Miriam Cahn
Reading Dust
Exhibition — Oct 5, 2024 until Jan 26, 2025
Artist Miriam Cahn evokes powerful emotions with simple brushstrokes and a vigorous drawing style. Her paintings and drawings depict human atrocities with brutal reality.
Vigorous drawing style and powerful emotions
Miriam Cahn’s visceral imagery evokes powerful emotions through simple brushstrokes and a vigorous drawing style. Using different formats, bursts of color and enigmatic human forms she portrays universal emotions such as anger, fear, loss, vulnerability and power. Cahn paints indistinct, semi-abstract figures – often fragmented and ghostly – in otherworldly landscapes, where she confronts the complexities of human existence. Exploring themes from vulnerability to power, from perpetrators to victims. Her skill in creating maximum impact with minimum means underscores her unique place in the art world.
WAR AND VIOLENCE, CONFLICT AND SORROW
Cahn’s work shatters taboos and, in a world in turmoil and violence, serves as a stark warning. Cahn depicts human atrocities with brutal reality. War, sexual violence and racism. Her in-your-face paintings and drawings don’t sugarcoat the truth. Cahn’s work deliberately provokes and unflinchingly seeks out confrontation.
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Miriam Cahn, 'o.t., 5.8.2020', photo: Heinz Pelz. Courtesy of the artist; Meyer Riegger and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris -
Miriam Cahn, 'atombombe, 20.4.1991', photo: Marc Asekhame. Courtesy of the artist; Meyer Riegger and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris -
Miriam Cahn, 'schnell weg!, 19.2.2017', photo: RMJ. Courtesy of the artist; Meyer Riegger and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris -
Miriam Cahn, 'weinenmüssen, 25.5.2020', photo: Heinz Pelz. Courtesy Private Collection, South German -
Miriam Cahn, 'könnteichsein, 25.7.2022', photo: RMJ. Courtesy of the artist; Meyer Riegger and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris -
Miriam Cahn, 'schweigende schwester (kriegsschiff)', 1981, photo: Markus Muehlheim. Courtesy of the artist; Meyer Riegger and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris -
Miriam Cahn, 'o.t., 16./17.5. + 9.9. 2019', photo: Heinz Pelz. Courtesy of the artist; Meyer Riegger and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris
Feminist voice
What does it mean to be a woman? Who controls my body? Shaped by feminist theory, the artist unapologetically depicts all the facets of womanhood. She depicts the female body nude and with a raw intimacy, rejecting unrealistic ideals of female beauty. With this she reclaims the female body from the male-dominated system that consistently objectifies, criticizes and seeks to control women’s bodies.
Miriam Cahn — Reading Dust
Oct 5, 2024 until Jan 26, 2025
Please note: this exhibition includes works referencing (sexual) violence.
Dig Deeper
Introduction
A helping hand in discovering the exhibition Miriam Cahn – Reading Dust: join a 15-minute introduction.
In context
The Stedelijk presents a three-part program about the complex relationship between art, activism and museums.
Audio Tour
Rein Wolfs - director of the museum and also curator of the show - will take you through the exhibition. Listen at the museum or online.
The exhibition Miriam Cahn — Reading Dust is organized by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The exhibition is curated by Rein Wolfs.
The exhibition is supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the benefactors of the Stedelijk Museum Fonds.
