Leonard Koren (born January 4, 1948) is an American artist,

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

expert and writer.

Life and work

Leonard Koren was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1948, and raised in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In 1969, he co-founded the Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad, a mural painting group. He attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, graduating with a Master's Degree in Architecture and

Urban Planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

in 1972. After graduation, Koren worked as an artist in Los Angeles, where his work focused on bathing environments. In 1976, Koren founded WET Magazine – a periodical dedicated to gourmet bathing, which was influential in the development of

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

. In 1981, WET magazine ceased publication, and Koren moved to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, where he wrote several works on aesthetics. From 1983 through 1986 produced a column on Cultural Anthropology for a Japanese magazine. In particular, Koren wrote ''Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers'', which helped bring the Japanese concept of

Wabi-Sabi In traditional Japanese aesthetics, is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature. I ...

into western aesthetic theory. Currently Koren lives in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

References

External links

''Leonard Koren Personal Website''

''Wet Magazine''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koren, Leonard American landscape architects American expatriates in Japan American magazine editors UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni Living people 1948 births American columnists Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area American magazine founders Writers from Los Angeles Writers from New York City Artists from New York City Artists from Los Angeles Artists from San Francisco 20th-century American architects