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Drawing Master
It has been said that when one door
appears to close, another is likely to open. So it was with
Oscar’s career. While interned in Quebec, a regional news
magazine, The Standard, ran a story on displaced persons
at the camp. They noticed Oscar working at a drawing.
Soon afterwards, Ben Turner, the Art Director of The Standard
began using Oscar's work in the magazine. A year later Oscar was
released thanks to the intervention of several insightful
individuals who had noticed the quality of Oscar's work and who
were willing to guarantee the Camp Commander that Oscar could
earn a living wage and would not become involved in subversive
political matters. Among Cahén's early supporters were Dick
Hersey of The Montreal Standard, Stan Furnival, who
subsequently became Art Director of Chatelaine Magazine,
and Gene Aliman of New Liberty, and later
Maclean’s.
Before long, Oscar Cahén was busy
forging a powerful reputation for being a vibrant and versatile
illustrator with a conscientious and disciplined approach to all
assignments. With a reputation like this, it was not surprising
that Oscar was soon working for all the top publications of the
day.
Cahén's drawings illustrating John
Hersey's
Hiroshima for The Standard were noted in
New York. The publishers received letters from Hersey and The
New Yorker commending Oscar’s work. Cahén was increasingly
recognized as a Canadian artist of remarkable talent and skill.
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War Aid
IWC-118
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"Illustration
can be a true means of artistic expression… I think there is a
growing awareness among [art directors] of their opportunity to
stimulate the minds of the readers with work of intrinsic merit
rather than bog them down in conventional shallowness and
mediocrity"
"An Illustrator Speaks His Mind" Canadian Art 1950
"It was as if one had never seen a
crocus before and a flower with strength and vigour; but
extraordinary delicacy thrust through the snow and winter debris
of what much of Canadian magazine publishing had been. Spring
arrived in Canadian illustration with Oscar Cahén – and we
rejoiced."
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