on focus
from 11.03.2022 to 08.01.2023

Miriam Cahn

krieg & "Athener" Raum

Swiss artist Miriam Cahn (born 1949) has never been interested in art for art’s sake. For more than forty years, her oeuvre has been characterized by an urgent intensity with which she addresses the theme of being human in all its mental and physical vulnerability.

Neues Museum devotes two rooms to this internationally renowned artist, both set up as installations: the twenty-picture series krieg (War, 1999), acquired by Lucius Grisebach, and “Athener” Raum (“Athens” Room), that was shown at documenta in Athens in 2017, with 41 drawings and accompanying texts, as well as other paintings.

Hung at eye level, the pictures seek a direct encounter with the viewer. In this way, Miriam Cahn not only strikingly presents her own artistic universe, but also aims for a personal response to social themes like war, displacement, and sexual identity.

Partnership

The documenta room was made possible by permanent loans from the collection of Kerstin Hiller and Helmut Schmelzer. The museum regularly presents rooms on individual artists with works owned by this Nuremberg-based couple. We are grateful for this partnership that has existed since the Museum opened.

Handouts

The information handouts from the individual rooms can be read or downloaded here in PDF format: krieg / "Athener" Raum