry Waldston, interview with Jaleen Grove, August 2013.
2. “Commercial Art Shown in Gallery,” Montreal Standard, November 6, 1943;

“Three Painters at Art Gallery,” Montreal Star, November 9, 1943. Co-exhibitors
were Sam Borenstein and Emme Frankenberg.
3. “Three One Man Shows,” Montreal Gazette, November 6, 1943.
4. “Commercial Art Shown in Gallery,” Montreal Standard, November 6, 1943.
5. “A Night Out in Montreal,” Weekend 6, no. 52 (December 28, 1956): 28–29.
KEY WORKS: HIROSHIMA COVER ILLUSTRATION

1. McKenzie Porter, “Volcano with a Paintbrush,” The Standard, April 7, 1951,
18–23.
2. Oscar Cahén, cited in McKenzie Porter, “Volcano with a Paintbrush,” The

Standard, April 7, 1951, 18–23.
KEY WORKS: ILLUSTRATION FOR “THE CALIFORNIAN’S TALE”

1. Oscar Cahén, in Donald Buchanan, “An Illustrator Speaks His Mind,”
Canadian Art 8, no. 1 (Autumn 1950): 3–4.
2. H.G. of Beaton, BC, “Vox Pop,” New Liberty, July 1948, 3. Collection of The
Cahén Archives.
3. Toronto Art Directors Club, Annual (Toronto: Art Directors Club, 1949).
4. James Imlach, letter to Harold Town, OctoberÂ 16, 1948, Harold Town
fonds, Library and Archives Canada.
KEY WORKS: THE ADORATION

1. Oscar Cahén quoted in a letter from W.R., “Memo to Our Readers,” New
Liberty, 1948.
71
OSCAR CAHÉN
2. Stan Furnival, speech, Art Gallery of Toronto, March 25, 1959. Transcript in
The Cahén Archives.
3. Oscar Cahén, quoted in David Mawr, “Modern Art a Reality,” Windsor Daily
Star, August 29, 1953.
4. This reading was proposed by Cy Strom at the Second Oscar Cahén

Colloquium, held at The Cahén Archives, Toronto, April 26, 2014.
KEY WORKS: MACLEAN’S COVER ILLUSTRATION

1. This reading was proposed by Cy Strom at the Second Oscar Cahén
Colloquium, held at The Cahén Archives, Toronto, April 26, 2014.
2. Rose MacDonald, “Is Art Revolution Here or Is It Doodling Phase?” Toronto

Telegram, March 9, 1951, 3.
KEY WORKS: GROWING FORM

1. Minutes of the Hart House Art Committee Meeting #213, January 5, 1954;
#214, February 2, 1954.
2. Hugh Thomson, “Hart House Gallery Shows Abstract Art,” Toronto Daily Star,
October 28, 1954, 4.
3. Harold Town, quoted in Karen Finlay, “Identifying with Nature: Graham

Sutherland and Canadian Art, 1939–1955,” Canadian Art Review 21, nos. 1–2
(1994): 43–59; David Burnett, Oscar Cahén (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario,
1983), 16.
KEY WORKS: SMALL COMBO

1. Rose McDonald, “At the Galleries,” Toronto Telegram, February 14, 1954.
Clipping in The Cahén Archives.
2. Charles Benbow, “Ringling Offers Feast for Eyes,” St. Petersburg Times,
October 6, 1968, G1. Clipping in The Cahén Archives.
3. Tom Hodgson, interview by Joan Murray, January 27, 1979. Joan Murray
4.Ninth sale of the Women’s Committee, Art Gallery of Toronto, October 21-
31, 1955.
KEY WORKS: WARRIOR

1.The 2nd Winnipeg Show, Winnipeg Art Gallery, November 4–25, 1956.
KEY WORKS: MULTI-PART MURAL FOR IMPERIAL OIL EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING
1. Lela Wilson, “The Imperial Oil Mural,”
http://staging.yorkwilsonfoundation.org/
biography/YW_LifeandWork_Chapter11.pdf
72
OSCAR CAHÉN
2. Contract between Imperial Oil Ltd. and Oscar Cahén, May 5, 1955.
Collection of the Glenbow Museum. Salary of a male working in manufacturing
is based on Statistics Canada data.
3. Robert Fulford, “The Case of the Missing Art Books,” Mayfair, September
1957, 63.
4. Harold Town, “Note to Critics: Light Bulbs Have No Lesson for the Sun,”
Globe and Mail, November 25, 1972, 31.
KEY WORKS: UNTITLED (384)

1. Oscar Cahén, quoted in David Mawr, “Modern Art a Reality,” Windsor Daily
Star, August 29, 1955.
2. Norman McLaren’s Pen Point Percussion (1951) screened October 16, 1952;
Begone Dull Care (1949) screened October 30, 1952; Boogie Doodle (1941)
screened November 20, 1952. Minutes of Hart House Art Committee Meeting,
#207, February 12, 1953. Abstraction in Canadian Art ran October 27–
November 24, 1952.
3. Art Directors Club Annual, 1957.
SIGNIFICANCE & CRITICAL ISSUES

1. Oscar Cahén, quoted in Elizabeth Kilbourn, Great Canadian Painting
(Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1968), 104.
2. Harold Town, Oscar Cahén Memorial Exhibition (Toronto: Art Gallery of

Toronto, 1959).
3. Oscar Cahén, “Editorial Art in Canada in 1953,” 6th Annual of Editorial and
Advertising Art (Toronto Art Directors Club, 1954), 54–55.
4. Mrs. G.H. Snider, “Doodling Surrealist?” in “Vox Pop,” New Liberty, February
14, 1948, 57.
5.Paul Duval, Four Decades: The Canadian Group of Painters and Their
Contemporaries, 1930–1970 (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1972), 138. See also Cy
Strom, “A Crown of Thorns: Religious Iconography in the Art of Oscar Cahén,”
paper given at the Cahén Colloquium II, April 26, 2014.
6. This view is expressed in McKenzie Porter, “Volcano with a Paint Brush,” The
Standard, April 7, 1951, 18–23; and in a letter by Mimi Cahén to J. Russell
Harper, December 9, 1963; J. Russell Harper fonds, Library and Archives
Canada. A sophisticated analysis of the period’s impact on Toronto artists is
found in Ihor Holubizky and Robert McKaskell, 1953 (Oshawa: Robert
McLaughlin Gallery, 2003). The identification of the German avant-garde with
democracy is discussed in Keith Holz, Modern German Art for Thirties Paris,
Prague, and London: Resistance and Acquiescence in a Democratic Public
Sphere (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004).
7. “Dream Dresses,” The Standard, May 25, 1946, 12.
73
OSCAR CAHÉN
8. Graham McInnes, Canadian Art (Toronto: Macmillan, 1950), 77, 105; Paul
Duval, Canadian Drawings and Prints (Toronto: Burns & McEachern, 1952), 89.
See also Paul Duval, Canadian Water Colour Painting (Toronto: Burns &
McEachern, 1954).
9. “Publicity in Canada,” Gebrauchsgraphik 2 (1951): 20; Paul Arthur, “Canada:

Advertising and Editorial Art,” Graphis 10, no. 52 (1954): 100–13, 158;
“Montreal Art Directors Club,” Publimondial 53 (1953), 63; International
Advertising Art, February 1951; The New York Art Directors Club, 1951–1952
(New York: Pellegrini and Cudahy, 1952), 287.
10. Carl Dair, “New Patterns in Canadian Advertising,” Canadian Art, Summer
1952, 157.
11. Elizabeth Kilbourn, Oscar Cahén: 1916–1956 (Toronto: Jerrold Morris

