Lluïsa Faxedas Brujats is a professor of Art History at the University of Girona in Spain
It was when I first started to be interested in the very beginnings of abstract painting that I discovered Marcelle Cahn and the other women artists who participated in this period. I was amazed at the large number of women who were involved in abstract painting given that their
contributions are little known and thus rarely studied. And when research had been done it was always limited to the same artists that is to say, Sonia Delaunay and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and without taking into consideration the problems these women artists had to face.
Later on, I noticed that during the 1920's the number of women interested in abstraction had considerably increased : the Russian Constructivists, the Bauhaus women, and also a significant number of women artists who worked in Paris, including Marcelle Cahn and her colleagues at the
''Academie Moderne'' who during those years participated in a very great number of important exhibitions and activities, the pinnacle of which was the group ''Cercle et Carré''*.
I find it particularly interesting to see how during the 1920's Marcelle Cahn's work oscillated between abstraction- which is already evident in some drawings at the beginning of the 20's and especially around 1925 – and purisme. Marie Luise Syring's study of this part of Marcelle Cahn's work is, I believe, fundamental. It is the best approach to the work and life of Marcelle Cahn at that period.However, it is my opinion that there are still many fascinating questions to elucidate.The most interesting question : why does she move away from abstraction as of 1930 and not return to it until the 1950's.
I think that the role played by these women artists is very important because they were devoted to abstract art even though it was a complex terrain for a variety of reasons. First of all, in the 1920's abstract art was not well understood in Europe in general and notably in Paris not only by art critics but also by gallery owners and collectors. It has always been difficult for women to find their place in the 'world of art' and for those who devoted themselves to the most avant-garde art forms it was indeed heroic . It is important to keep in mind that the underlying theory of the first developments in abstract art had a distinctly misogynistic component.
In the photographs of the ''Cercle et Carré'' exhibition , Marcelle Cahn is in the foreground wearing a coat with a fur-trimmed collar appearing rather timid and remote but with a firm and decisive look on her face.At that time all of the women who , like her, took part concretely in the history of art had to be very strong to be able to find their place in a context that was barely favourable towards them. I, therefore, believe that they deserve to be studied with particular attention. The works of these women artists represent an essential part of a very important period in the history of modern art which , in my opinion, has not been sufficiently appreciated.
*''Cercle et Carré''- Circle and Square
Original text in Spanish by Lluïsa Faxedas Brujats. French translation by Manuel Galavis Valero.
