Lourdès Castro

Private Collection (commissioned from the artist)

Myriam and Thomas Cohn, then married, met Lourdes Castro at the end of the 60's in Paris. They were very impressed by the work with shadows that she was developing, and the artist asked if the couple would like to sit for the current work. Thomas was born in 1934 in Beuthen, then part of Germany but later annexed by Poland. When he was five his family fled Nazi anti-Semitic persecution and moved to Uruguay where Thomas lived for 23 years. In 1962, already married to his first wife, Myriam Tenenbaum, he moved to Brazil.

Thomas claimed that his “passion for the visual arts was a product of Brazil.” In the early 1960s, Cohn became a collector having become acquainted with the artist Antonio Dias, then only 19 years old. Per his suggestion Thomas started to observe and purchase works by artists from Dias’s generation and to develop his own eye. His passion and knowledge grew to the extent where Thomas would sign art columns to fill in, when the main critics Mario Barata and Frederico Moraes went on vacations. In 1973 he organized the show "International Avant-Garde" at IBEU (Institute Brazil USA) in Rio de Janeiro with excerpts from the Thomas and Myriam Cohn Collection, exhibiting names such as Sol Lewitt, Mel Bochner, Shusaku Arakawa, Patrick Caulfield, William Wegman among others, alongside locals like Lygia Clark, Franz Krajcberg, Rubens Gerchman and Antonio Dias, as well as the work in question.

After collecting for 21 years, Thomas wanted to have more impact in the career of artists and in 1983 opened his gallery in Rio de Janeiro inviting Myriam to join him as partner. There, other international artists were shown, such as Tony Cragg, Diane Arbus and Guillermo Kuitca, as well as Brazilian artists like Lygia Pape who had her first solo exhibition in the gallery. Yet Thomas’ belief was that "The best moment for a gallery owner is the discovery of a new talent, not the sale of a work of art, which is only pointing at the obvious. To me the orgasm occurs at the beginning", and as such made his gallery a stage for future stars like Adriana Varejão, Tunga and Leonilson. He would devote himself to developing their careers in Brazil and visibility abroad by introducing their work to collectors and institutions and showcasing their works at international art fairs.

In 1997, the gallery moved to São Paulo. In 2012, after 30 years of activity Thomas realized that his goals had been achieved - his mission of launching emerging artists, promoting their interchange with foreign artists and participation in fairs, supporting their message to the public and not yielding to demand, had been accomplished - and the gallery closed its doors. In 2013 a new gallery was born, dedicated to designer watches and contemporary jewelry in Latin America. His mission was to "position jewelry within the context of the visual arts and to incorporate it in the activities of the art world, including the art fairs" Thomas Cohn would continue working until his death at 83 in 2018.