Gallery, 1963). Gerta Moray, Harold Town: Life and Work (Toronto: Art Canada
Institute, 2014); Dennis Reid, Toronto Painting: 1953–1965 (Ottawa: National
Gallery of Canada, 1972), 13; Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada
(Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2007), 98, 100; Michel DuPuy, “Douze ans de
peinture Torontoise,” unidentified newspaper, 1972.
12. Don O’Donnell, “Canadian Art’s Variety Show,” The Standard, February 4,
1950, 18–19. Royal Canadian Academy Annual Exhibition, Art Association of
Montreal, 1950.
13. Oscar Cahén, letter to Harold Town, May 29, 1950, Harold Town fonds,
Library and Archives Canada. Cahén sent out work by Harold Town, William
Winter, Peter Whalley, and Len Norris.

the Northern Arts, nos. 18/19 (November 1980): n.p.; Cahén in Donald
Buchanan, “An Illustrator Speaks His Mind,” Canadian Art, Autumn 1950, 2–8.
15. Paul Arthur, “Canada: Advertising and Editorial Art,” Graphis 10, no. 52
(1954): 100–13, 158.

the Northern Arts, nos. 18/19 (November 1980): n.p. For comments on Cahén
as an alternative to American style, see Donald Buchanan, “An Illustrator
Speaks His Mind,” Canadian Art, Autumn 1950, 4.
17. The Standard, unidentified news clipping, c. June 1942.
18. William Pachner, interview by Jaleen Grove, September 29, 2014; Corey
Ross, “Visions of Prosperity: The Americanization of Advertising in Interwar
Germany,” in Selling Modernity: Advertising in Twentieth-Century Germany, ed.
Pamela E. Swett, S. Jonathan Wiesen, and Jonathan R. Zatlin (Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 2007), 52–77.
19. Jean Ainsworth, interview by Jaleen Grove, October 9, 2014.
74
OSCAR CAHÉN
20. Tom McNeely and Gerry Sevier, in conversation with Jaleen Grove, 2013;
2014.
21. Dick Hersey, letter to Harold Town, June 20, 1950, Harold Town fonds,
22. Oscar Cahén: Canada’s Groundbreaking Illustrator, curated by Jaleen Grove

and Roger Reed, shown at Illustration House, New York (October 5–30, 2011);
travelled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Calgary (2012); and the Whyte
Museum, Banff (2013).
23. Paul Duval, foreword to Painters Eleven 1957 (Toronto: Park Gallery, 1957).
24. Jack Bush to J. Russell Harper, personal correspondence, June 2, 1964, J.

Russell Harper fonds, Library and Archives Canada.
25. Ray Mead, quoted in Ronald Weibs and Judith Sandford, “Ray Mead
Today,” in Work Seen: Artists’ Forum 9, Summer 1991, 4; Cahén’s role is also
remarked upon in Jeffrey Spalding, “Oscar Cahén, Painter Extraordinaire—
Oscar, Celebrated Illustrator,” Today’s Inspiration, October 31, 2012,
http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.
ca/2012/10/oscar–cahen–painter–extraordinaire.html.
26. Jock Macdonald, letter to William Ronald, July 16, 1956, William Ronald
27. Elizabeth Kilbourn, Oscar Cahén (Toronto: Jerrold Morris Gallery, 1963).

the Northern Arts, nos. 18/19 (November 1980): n.p.
29. David Burnett, Town (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario and McClelland &
Stewart, 1986), 38; Robert Fulford, introduction to Magnificent Decade: Harold
Town; 1955–1965, ed. David P. Silcox (Toronto: Coach House Press and Moore
Gallery, 1997), 10; Elizabeth Kilbourn, Oscar Cahén (Toronto: Jerrold Morris
Gallery, 1963); J. Russell Harper, Painting in Canada: A History (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1966); Paul Duval, Four Decades: The Canadian
Group of Painters and Their Contemporaries, 1930–1970 (Toronto: Clarke,
Irwin, 1972), 135; Dennis Reid, Toronto Painting, 1953–1965 (Ottawa: National
Gallery of Canada, 1972), 13.
30. Tom Hodgson, interview with Joan Murray, May 6, 1977, Joan Murray
fonds, Library and Archives Canada. In other interviews with Joan Murray, Ray
Mead (September 4, 1977), Harold Town (July 11, 1977), and Kazuo Nakamura
(May 31, 1977), each found elements of leadership in Macdonald.
31. Toni Onley to Mimi Cahén, personal correspondence, December 4, 1956,

75
OSCAR CAHÉN
32. “Forester, Hart House Present Fine Shows,” November 1952, unidentified
newspaper clipping, Hart House Art Committee Minutes.
33. Ken Carpenter, “The Evolution of Jack Bush,” Journal of Canadian Art
History 4, no. 2 (1977–78): 127–28.
34. Clare Bice, “Conflicts in Canadian Art,” Canadian Art, Winter 1959, 33.
35. Christine Boyanowsky, The 1950s: Works on Paper (Toronto: Art Gallery of
Ontario, 1988), 7; David Burnett, Oscar Cahén (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario,
1983), 12; Paul Duval, Four Decades: The Canadian Group of Painters and Their
Contemporaries, 1930–1970 (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1972), 140; Robert
Fulford, introduction to Magnificent Decade: Harold Town; 1955–1965, ed.
David P. Silcox (Toronto: Coach House Press and Moore Gallery, 1997), 10;
Elizabeth Kilbourn, Oscar Cahén: 1916–1956 (Toronto: Jerrold Morris Gallery,
1963); Roald Nasgaard, Abstract Painting in Canada (Vancouver: Douglas &
McIntyre, 2007), 103; Joan Murray, Painters Eleven in Retrospect (Oshawa:
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1979), 9, 11; Kay Woods, quoted in Paul Duval,
“Writer Replies to Town’s Comments,” Globe and Mail, November 28, 1972, 7;
Joyce Zemans, “Making Painting Real: Abstract and Non-Objective Art in
English Canada, c. 1915–1961,” in The Visual Arts in Canada, ed. Anne
Whitelaw, Brian Foss, and Sandra Paikowsky (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University
Press, 2010), 173–74.
36. David Burnett, Town (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario and McClelland &
Stewart, 1986), 38; Paul Duval, Four Decades: The Canadian Group of Painters
and Their Contemporaries, 1930–1970 (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1972), 141.
37. Harold Town, interview by Joan Murray, September 4, 1977, 12, Joan
Murray fonds, Library and Archives Canada; Gerta Moray, Harold Town: Life &
Work (Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2014).
38. William Ronald, letter to Jock Macdonald, December 9, 1956, William

Ronald fonds, Library and Archives Canada.
39. Ray Mead, interview by Joan Murray, September 4, 1977, 24, Joan Murray
40. David Burnett, Oscar Cahén (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983).
41. Dorothy Pfeiffer, “Drawings and Prints,” unidentified newspaper clipping,

1960, The Cahén Archives.
STYLE & TECHNIQUE

1. Cahén in Donald Buchanan, “An Illustrator Speaks His Mind,” Canadian Art,
Autumn 1950, 8.
2. Zuzana Kopcová, “Atelier Rotter (1928–1939)” (bachelor’s thesis, Palacký

University, Czech Republic, 2007).
76
OSCAR CAHÉN
3. Ole Haslund’s Hus, Ostergade, Copenhagen, November 1934. In an

interview Cahén says he had already exhibited in Prague as well. “Forfalsket Sin
Daabsattest,” unidentified Danish newspaper, November 14, 1934.
4. Otto Demus, “Kunst Lagerausstellung,” edited by The Refugee Committee

(Camp N, Sherbrooke, Quebec), Camp Chronicle, no. 2 (October 2, 1940): 2.
Copy in collection of Paula Draper.
5. Tom Hodgson, interview by Joan Murray, May 28, 1979, 8, Joan Murray
6. Donald W. Buchanan, “An Illustrator Speaks His Mind,” Canadian Art,

Autumn 1950, 2–8; McKenzie Porter, “Volcano with a Paint Brush,” The
Standard, April 7, 1951, 18–23; Rose MacDonald, “Is Art Revolution Here Or Is It
Doodling Phase?” Toronto Telegram, March 9, 1951, 3.

