caption movement death_date death_place birth_place imagesize field birth_date image article_title name bgcolour
helen dahm in meherabad , india expressionism 24 may 1968 männedorf , switzerland kreuzlingen , switzerland 280px painter 21 may 1878 helen dahm.jpg helen dahm
 helen dahm #c 0c0c0
helen dahm

helen dahm -lrb- may 21 , 1878 -- may 24 , 1968 -rrb- was a swiss artist and a follower of the expressionist movement .
helen dahm was born in egelshofen -lrb- now kreuzlingen -rrb- , 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 -lrb- tomb -rrb- that had been completed earlier that year .
her paintings are still viewable there today , as 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 .
art historian else strantz was her life partner .
