Exhibitions, a selection

1925 • Chambre syndicale de la curiosité des beaux-arts, Paris

Marcelle Cahn takes part in her first group exhibition, L’Art d’aujourd’hui, alongside Fernand Léger, Amédée Ozenfant, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian and Robert Delaunay. Artists Victor Poznanski, Theo van Doesburg, Albert Gleizes, Fernand Léger and Josel Síma organised and financed the exhibition. Initially entitled L’art abstrait, the exhibition explored the evolution of art from cubism to abstract art, presenting some forty artists, “representatives of non-imitative plastic art”, involved in avant-garde movements. A preface written by Poznanski, with the help of Gleizes and a poster designed by Swiss artist Gustave Buchet accompanied the exhibition, which as curated by Fernand Léger according to some sources. In her autobiography, Cahn states that she exhibited two works in the same room as Léger, Clausen, Vordemberghe-Gildewart and Klee, namely an abstract composition from 1925 and L’Évier ou Le Lavabo from the same year.

1926 • Brooklyn Museum, New York

Two paintings by Marcelle Cahn are featured in the Société Anonyme exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, initiated by Marcel Duchamp – whom Marcelle Cahn met in Paris – Man Ray and Katherine Dreier.

1927 • Salon des indépendants, Paris

1928 • Salon des vrais indépendants, Paris

1929 • Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Marcelle Cahn’s work is represented in the various sections of the exhibition Selected Exhibitions of Contemporary Art (Esac), inaugurated at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The exhibition would later travel to various cities in the Netherlands.

1930 • Galerie 23, Paris

Marcelle Cahn takes part in the only exhibition of the Cercle et Carré artist association, founded in 1929 by Michel Seuphor and Joaquín Torres García. This historic exhibition brought together 85 abstract, constructivist and some figurative artists from France and abroad, including Jean Arp, Willi Baumeister, Vassily Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, Mondrian, Amédée Ozenfant, Antoine Pevsner, Sophie Taueber-Arp, Kurt Schwitters and Georges Vantongerloo. Four paintings by Marcelle Cahn were exhibited.

1932 • Salon des surindépendants, Paris

1934 • Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris

1949 • Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris

Marcelle Cahn participates for the first time in the Salon des Réalités nouvelles, hosted at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. The association Salon des Réalités nouvelles was founded in 1946 by Fredo Sidés, and was named after the Réalités nouvelles exhibition conceived by Robert and Sonia Delaunay at the Galerie Charpentier in September 1939. The Salon des Réalités nouvelles replaced the artist association Abstraction-Création (1931-1936). Marcelle Cahn was a regular participant of the salon up until 1967.

1952 • Galerie Voyelles, Paris

Marcelle Cahn exhibits a series of linear drawings for her first solo exhibition at Galerie Voyelles.

1953 • Galerie Suzanne Michel, Paris

1957 • Galerie Creuse, Paris

Group exhibition 50 years of abstract painting, curated by Michel Seuphor.

1957 • Musée d’art et d’industrie, Saint-Etienne

Group exhibition Art abstrait: les premières générations (1910-1939), curated by Maurice Allemand.

1958 • Salon d’art sacré, Paris

1959 • Galerie Simone Heller, Paris

Retrospective exhibition of the works of Marcelle Cahn.

1960 • Kaplan Gallery, Londres

Retrospective exhibition of the works of Marcelle Cahn.

1961 • Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes

Marcelle Cahn takes part in the only exhibition of the Mesure group, created by Georges Folmer.

1962 • Galerie Mesure, Paris

Solo exhibition featuring the artist’s drawings and collages.

1964 • Galerie Riquelme, Paris

1964 • Galerie Minima, Milan

1964 • Galerie Bellechasse, Paris

1964 • Musée d’art et d’industrie, Saint-Etienne

Seven collages by Marcelle Cahn feature in the exhibition Cinquante ans de collages, curated by Maurice Allemand.

1971 • Galerie Jean-Chauvelin, Paris / Annely Juda Fine Arts, Londre / Galleria Milano, Milan

The Non-Objective World. 1924-1939, group exhibition.

1972 • Musée d’art et d’industrie, Saint-Etienne

The Centre national d’art contemporain (CNAC) organises a major traveling retrospective exhibition devoted to Marcelle Cahn beginning in Saint-Etienne, under the direction of Bernard Ceysson and Daniel Abadie. Until 1974, the exhibition toured several French cities: Arras, Auxerre, Reste, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, La Roche-sur-Yon, Les Sables-d’Olonne, Perpignan, Périgueux, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Troyes.

1973 • Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon

The Dijon edition of the touring retrospective initiated by the Centre National d’Art Contemporain (CNAC) was organised by Serge Lemoine, then a university lecturer and artistic advisor to the Burgundy region. Lemoine suggested the hundred or so works exhibited, which included early paintings from Berlin and previously unpublished drawings and collages.

It was on this occasion, that Serge Lemoine asked Marcelle Cahn to create Hommage à Dijon: a collection of around 200 collages made from tourist postcards of the city. Covered by the artist with a constellation of multicoloured stickers, the collages on postcards were an evolution of a technique Marcelle Cahn had developed in 1972 and which would last until her last years of work, until before her death in 1981.

Installation Views, Marcelle Cahn, Musée des beaux-arts, Dijon, 1973, photos: Serge Lemoine.

1973 • Galerie Thérèse Roussel, Perpignan

1975 • Galerie Denise René, Paris

Marcelle Cahn. Œuvres de 1915 à 1975.

1977 • Musée de l’abbaye Sainte-Croix des Sables-d’Olonne

Exhibition of collages.

2023 • Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg / Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Etienne / Musée des beaux-arts, Rennes

First major retrospective devoted to Marcelle Cahn since the touring monograph organized from 1972 to 1974 on the initiative of the Centre National d’Art Contemporain (CNAC). The general curator was Cécile Godefroy, the associate curators were Barbara Forest and Alexandre Quoi.

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