8. Oscar Cahén quoted in Donald W. Buchanan, “An Illustrator Speaks His

Mind,” Canadian Art, Autumn 1950, 2–8; Stan Furnival, “Notes on Oscar
Cahén,” Northward Journal: A Quarterly of the Northern Arts, nos. 18/19
(November 1980): n.p.
9. Stan Furnival, “Notes on Oscar Cahén,” Northward Journal: A Quarterly of the

Northern Arts, nos. 18/19 (November 1980): n.p.
10. Oscar Cahén quoted in Donald W. Buchanan, “An Illustrator Speaks His
Mind,” Canadian Art, Autumn 1950, 2–8.
11. Harold Town, interview by Joan Murray, July 11, 1977, 5, Joan Murray
12. Karen Finlay, “Identifying with Nature: Graham Sutherland and Canadian
Art, 1939–1955,” Canadian Art Review 21, nos. 1–2 (1994): 43–59.
13. Harold Town, interview by Joan Murray, July 11, 1977, 5, Joan Murray
14. Gary Michael Dault, “Oscar Cahén: In Search of Lost Fame,” Border
Crossings, August 2004, 58–63.
15. Oscar Cahén, quoted in “‘Painters Eleven’ Member Enjoys Trafalgar’s

Charm,” Oakville Record–Star, 1955, 2C.
16. Cahén in Donald Buchanan, “An Illustrator Speaks His Mind,” Canadian Art,
Autumn 1950, 2–8; Stan Furnival, “Notes on Oscar Cahén,” Northward Journal:
A Quarterly of the Northern Arts, nos. 18/19 (November 1980): n.p.
17. Weider appears in Cahén’s address book; his red clay plates are similar.
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18. Hugh Thomson, “Hart House Gallery Shows Abstract Art,” Toronto Daily
Star, October 28, 1954, 4.
19. Rose MacDonald, “At the Galleries,” Toronto Telegram, February 14, 1954.
20. Robert Fulford, “Tribute to Cahén,” Toronto Daily Star, April 4, 1959, 22.
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OSCAR CAHÉN
GLOSSARY
Abstract Expressionism
A style that flourished in New York in the 1940s and 1950s, defined by its
combination of formal abstraction and self-conscious expression. The term
describes a wide variety of work; among the most famous Abstract
Expressionists are Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Willem
de Kooning.
aniline dyes
Used to colour wood, fabric, and leather, aniline dyes are synthetic organic
compounds known for their clarity of colour and for retaining the appearance
of natural textures.
automatism
A physiological term first applied to art by the Surrealists to refer to processes
such as free association and spontaneous, intuitive writing, drawing, and
painting that allow access to the subconscious without the interference of
planning or controlled thought.
Bauhaus
Open from 1919 to 1933 in Germany, the Bauhaus revolutionized twentieth-
century visual arts education by integrating the fine arts, crafts, industrial
design, and architecture. Teachers included Josef Albers, Walter Gropius,
Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and László Moholy-
Nagy.
Blue Mountain Pottery

Founded in 1953 by Denis Tupy and Jozo Weider and closed in 2004, Blue
Mountain Pottery was based in Collingwood, Ontario. The pottery is
recognizable by Blue Mountain’s signature glazing technique called “reflowing
decorating,” in which light and dark glazes are applied simultaneously to
produce a distinctive streaked effect.
Breuer, Marcel (Hungarian/American, 1902–1981)

An influential modernist designer and architect associated with the Bauhaus,
Breuer designed sculptural furniture with lightweight metal or wood. In 1926
he created the iconic Wassily chair (named after Wassily Kandinsky). After
emigrating to the United States in 1937, Breuer focused on architecture,
though he continued to design furniture.
Bush, Jack (Canadian, 1909–1977)

A member of Painters Eleven, formed in 1953, Bush found his real voice only
after critic Clement Greenberg visited his studio in 1957 and focused on his
watercolours. Out of these Bush developed the shapes and broad colour
planes that would come to characterize a personal colour-field style, parallel to
the work of Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. With them, Bush participated in
Greenberg’s 1964 exhibition Post Painterly Abstraction.
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Caniff, Milton (American, 1907–1988)

A prolific twentieth-century cartoonist and founder of the National Cartoonists
Society. Caniff’s nationally syndicated comic strip Dickie Dare, produced for
the Associated Press, led to a position at the Chicago Tribune and New York
Daily News, where he developed the popular strip Terry and the Pirates.
casein
A milk phosphoprotein, casein is strongly adhesive and commonly employed
as glue or as a binding ingredient in paint. Casein paint is used as an
alternative to tempera.
Cézanne, Paul (French, 1839–1906)

A painter of arguably unparalleled influence on the development of modern
art, associated with the Post-Impressionist school and known for his technical
experiments with colour and form and his interest in multiple-point
perspective. In his maturity Cézanne had several preferred subjects, including
portraits of his wife, still lifes, and Provençal landscapes.
Chagall, Marc (Russian/French, 1887–1985)

A painter and graphic artist, Chagall’s work is characterized by colourful,
dreamlike images and a defiance of the rules of pictorial logic. Although he
employed elements of Cubism, Fauvism, and Symbolism, Chagall did not
formally align with any avant-garde movement.
Cubism
A radical style of painting developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in
Paris between 1907 and 1914, defined by the representation of numerous
perspectives at once. Cubism is considered crucial to the history of modern art
for its enormous international impact; famous practitioners also include Juan
Gris and Francis Picabia.
Dair, Carl (Canadian, 1912–1967)

A distinguished Canadian designer, Carl Dair was also an internationally
recognized typographer, teacher, and writer. He believed in typography as a
significant feature of communication and designed Cartier, the first Canadian
typeface. His influential book, Design with Type, was published in 1952.
Dix, Otto (German, 1891–1969)

An Expressionist painter and printmaker who created harshly satirical,
sometimes grotesque depictions of figures from Weimar Germany, Dix was a
pioneer of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement. War,
prostitution, and human depravity were central themes of his work.
Expressionism
An intense, emotional style of art that values the representation of the artist’s
subjective inner feelings and ideas. German Expressionism started in the early
twentieth century in Germany and Austria. In painting, Expressionism is
associated with an intense, jarring use of colour and brush strokes that are not
naturalistic.
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Franck, Albert (Dutch/Canadian, 1899–1973)

Born in the Netherlands, Franck immigrated to Canada following the First
World War. He is known for his watercolours and oil paintings of Toronto
streets and houses. Franck was an important influence on Painters Eleven.
Frey, Max (German, 1874–1944)

A painter, illustrator, and graphic designer, Frey painted portraits and
landscapes influenced by Symbolism. He was a member of the Dresden Art
Cooperative and taught at the Dresden Academy of Arts and Crafts.
Furnival, Stan (Canadian, 1913–1980)

A graphic artist, Furnival served as art director of Chatelaine magazine in 1952–
53. During his tenure at the magazine, he frequently commissioned illustrator
Oscar Cahén and is seen to have been an early supporter of Cahén’s career.
German Expressionism
A modernist movement in painting, sculpture, theatre, literature, and cinema.
Expressionism’s birth is often traced to 1905, when Die Brücke (The Bridge), a
group of Dresden painters, broke with the practices and institutions of the
academy and bourgeois culture, declaring themselves a “bridge” to the future.
Another bold new group, Der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider), formed in 1911,
focused more on the spiritual in art. Significant Expressionist painters include
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, and Egon
Schiele.
Gordon, Hortense (Canadian, 1889–1961)

A founding member of Painters Eleven, Gordon was known for her bold
abstract paintings. She taught at Hamilton Technical School and was
appointed principal in 1934.
Gothic art
A style of painting, sculpture, and architecture that emerged in the twelfth
century in Europe. A Christian art form, it was primarily expressed through
illuminated manuscripts and architecture that featured sculpture and stained
glass and valued light and soaring spaces.
Gottlieb, Adolph (American, 1903–1974)

