Miriam Cahn

Swiss artist Miriam Cahn engages with political and social themes through oil paintings, charcoal, chalk, color, and pencil drawings, photographs, films, and installations. A hallmark of her works is a strong use of color, which creates stark contrasts with recurring motifs of violence, tenderness, war, devastation, and physical injury. The practice of commenting on her own creations through writing serves as a common thread throughout Cahn's artistic journey. She examines her own works, comments on the art world and global events, and presents these texts alongside her works in exhibitions and publications. The passionate writing compiles these texts, diary notes, and correspondence with friends, opponents, family members, and gallery owners into a single text volume for the first time. The book offers very personal insights into Miriam Cahn's life, her family, and the art world, introducing the reader to a combative, independent spirit. Miriam Cahn (1949, Basel) is one of the most important contemporary artists. For over four decades, she has created works marked by uncompromising resistance to all forms of discrimination. Influenced by performance art and the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, her rich body of work includes painting, works on paper, performance, text, and film. She lives and works in Stampa in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.