Photo By Gail

Swiss artist Miriam Cahn’s enigmatic painting The Beautiful Blue (Das Schone Blau, 2008 – 17) depicts two figures sinking underwater. The figures are painted loosely, blending with the tones of the water and evoking the vulnerability of the body.

Cahn drew from images of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa, many of whom drowned as overcrowded vessels capsized. The artist started the painting in 2008 and returned to it in 2017, struck by news reports of the continuing European refugee crisis: 3100 migrants drowned that year while attempting crossings.

Photographed in the Tate Modern in London.