Gottlieb’s early representational work evolved toward the surreal and Abstract
Expressionism, by which he sought to remove from cultural associations from
his work in order to convey a universal language of expression. He was the first
American to win the Grand Prize at the Bienal de São Paolo (1963).
Greenberg, Clement (American, 1909–1994)

A highly influential art critic and essayist known primarily for his formalist
approach and his contentious concept of modernism, which he first outlined in
his 1961 article “Modernist Painting.” Greenberg was, notably, an early
champion of Abstract Expressionists, including Jackson Pollock and the
sculptor David Smith.
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Grosz, George (German/American, 1893–1959)

A caricaturist and scathing social critic, painter, and draftsman associated with
Dada in his early career, Grosz became a pioneer of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New
Objectivity). His avidly anti-war work grew out of his participation in the First
World War. His late career focused on landscape and still-life painting, though
it retained a bleak tone.
Group of Seven
A progressive and nationalistic school of landscape painting in Canada, active
between 1920 (the year of the group’s first exhibition, at the Art Gallery of
Toronto, now the Art Gallery of Ontario) and 1933. Founding members were
the artists Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston,
Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley.
Heartfield, John (German, 1891–1968)

Born Helmut Franz Josef Herzfeld, John Heartfield was a pioneer of Dada and
actively integrated his leftist, pacifist politics with artistic practice. He worked in
print design and typography and as an editor for the German Communist
Party. With George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, and Hannah Hoch, Heartfield
developed photomontage, combining images from mass media to support his
political perspective.
Hirschfeld, Al (American, 1903–2003)

Known for his linear calligraphic style, Hirschfeld was a caricaturist whose long
and prolific career focused on portraits of celebrities. Hirschfield’s work was
published widely, from the New York Times to Rolling Stone to Playboy and TV
Guide.
Hodgson, Tom (Canadian, 1924–2006)

An Abstract Expressionist painter, advertising art director, respected art
teacher, and champion athlete raised on Centre Island, in Toronto Harbour.
Hodgson was a member of Painters Eleven; he trained with Arthur Lismer at the
Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University), Toronto, and made action
paintings that were often immense in scale.
impasto
Paint applied so thickly that it stands out in relief and retains the marks of the
brush or palette knife.
Johnson, Ray (American, 1927–1995)

A collage and performance artist, early practitioner of mail art, and leading
light among New York Pop and Conceptual artists. Studied at Black Mountain
College under Josef Albers and Lyonel Feininger, formerly of the Bauhaus, as
well as Robert Motherwell. Johnson was a feverishly creative artist, for whom
the boundary between art and life was all but non-existent.
Kettlewell, Charles William (1914–1988)

“Bill” Kettlewell was an equestrian painter who also worked as an art director in
Toronto.
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Kline, Franz (American, 1910–1962)

An Abstract Expressionist painter and draftsman whose gestural works drew
inspiration from contemporaries such as Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning.
From the late 1940s Kline’s paintings were largely black and white, but in the
last years of his career he returned to a full-colour palette.
LaPalme, Robert (Canadian, 1908–1997)

A prolific and influential illustrator and political cartoonist published in almost
every French language newspaper in Quebec and an outspoken critic of
Premier Maurice Duplessis. LaPalme was also a painter and acted as the artistic
director of Expo 67 in Montreal, and of Montreal’s metro, where he instituted a
program of public art. Three of his own murals are featured in Montreal’s metro
system.
Lebrun, Rico (Italian/American, 1900–1964)

A commercial artist, painter, sculptor, and muralist. The human form inspired
his work. He took as a central theme the human predicament. A popular and
influential instructor of art and illustration, his Crucifixion series of abstracted
figures is perhaps his best-known work.
Lionni, Leo (Dutch/Italian, 1910–1999)

Influenced by Futurism and the Bauhaus, Lionni was a painter and sculptor who
also worked as a commercial artist in advertising and magazine publishing
(notably for Fortune, Time-Life, and Sports Illustrated). He began writing and
illustrating children’s books in 1959.
Luke, Alexandra (Canadian, 1901–1967)

An Abstract Expressionist painter and a member of Painters Eleven, Luke
trained at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Hans Hofmann School of Fine
Arts in Massachusetts. A significant figure in early Canadian abstract art, she
was included in the exhibition Canadian Women Artists in New York in 1947.
Macdonald, Jock (British/Canadian, 1897–1960)

A painter, printmaker, illustrator, teacher, and a pioneer in the development of
abstract art in Canada. Macdonald began as a landscape painter but became
interested in abstraction in the 1940s, influenced by Hans Hofmann and Jean
Dubuffet. Macdonald was one of the founders of Painters Eleven in 1953. (See
Jock Macdonald: Life & Work by Joyce Zemans.)
Martin, David Stone (American, 1913–1992)

A prolific and influential graphic designer and illustrator with a kinetic,
calligraphic style, Martin was an artist correspondent for Time-Life during the
Second World War. He is most renowned for having created hundreds of
album portraits, especially for jazz musicians such as John Coltrane, Ella
Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday.
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McLaren, Norman (Scottish/Canadian, 1914–1987)

McLaren began his career at General Post Office (GPO) in Scotland before
following film producer John Grierson to the National Film Board in Canada.
An innovative filmmaker, McLaren created abstract and animated films and
experimented with techniques such as drawing directly on celluloid, cutout
animation, and superimpositions. He created 72 films over the course of his
career.
McNeely, Tom (Canadian, b.1935)

A watercolour painter whose illustrative work was commissioned for television
documentaries, print journalism, and books. Notably, McNeely illustrated the
endpapers for many books by the popular Canadian historian Pierre Berton.
Mead, Ray (British/Canadian, 1921–1998)

A founding member of Painters Eleven, Mead was an Abstract Expressionist
painter whose work, characterized by bold planes of colour, black and white
shapes, and sophisticated composition, was inspired by his internal reflections
on memories.
modernism
A movement extending from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century
in all the arts, modernism rejected academic traditions in favour of innovative
styles developed in response to contemporary industrialized society.
Beginning in painting with the Realist movement led by Gustave Courbet, it
progressed through Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism
and on to abstraction. By the 1960s, anti-authoritarian postmodernist styles
such as Pop art, Conceptual art, and Neo-Expressionism blurred the distinction
between high art and mass culture.
Motherwell, Robert (American, 1915–1991)

A member of the New York School, a major figure in Abstract Expressionism,
and an influential teacher and lecturer, Motherwell employed the automatist
technique to create many of his paintings and collages. Over the course of his
career, he produced a series called Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 1957–61,
inspired by the Spanish civil war.
Nakamura, Kazuo (Canadian, 1926–2002)

A member of Painters Eleven, Nakamura embraced science and nature in his
early abstract landscapes. Later, he created a body of work known as the
Number Structures, which explores the connections between mathematics and
aesthetics. The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto held a posthumous
retrospective of his work in 2004.
Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity)

A movement in German modern art that embraced realist representation as a
means of social criticism, often employing brutal satire. Neue Sachlichkeit, or
New Objectivity, emerged after the First World War as an artistic response that
rejected the avant-garde forms in favour of traditional approaches. Prominent
Neue Sachlichkeit artists were Otto Dix, George Grosz, Max Beckmann, George
Schrimpf.
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Northern Renaissance
Flourishing in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Renaissance in
Northern Europe was characterized by the rise of Humanism, by an
engagement with Italy and the classical world, and by the impact of the
Protestant Reformation. Advances in artistic techniques, notably the
development of oil paint and printmaking, saw various art forms generated
with a high level of invention, detail, and skill. Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht
Dürer, and Hans Holbein are key figures.
Onley, Toni (British/Canadian, 1928–2004)

A western Canadian artist who painted watercolour landscapes and abstracts,
Onley published the book Onley’s Arctic, based on a trip to the Arctic in 1974.
His work is held at the Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London,
U.K.; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the National Gallery of Canada,
Ottawa; and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Pachner, William (American, b.1915)

