Helen Dahm

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Helen Dahm

Helen Dahm in Meherabad, India
Born May 21, 1878( 1878-05-21)
Kreuzlingen, Switzerland
Died May 24, 1968(1968-05-24) (aged 90)
Männedorf, Switzerland
Field Painter
Movement Expressionism

Helen Dahm (May 21, 1878 – May 24, 1968) was a Swiss artist and a follower of Meher Baba.

Helen Dahm was born in Egelshofen (today Kreuzlingen), Switzerland. She studied art in Zurich and Munich. Her early work included hand-colored, hand-pressed fabric prints, mostly expressionistic in style. In the early 1930s, Helen suffered from severe depression and did very little art. However, a meeting with Meher Baba in Cannes, France in 1937 had a profound effect on her. In 1938, by invitation of Meher Baba, Dahm came to live in his ashram in Meherabad, India and painted the interior murals in his would-be samadhi (tomb) that had been completed earlier that year.[1] Her paintings are still viewable there today, and were restored by American artist Dot Lesnik in 1989. For health reasons Dahm eventually returned to her homeland of Switzerland.

After this period, Dahm's work took an inspired religious turn, becoming occupied with imagery including expressionistic interpretations of paradise, the Pietà, the crucifixion of Christ and angels. After this period her work became increasingly abstract.

Helen Dahm only received recognition late in life. In 1967, at the age of 89, she had her first major retrospective exhibition in Switzerland.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lord Meher, Bhau Kalchuri, 1986, p. 2315
  2. ^ Broken Down Furniture News, Winnie Barrett, March–April 1992, No. 62

[edit] External links

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