Alice Cahana papers
name: label: Creator
content: Cahana, Alice Lok, 1929-
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Texas -- Houston
label: Occupation
content: Collagists -- Texas -- Houston
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women painters
label: Topic
content: Jewish artists
label: Topic
content: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Alice Cahana donated her papers to the Archives of American Art in 1982.
creator: label: Creator
content: Cahana, Alice Lok, 1929-
setName: label: See more items in
content: Alice Cahana papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The scattered paintings of painter and collagist Alice Cahana measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1971 to 1983. Found are biographical material, correspondence including a handmade card by Cahana, printed material, and writings.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Alice Cahana (1929-2017) was a Hungarian-born painter and collagist active in Houston, Texas. Her works often comment on the Holocaust. 

Born Alice Lok in Hungary, Cahana and her family were transported and incarcerated in multiple Nazi concentration camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Guben and Bergen-Belsen. Her father was given a fake passport by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and survived the war. At Auchwitz-Birkenau, Cahana and her sister created art as decoration to win a contest orchestrated by the Nazi guards. Cahana was liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and settled in Sweden to be reunited with her father. Later, she moved to Houston, Texas and studied at Rice University. 

Cahana married Rabbi Moshe Cahana and had three children. She died in 2017.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.2 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1971-1983
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.cahaalic
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The Alice Cahana papers were microfilmed as part of the Archives of American Art's Texas project on reel 3435. The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2022 with support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The collection is also available on 35mm microfilm reel 3435 at the Archives of American Art Offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The scattered papers of painter and collagist Alice Cahana measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1971 to 1983. Found are biographical material, correspondence including a handmade card by Cahana, printed material, and writings including a recollection about her incarceration in Auchwitz-Birkenau during World War II.