Having fled Europe for the United States in 1939, Pachner became art director
of Esquire magazine. Ending his career as a commercial artist, he turned
exclusively to painting in response to the Holocaust. His Abstract Expressionist
works are defined by swirling, multi-layered colours and texture.
Painters Eleven
An artists’ group active from 1953 to 1960, formed by eleven Abstract
Expressionist Toronto-area painters, including Harold Town, Jack Bush, and
William Ronald. They joined together in an effort to increase their exposure,
given the limited interest in abstract art in Ontario at the time.
Parker, Al (American, 1906–1985)

Considered an innovator of illustration at his time, Al Parker was a prominent
magazine illustrator from the 1940s to the 1960s. His work appeared in
publications such as Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, McCalls, Vogue, and the
Saturday Evening Post.
Picasso, Pablo (Spanish, 1881–1973)

One of the most famous and influential artists of his time, Picasso was a
prominent member of the Parisian avant-garde circle that included Henri
Matisse and Georges Braque. His painting Les demoiselles d’Avignon, 1906–7,
is considered by many to be the most important of the twentieth century.
Post-Impressionism
A term coined by the British art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe painting
produced originally in France between about 1880 and 1905 in response to
Impressionism’s artistic advances and limitations. Central figures include Paul
Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh.
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Post-Painterly Abstraction
A style of modernist painting championed by the critic Clement Greenberg,
who invented the term as the title for a significant exhibition he curated for the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art that also toured to the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. The style favoured the
openness and clarity of thinly applied planes of colour. Artists associated with
the style include Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and the
Canadians Jack Bush and Kenneth Lochhead.
process colours
The transparent ink colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black used to
reproduce full-colour photographs or artworks in offset lithographic printing.
Rattner, Abraham (American, 1895–1978)

An Expressionist who painted in a Cubist style, Rattner spent two decades in
Europe before returning to America in 1939. On a road trip, writer Henry Miller
and Rattner documented American life and subsequently published the
account as The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945). In his later career, Rattner
designed stained glass that incorporated religious symbolism and references
to the Holocaust and nuclear war.
Rockwell, Norman (American, 1894–1978)

A prolific illustrator and painter, Rockwell produced sentimental images of
everyday American life. A long-time illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post,
Rockwell was a popular artist who was critically dismissed during his lifetime.
He remains among the most well-known American artists of his era.
Ronald, William (Canadian, 1926–1998)

An Abstract Expressionist and member of Painters Eleven, which sprang from
the Toronto group exhibition that he organized in 1953, Abstracts at Home.
Ronald lived in New York from 1955 to 1965. His work is held both by New
York institutions—including the Whitney Museum of American Art,
Guggenheim Museum, and Museum of Modern Art—and by numerous
Canadian museums.
Rotter, Vilém (Czech, 1903–1960)

An influential graphic artist, Rotter established Rotter Studio, which became
the most influential design studio in Prague. Rotter’s design incorporated
features of modern movements: Art Deco, Expressionism, and abstraction.
Rouault, Georges (French, 1871–1958)

Known for his highly personal and expressive style, Rouault first gained
notoriety in the early 1900s with his compassionate renderings of prostitutes
and other marginalized people. Informed by Christian spiritualism, his work
was finally embraced by the church shortly before his death.
rubber cement resist

A technique in watercolour painting in which rubber cement is applied to a
surface that is subsequently painted over with watercolour paints. When the
paint is dry, the rubber cement is removed, revealing areas untouched by the
paint.
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scratchboard
Term refers to the medium and an illustration technique. Scratchboard is a
white clay surface coated in black ink. An image is created by using sharp
blades and scraping implements to scratch patterns in the clay, revealing the
white underneath the surface.
Sevier, Gerry (Canadian, b. 1934)

A commercial artist, illustrator, and instructor, Gerry Sevier uses light and
shadow in his work to powerful effect. He is a member of the Royal Canadian
Academy and has works in more than 150 corporate collections.
Surrealism
An early twentieth-century literary and artistic movement that began in Paris.
Surrealism aimed to express the workings of the unconscious, free of
convention and reason, and was characterized by fantastic images and
incongruous juxtapositions. The movement spread globally, influencing film,
theatre, and music.
Sutherland, Graham (British, 1903–1980)

A painter, printmaker, and designer interested primarily in landscapes and
natural motifs, which he represented in a non-traditional, almost Surrealist
style. His Crucifixion and Thorn Head images gained wide currency as
expressions of the human condition in the aftermath of the Second World War.
Synesthesia
A neurological condition in which sensory input, such as vision, is
simultaneously experienced through one or more additional sense.
Synesthesia also occurs when cognition of an abstract concept, such as letters
or numbers, triggers a sensory perception, such as of hearing or taste.
Szyk, Arthur (Polish/American, 1894–1951)

An illustrator and cartoonist who championed human rights and civil liberties
through artistic media. During the Second World War, Szyk’s caricatures, which
appeared in newspapers across the United States, effectively highlighted the
Jewish plight in Europe. His work was also featured in such publications as the
New York Post, Time magazine, and Collier’s.
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de (French, 1864–1901)

A painter and printmaker best known for his depictions of Parisian nightlife,
who created a vast body of work despite physical and psychological hardships.
Toulouse-Lautrec was celebrated by both the avant-garde and the general
public, and the distinctive aesthetic of his turn-of-the-century posters
influenced commercial art well into the twentieth century.
Town, Harold (Canadian, 1924–1990)

Town was a founding member of Painters Eleven and a leader in Toronto’s art
scene in the 1950s and 1960s. An internationally recognized abstract artist, he
created paintings, collages, sculptures, and prints with brilliant effect and
developed a unique form of monotype, “single autographic prints.” (See
Harold Town: Life & Work by Gerta Moray.)
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Trier, Walter (Czech/British/Canadian, 1890–1951)

A Jewish resident of Prague in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, Trier relocated to Berlin, then to England in 1936, and later to
Canada. He produced anti-Nazi caricatures and, as a commercial artist, he
illustrated for Lilliput magazine and drew many covers for The New Yorker. He
was also a book illustrator and designer.
Tupy, Denis (Czech/Canadian, b. 1929)

An accomplished maker of ceramic moulds, Tupy was cofounder of Blue
Mountain Pottery, a Canadian pottery brand collected internationally and
renowned for its unique glazing process. In 1960 Tupy formed Canadian
Ceramic Craft, which created moulds similar to those used in Blue Mountain
Pottery.
underpainting
A term that refers to the first layer of a painting, executed in order to set values
that will be carried out through the course of painting the work. In general
most or all of the underpainting is covered by subsequent layers of paint.
Watson, Sydney H. (Canadian, 1911–1981)

A commercial artist, painter, and educator, Watson was a member of the
Canadian Group of Painters and an instructor and eventually head of the
Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University), Toronto. His work is held by the
National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa; the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
in Kleinberg, Ontario; and Hart House at the University of Toronto.
Weber, Max (American, 1881–1961)

A Russian-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, and writer, trained as an artist in
Paris. Weber’s early admiration and adoption of European modernist
movements—including Fauvism and Cubism—made him one of the most
significant artists of the American avant-garde.
Weider, Jozo (Czech/Canadian, 1907–1971)

This Czech-born Canadian immigrant was, with Denis Tupy, cofounder of Blue
Mountain Pottery, a Canadian pottery brand collected internationally and
recognized for its unique glazing process.
Wilson, York (Canadian, 1907–1984)

A painter, collagist, and prominent muralist who lived for many years in
Mexico. Wilson worked as a commercial illustrator prior to the 1930s, and while
he experimented with abstraction for much of his life, he never abandoned his
concern for drawing technique, which he worked continually to refine.
woodcut
A relief method of printing that involves carving a design into a block of wood,
which is then inked and printed, using either a press or simple hand pressure.
This technique was invented in China and spread to the West in the thirteenth
century.
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Yarwood, Walter (Canadian, 1917–1996)

