Lesen im Staub, D.W.L. (Das Wilde Leben),
Miriam Cahn
Swiss, born 1949
1984
A large charcoal-on-paper drawing in which Miriam Cahn layers smudged, rubbed, and scratched marks to summon a ghostly, almost bodily presence that feels intimate and unsettling.
At first glance the sheet reads as a dense, soot-dark field punctuated by two faint eye-like hollows near the top, ragged tape at the corner, and ghostly scrawls at the bottom so the image looks like a face emerging from—or dissolving into—dust.
Made in 1984, this work exemplifies Cahn’s raw, performative approach to drawing that broadened late-20th-century practices by using erased gestures and the body’s traces to confront memory, vulnerability, and political unease.
Medium
Charcoal on paper
Dimensions
Page: 24 x 16 7/8" (61 x 43 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Walter Bareiss
Accession
111.1986.a-n
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
