En Courbes Violontes 1947

Curator: Marcelle Cahn's "En Courbes Violentes," created in 1947, presents an intriguing puzzle of shapes and colours. Its modernism stands out amid post-war abstract expressionism, yet resists simple stylistic categorisation. Editor: It does strike me as rather joyful. The playful application of acrylic-paint across the composition gives it such vibrancy, almost as though it wants to dance. But why call it 'violent curves'? Curator: Cahn was deeply invested in the power of art to transcend societal limitations. She lived through both World Wars and was no stranger to the turbulence of European history. Violence is not literal, it is a challenging of visual norms and the conventional understanding of the self post-war. The geometric figures deny easy readings. This makes visible what is often repressed within patriarchal art history and making practices. Editor: I am interested in how she created these layers of curves. Acrylic would have been still relatively new in the 1940s, lending a particular texture and handling quality that contributes to its visual effects. Looking closely at how she has used that quality to bring about tension, which comes in direct resistance of those playful colours. Curator: Absolutely, the violent curves can be viewed as an invocation of resistance. After World War II, women continued to fight patriarchal roles and the right to define their place within public and artistic spheres. Its violence lies precisely in that gesture of unsettling expectations. It’s as if she’s pulling apart reality to reassemble it anew through a woman's eyes. Editor: You are correct. And that act of taking apart and reassembling is, on some level, the labour she enacts on the canvas—layer upon layer, material choice by material choice, working towards a physical transformation that communicates a powerful, emotive force. I see in these gestures the active creation of visibility, perhaps even against social grain. Curator: That brings a rich dimension to our comprehension. The way that visibility is literally constructed adds such depth and texture. I walk away from this artwork struck again by how profoundly artists grapple with issues of freedom and existence through aesthetic decisions. Editor: Indeed. For me, the tension between violence and joy in form and texture really gets me thinking about the means through which individual lives can be affected in an almost infinite manner, by material factors and, subsequently, the choices around us.