Originally a painter, Yarwood abandoned the medium for sculpture after the
demise of Painters Eleven, of which he was a member. He constructed his
works from such materials as cast aluminum, bronze, wood, and found objects.
His public commissions can be found in Winnipeg, Toronto, and Montreal.
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OSCAR CAHÉN
The breadth of Oscar Cahén’s oeuvre was obscure until his son,
Michael Cahén, inherited a collection of drawings and paintings, most
of which had lain in storage for over three decades. This new
accessibility has brought renewed attention to Cahén’s
groundbreaking work as an illustrator and abstract painter. Cahén’s
paintings are featured in many Canadian art books and can be found
in museums and galleries throughout Canada. Much more is being
discovered as The Cahén Archives furthers the study of Oscar Cahén’s
life and work.
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OSCAR CAHÉN
KEY EXHIBITIONS
Oscar Cahén first exhibited in his late teens but, aside from two known
exceptions, ceased showing until 1947 as he concentrated on his illustration
career. During the 1950s Cahén exhibited widely. His work has been included
in major exhibitions ever since.
Installation view of Oscar Cahén Memorial Exhibition, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1959. The Cahén Archives.
1934 November 1934, Oscar Cahén, Ole Haslund’s Hus, Copenhagen.
1943 November 1943, Works by Mrs. Emme Frankenburg, Sam Borenstein and Oscar
Cahén / Exhibition of Sketches, Watercolours and Illustrations by Oscar Cahén,
Art Association of Montreal (now the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts).
1952 October 1952, Canadian Abstract Exhibition, Oshawa YWCA and Hart House,
Toronto.
1953 October 1953, Abstracts at Home, The Robert Simpson Co., Toronto.
1953–54 December 1953–February 1954, 2nd Bienal de São Paulo.
1954 March 1954, Canadian section at the Tenth Inter-American Conference,

Caracas.
October–November 1954, Oscar Cahén, Hart House, Toronto.
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OSCAR CAHÉN
1955 March–April 1955, Jack Bush, Oscar Cahén, Jacques de Tonnancour and Paul-
Émile Borduas, Elsie Perrin Williams Memorial Art Gallery, London, Ontario.
1956 April–May 1956, 20th Annual Exhibition of American Abstract Artists with
“Painters Eleven” of Canada, Riverside Museum, New York.
June–July 1956, Canadian Abstract Painting, National Gallery of Canada,

Ottawa.
1958–59 September 1958–March 1959, Painters Eleven, National Gallery of Canada,

Ottawa; toured to Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Edmonton, Kingston,
Sackville.
1959 March–April 1959, Oscar Cahén Memorial Exhibition, Art Gallery of Toronto (Art
Gallery of Ontario).
1960 March 1960, Oscar Cahén, Paintings. André Jasmin, Serigraphs. Montreal
Museum of Fine Arts.
1968 September–November 1968, Oscar Cahén: First American Retrospective,

Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida.
1972 September–October 1972, Toronto Painting, 1953–1965, National Gallery of

Canada, Ottawa; toured to Toronto.
1979 October–December 1979, Painters Eleven in Retrospect, the Robert McLaughlin

Gallery, Oshawa; toured across Canada.
1983–84 December 1983–February 1984, Oscar Cahén retrospective, Art Gallery of

Ontario, Toronto; toured to St. John’s, Windsor, Edmonton, Winnipeg.
1993 March–May 1993, The Crisis of Abstraction in Canada: The 1950s, National
Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; toured to Quebec City, Regina, Calgary, Hamilton.
2011 October 2011, Oscar Cahén: Canada’s Groundbreaking Illustrator, Illustration

House, New York; toured to Calgary, Banff.
SELECTED WRITINGS BY THE ARTIST

Oscar Cahén wrote poems, short stories, and music, only a few examples of
which survive in The Cahén Archives. He also contributed one important essay
on the status of illustration:
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OSCAR CAHÉN
“Editorial Art in Canada in 1953.” Art Directors Club of Toronto Annual.

Toronto: Art Directors Club of Toronto, 1954, 54.
SELECTED CRITICAL WRITING

Although very few scholars have accessed Oscar Cahén’s papers and oeuvre,
many unverified claims have been repeated for years. Factual errors exist in
some of the studies on the artist produced before this one, which will also have
to be reviewed as new information comes to light. Nevertheless, previous
scholarship brings invaluable perspectives to the appreciation of Oscar Cahén.
Burnett, David. Oscar Cahén. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983.
Dault, Gary Michael. “Oscar Cahén: In Search of Lost Fame.” Border

Crossings, no. 91 (August 2004): 58–63.
Finlay, Karen. “Identifying with Nature: Graham Sutherland and Canadian

Art, 1939–1955.” Canadian Art Review 21, nos. 1–2 (1994): 43–59.
Grove, Jaleen. “Oscar Cahén: Bringing Things into the Light.” In Oscar
Cahén: Canada’s Groundbreaking Illustrator. New York: Illustration House,
2011.
———, ed. Proceedings of the Cahén Colloquium II (2015).
Exhibition catalogue for the Art Gallery of

Smart, Tom. Various postings on Oscar Cahén under “Research.” Smart Ontario’s major retrospective exhibition
on Art, September–December 2011. of Cahén’s work, organized by David
Burnett in 1983.
http://www.smartonart.ca/index.cfm/Research.
Spalding, Jeffrey. “Oscar Cahén, Painter Extraordinaire—Oscar, Celebrated

Illustrator.” Today’s Inspiration, October 31, 2012.
http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.ca/2012/10/oscar-cahen-painter-
extraordinaire.html.
KEY INTERVIEWS WITH THE ARTIST

Buchanan, Donald W. “An Illustrator Speaks His Mind.” Canadian Art 8, no. 1
(Autumn 1950): 2–8.
Porter, McKenzie. “Volcano with a Paint Brush.” The Standard, April 7, 1951, 18–
23.
FURTHER READING
The following sources provide excellent background to past and current
appreciation of Oscar Cahén.
Arthur, Paul. “Canada: Advertising and Editorial Art.” Graphis Annual 10, no.
52 (1954): 100–101, 158, 161.
93
OSCAR CAHÉN
Boyanoski, Christine. The 1950s: Works on Paper. Toronto: Art Gallery of

Ontario, 1988.
Broad, Graham. “Painters Eleven: The Shock of the New.” The Beaver,
February–March 2004, 20–26.
Cahén, Fritz Max. Men Against Hitler. Indianapolis: Bobbs–Merrill, 1939, 22–23.
Dair, Carl. “New Patterns in Canadian Advertising.” Canadian Art 9, no. 4

(Summer 1952): 152–55.
Furnival, Stan. “Notes on Oscar

Cahén.” Northward Journal: A
Quarterly of the Northern Arts, nos.
18/19 (November 1980): n.p.
Hill, James. Presentation of the

CAPIC Lifetime Achievement
Award to Oscar Cahén (speech),
March 26, 1988. In Oscar Cahén:
Canada’s Groundbreaking
Illustrator. New York: Illustration
House, 2011.
Koch, Eric. Deemed Suspect: A

Wartime Blunder. Toronto:
Oscar Cahén painting en plein air.
Methuen, 1980.
Macklem, Katherine. “Bringing Back Oscar.” Maclean’s, October 25, 2004, 59–
64.
Murray, Joan. Painters Eleven in Retrospect. Oshawa: Robert McLaughlin

Gallery, 1979.
———. Origins of Abstraction in Ontario: The Abstracts at Home Show, 1953.

Oshawa: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1992.
Nasgaard, Roald. Abstract Painting in Canada. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre;

Halifax: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2007.
Nowell, Iris. Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art. Vancouver:
Douglas & McIntyre, 2010.
Reid, Dennis. Toronto Painting: 1953–1965. Ottawa: National Gallery of

Canada, 1972.
Zemans, Joyce. “Making Painting Real: Abstract and Non-Objective Art in

English Canada, c. 1915–1961.” In The Visual Arts in Canada, edited by Anne
Whitelaw, Brian Foss, and Sandra Paikowsky, 169–76. Don Mills, ON: Oxford
University Press, 2010.
94
OSCAR CAHÉN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JALEEN GROVE
Jaleen Grove served as the Scholar-in-Residence at the Cahén
Archives in Toronto 2013–16. An art historian with a
specialization in illustration history, Grove is an associate editor of
History of Illustration (Bloomsbury, 2018), the first comprehensive
book on this topic, as well as associate editor of the Journal of
Illustration. She has written several monographs, articles, and
book chapters on visual culture and on the state of illustration
research, and has lectured and delivered papers in Canada, the
United States, and Europe. Grove holds a PhD in art history and
criticism from SUNY Stony Brook, an MA in communication and “Oscar Cahén initially
culture from Ryerson University, and a BFA from Emily Carr caught my interest because
University of Art + Design. She maintains a studio practice
his illustrations were so
alongside her research and writing, and in 2018 begins a two-year
position as assistant professor in illustration at the Rhode Island varied and exciting, and
School of Design. because he moved so easily
between illustration and
abstract painting. His
unusual life and the dearth
of reliable information about
him led me to dig deep into
the archives to find gems. As
each forgotten facet of his
life comes to light we gain a
new way of looking at his art.
These discoveries
complement recent interest
in Painters Eleven, while his
illustrations are especially
relevant for contemporary
graphic novelists.”
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OSCAR CAHÉN
COPYRIGHT & CREDITS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
From the Author
Jaleen Grove would like to thank Sara Angel for this opportunity and the staff
of ACI for their meticulous work, and to acknowledge the unpublished research
of Jeffrey Spalding, Tom Smart, Gerta Moray, Jessica Poon, Cy Strom, Rachel
Boisclair, and Paula Draper. She also thanks Michael Cahén, Jim Harrison, and
the Visual Literacy Foundation of Canada for use of The Cahén Archives, Alan
Flint for input on printmaking, Marek Cerveny for research in Prague, and
David Silcox for access to the Harold Town fonds; and she extends gratitude to
all interviewees, especially Gerry Waldston, Beatrice Fischer, William Pachner,
Jean Ainsworth, and Colin Gravenor, Jr.
From the Art Canada Institute

This online art book was made possible thanks to BMO Financial Group, Lead
Sponsor for the Canadian Online Art Book Project. The Art Canada Institute
gratefully acknowledges the other sponsors for the 2014–15 Season: Aimia,
Consignor Canadian Fine Art, Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc., the Hal Jackman
Foundation, K. James Harrison, The McLean Foundation, Sandra L. Simpson,
and TD Bank.
Thanks also to the Art Canada Institute Founding Patrons: Sara and Michael
Angel, Jalynn H. Bennett, The Butterfield Family Foundation, David and Vivian
Campbell, Albert E. Cummings, Kiki and Ian Delaney, The Fleck Family, Roger
and Kevin Garland, The Gershon Iskowitz Foundation, Michelle Koerner and
Kevin Doyle, Phil Lind, Sarah and Tom Milroy, Nancy McCain and Bill Morneau,
Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan, Sandra L. Simpson, Pam and Mike Stein,
and Robin and David Young; as well as its Founding Partner Patrons: The Pierre
Elliott Trudeau Foundation and Partners in Art.
The ACI gratefully acknowledges the support and assistance of the Art Gallery
of Ontario (Jim Shedden and Ebony Jansen); The Cahén Archives; the National
Gallery of Canada (Kristin Rothschild, Raven Amiro, and Erika Dola); Museum
London (Janette Cousins Ewan); the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Sonya Jones
and Linda Jansma); Seth; the Vancouver Art Gallery (Danielle Currie); and
private collectors who wish to remain anonymous.
SPONSOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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OSCAR CAHÉN
IMAGE SOURCES
Every effort has been made to secure permissions for all copyrighted material.
The Art Canada Institute will gladly correct any errors or omissions.
Credit for Cover Image
Oscar Cahén, Austin Healey 100 Engine, 1954. (See below for details.)
Credits for Banner Images
Biography: Oscar Cahén painting outdoors in King Township, Ontario, c. 1949. (See below for details.)
Key Works: Oscar Cahén, The Adoration, 1949. (See below for details.)
Significance & Critical Issues: Oscar Cahén, Traumoeba, 1956. (See below for details.)
Style & Technique: Oscar Cahén, Illustration for the “The Pirate,” 1948. (See below for details.)
Sources & Resources: Oscar Cahén, Growing Form, 1953. (See below for details.)
Where to See: Installation view of Oscar Cahén Memorial Exhibition, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1959. (See below
for details).
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OSCAR CAHÉN
Credits for Works by Oscar Cahén
The Adoration, 1949. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Animal Structure, 1953. Collection of Museum London, Art Fund, 1963, © The Cahén Archives, photography
© Museum London.
Ascend, 1952. Collection of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, purchase 1970, © The Cahén Archives.
Austin Healey 100 Engine, 1954. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Candy Tree, 1952–53. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Christus (322), c. 1949–50. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
Cockfight (452), 1951. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
98
OSCAR CAHÉN
Cover illustration for Hiroshima by John Hersey, The Standard, 1946, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén
Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
Cover illustration for Maclean’s, October 15, 1951, printer’s proof. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The
Cahén Archives.
Cover illustration for Maclean’s, January 15, 1952, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén
Archives.
Crucifixion (737), c. 1950. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
Ein Gemüt Cartoon, from Osveny newspaper, 1934, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén
Archives.
Growing Form, 1953. RBC Corporate Art Collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Illustration for “Babies For Export,” The Standard, 1947, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The
Cahén Archives.
99
OSCAR CAHÉN
Illustration for “The Californian’s Tale,” New Liberty, 1947. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Illustration for “Don Giovanni,” The Standard, 1942, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The
Cahén Archives.
Illustration for “The First (and Last) Ottawa Street Café,” Maclean’s, 1955. Private collection, © The Cahén
Archives.
Illustration for “The Most Beautiful Girl I’ve Ever Known,” 1951, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén Archives, ©
Illustration for “A Night Out in Montreal,” Weekend, 1956, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The
Cahén Archives.
Illustration for “The Pirate,” The Standard, 1948. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Illustration for “The Runner,” The Standard, 1943, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén
Archives.
Illustration for “We Don’t Understand Our DPs,” The Standard, 1951. Private collection, © The Cahén
Archives.
100
OSCAR CAHÉN
Illustration for “When Johnny Lifted the Horn,” Weekend Picture Magazine, 1951. Collection of The Cahén
Illustration for short story, “Mail,” by John Norman Harris, 1950, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén Archives,
© The Cahén Archives.
“Little Jong is Brave as a Tiger,” Weekend Magazine, 1955, tearsheet. Collection of The Cahén Archives, ©
Magazine Digest cover design, c. 1946, printer’s proof. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén
Archives.
Masque (181), 1950. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Multi-part Mural, Staff Lounge and Cafeteria of the Imperial Oil Executive Office Building, Toronto, 1956, the
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa. Photographs in collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
Object d’Art, c. 1953. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Plate, c. 1950–56. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
101
OSCAR CAHÉN
Poster warning against venereal disease, c. 1944. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
Praying Family, 1948. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
Praying Man (170), 1947. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Requiem, c. 1953. Current location unknown, © The Cahén Archives.
Rooster, c. 1950–51, current location unknown. Image taken from 79th Annual Ontario Society of Artists
Exhibition Catalogue, 1951.
Self-portrait, c. 1930–40. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
Sketch for Warrior (050), 1955–56. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
102
OSCAR CAHÉN
Small Combo, c. 1954. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Still-life, 1950. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, © The Cahén Archives.
Subjective Image, c. 1954. Collection of Jim and Melinda Harrison, © The Cahén Archives.
Traumoeba, 1956. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled (040), c. 1955. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled (077), 1953. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled (128), 1938. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
103
OSCAR CAHÉN
Untitled (230), 1950–51. Private collection, © Cahén Archives.
Untitled (368), c. 1955–56. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled (405), c. 1952. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled (427), c. 1952. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled (1141), c. 1947–50. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
104
OSCAR CAHÉN
Untitled (Piano Player), 1943. Private collection, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled (clippings of published work), c. 1943. Collection of The Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled, c. 1941. Collection of Beatrice Fischer, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled, c. 1941. Collection of Beatrice Fischer, © The Cahén Archives.
Untitled, 1956. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, © The Cahén Archives.
Warrior, 1956. Private collection on loan to National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, © The Cahén Archives.
Watercolour 131-12, c. 1956. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, © The Cahén Archives.
Credits for Photographs and Works by Other Artists
Art Director Gene Aliman and Oscar Cahén at the Art Directors Club annual exhibition, 1955. Collection of
105
OSCAR CAHÉN
Boogie Doodle, 1941, by Norman McLaren. National Film Board of Canada.
Cathedral, c. 1960, by Walter Yarwood. Collection of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Gift of Dr.
Ralph and Patricia Price, 1984. © Yarwood Family.
Cover of the first American edition of Fritz Max Cahén’s Men Against Hitler, 1939. Collection of The Cahén
Day Neon, 1953, by Harold Town. Collection of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Gift of the artist's
estate, 1994.
A group of internees behind the barbed wire fences at the Camp N internment camp in Sherbrooke, Quebec,
on November 19, 1945. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, PA-114463.
The Hero, 1933, by George Grosz. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Installation view of Oscar Cahén Memorial Exhibition, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1959. Collection of The Cahén
Archives.
106
OSCAR CAHÉN
It Became Green, 1956, by Tom Hodgson. Collection of the Robert Mclaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, purchase
1971, © Tom Hodgson Estate, courtesy of the Christopher Cutts Gallery.
Members of the Painters Eleven during the Simpson's department store Abstracts at Home display, 1953.
Collection of The Cahén Archives.
Michael, Oscar, and Mimi at their home in King Township, 1951. Photograph by Page Toles, Collection of The
Cahén Archives.
The Old Tree, 1951, by Jack Bush. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, © Estate of Jack Bush / SODRAC (2015).
Oscar and Beatrice photographed on the street in Montreal, c. 1943. Collection of The Cahén Archives.
Oscar and Mimi at the drafting table in Montreal, c. 1943. Collection of The Cahén Archives.
Oscar Cahén at an easel, 1951. Photograph by Page Toles. Collection of The Cahén Archives.
Oscar Cahén, right, and an unidentified couple visiting Zwinger Palace in Dresden, c. 1932. Collection of The
Cahén Archives, © The Cahén Archives.
107
OSCAR CAHÉN
Oscar Cahén with a guitar, c. 1945. Photograph by Geraldine Carpenter. Collection of The Cahén Archives.
Oscar in his beloved Austin-Healey sports car. Collection of The Cahén Archives.
Photograph of Cahén taken for an article in the Autumn 1950 issue of Canadian Art magazine. Collection of
Photograph of an internee in a camp uniform at Camp N in Sherbrooke, Quebec, c. 1940–42. Photograph by

Marcell Seidler. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, PA-143492.
Photograph of lost painting, c. 1946. Collection of The Cahén Archives.
Portrait of Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann, 1922, by Otto Dix. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, © Estate of Otto Dix /
SODRAC (2015).
Portrait of Oscar Cahén in his studio in 1951. Photograph by Page Toles. Collection of The Cahén Archives.
Portrait of Oscar Cahén on the staircase of his home in 1951. Collection of The Cahén Archives.
108
OSCAR CAHÉN
Poster designed by Vilém Rotter for the 1934 International Fair in Prague.
Procession, 1944, by Abraham Rattner. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Thorn Trees, 1945, by Graham Sutherland. Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York.
BOOK CREDITS
Publisher
Sara Angel
Executive Editor
109
OSCAR CAHÉN
Kendra Ward
French Editorial Director

Dominique Denis
Image Research Director

John Geoghegan
Digital Layout Manager

Simone Wharton
Editor
Rick Archbold
Copy Editor
Lacey Decker Hawthorne
Translator
Eve Renaud
English Web Intern

Emily Derr
French Web Intern

Natalie Doak
Design Template
Studio Blackwell
COPYRIGHT
© 2015 Art Canada Institute. All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-1-4871-0067-4
Art Canada Institute

Massey College, University of Toronto
110
OSCAR CAHÉN
4 Devonshire Place
Toronto, ON M5S 2E1
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Grove, Jaleen, author

Oscar Cahén : life & work / by Jaleen Grove.
Includes bibliographical references.

Contents: Biography — Key works — Significance & critical issues — Style &
technique — Sources & resources — Where to see.
Electronic monograph.
ISBN 978-1-4871-0065-0 (pdf). —ISBN 978-1-4871-0063-6 (epub)
1. Cahén, Oscar, 1916-1956. 2. Cahén, Oscar, 1916-1956—Criticism and

interpretation. 3. Painters—Canada—Biography. 4. Illustrators—Canada
—Biography. I. Art Canada Institute, issuing body II. Title.
ND249.C237G76 2015 759.11 C2015-905498-2
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What challenges did Cahén face early in his life?

What challenges did Cahén face early in his life?

How did Cahén's style develop over time?

How did Cahén's style develop over time?

OSCAR CAHÉN

Life & Work by Jaleen Grove

Oscar Cahén (1916–1956) arrived in Quebec from Europe in 1940 as an

CHILD OF MANY NATIONS

Pursued by forty storm troopers, the family stole out of Dresden on

This cartoon drawn by Cahén appeared in

Impoverished, Oscar was graciously given some studio space by William

Oscar not only became a member

In mid-1937 Oscar began working and teaching at the Rotter School of

Instead, Oscar and Eugenie made a narrow escape to England on March 3,

Among Oscar Cahén’s effects is a

I’m living in the filth of an old

They feed us well and dress

His intimate friend Beatrice

Meanwhile Oscar and Beatrice kept

up correspondence, and she

utter contrast, two gut-wrenching visual essays concerning impoverished

Photograph of lost painting, captioned “This is Belsen inmate” on reverse, c. 1946.

PROSPERITY AND PROMINENCE

Creatively, illustration had the advantages of access to a wide audience and

By coincidence, only weeks later,

artist William Ronald (1926–1998)

Tom Hodgson (1924–2006),

endorsement for a Crosley television set ad. 46 His canvas Requiem, c.

commissioned by Imperial Oil, and he completed the large canvas

UNTITLED (PIANO PLAYER) 1943

Oscar Cahén, Untitled (Piano Player), 1943

A jazz and nightlife aficionado,

In following years Cahén was often asked to illustrate glamorous nightlife. In

HIROSHIMA COVER ILLUSTRATION 1946

Because of his experience as a refugee, Cahén was often asked to

Cahén chose to portray realistically proportioned figures free of

Hiroshima was a major commission, including an additional fourteen spot-

ILLUSTRATION FOR “THE CALIFORNIAN’S TALE” 1947

THE ADORATION 1949

Oscar Cahén, The Adoration, 1949

The Adoration brings Cahén’s interest in the work of Georges

visual dominance of the relatively secondary status of the apron to the

MACLEAN’S COVER ILLUSTRATION 1952

Oscar Cahén, Cover illustration for Maclean’s, January 15, 1952

Oscar Cahén designed thirty-eight covers for Maclean’s, then Canada’s

Cahén and his colleagues were

Oscar Cahén, Ascend, 1952

The painterly drawing hints at upward movement with hard-edged

Cahén continued Ascend’s dramatic contrasts of dark and light

GROWING FORM 1953

Oscar Cahén, Growing Form, 1953

Although he was exploring purely formalist problems at the time, Growing

In a number of illustrations, Cahén

Growing Form—from its provenance of forms jabbing, seizing, fighting, and

SMALL COMBO 1954

Oscar Cahén, Small Combo, c. 1954

The strategy of darkness pierced by light that is introduced in The

Cahén was at the forefront of exploring the phenomenological effects of

After the Second World War

Key to Cahén’s success as an illustrator was his ability to depict