Walter Francis Kuhn (October 27, 1877 – July 13, 1949) was an American painter and an organizer of the famous
Armory Show
The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of ...
of 1913, which was America's first large-scale introduction to European Modernism.
Biography
Kuhn was born in New York City in 1877. Growing up near the
Red Hook, Brooklyn
Red Hook is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, New York, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. It is located on a peninsula projecting into the Upper New York Bay and is bounded by the Gowanus Expressway and the Car ...
docks in a working-class family, he was exposed to a range of rough, colorful waterfront experiences in his youth and, though he loved to draw, nothing in his background suggested a future career in art. Kuhn's first jobs were as a proprietor of a bicycle repair shop and as a professional bike racer. At fifteen, though, Walter Kuhn sold his first drawings to a magazine and began to sign his name “Walt.” In 1893, deciding that he would benefit from some formal training, he enrolled in art classes at the
Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute
The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United St ...
.
In 1899, Kuhn set out for
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
with sixty dollars in his pocket. Upon his arrival in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, he became an illustrator for
WASP Magazine. It was at this time that he decided, if wanted to grow and eventually make a living as an artist, he should expose himself to the Old Masters and the modern artists of Europe. In 1901, at the age of twenty-four, Kuhn left for Paris. There he studied briefly art at the
Académie Colarossi before leaving to the Royal Academy in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
. Once in the capital of
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
, he studied under
Heinrich von Zügel
Heinrich Johann von Zügel (22 October 1850, Murrhardt – 30 January 1941, Munich) was a German painter who specialized in pictures of farm and domestic animals, often posed with a human in a dramatic or humorous situation.
Life
Beginning in 1 ...
, a member of the
Barbizon School
The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name ...
. He went on sketching trips in the Netherlands and toured the museums of Venice. During his two-year stay abroad, Kuhn also saw for the first time the work of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.
In 1903, he returned to New York and was employed as an illustrator for local journals. In 1905, he held his first exhibition at the
Salmagundi Club
The Salmagundi Club, sometimes referred to as the Salmagundi Art Club, is a fine arts center founded in 1871 in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, New York City. Since 1917, it has been located at 47 Fifth Avenue. , its membership roster ...
, establishing himself as both a cartoonist and a serious painter. In this same year, he completed his first illustrations for ''Life'' magazine. In 1909-10, his strip "Whisk" ran for almost two years in the ''New York World''. He counted a number of cartoonists and illustrators among his friends, including
Gus Mager
Charles Augustus Mager (1878–1956), better known as Gus Mager, was an American painter, illustrator and cartoonist during the first half of the 20th century. He was the creator of several comic strips, notably ''Hawkshaw the Detective'' and '' S ...
and
Pop Hart
George Overbury "Pop" Hart (1868–1933) was an early 20th century American painter and watercolorist.
Early life and education
Hart was born in Cairo, Illinois, the eldest of four children, and raised in Rochester, New York. His father managed ...
. He also created a
text comic himself: ''Whisk'' (1909-1911).
When the New York School of Art moved to
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades.
As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, t ...
in the summer of 1908, Kuhn joined the faculty. However, he disliked his experience with the school, and at the end of the school year, he returned to New York. There, he married Vera Spier. Soon after, a daughter, Brenda Kuhn, was born. An important friendship was formed at this time with artist
Arthur Bowen Davies
Arthur Bowen Davies (September 26, 1862 – October 24, 1928) was an avant-garde United States, American artist and influential advocate of modern art in the United States c. 1910–1928.
Biography
Davies was born in Utica, New York, the son of ...
, who would also play a significant role in American art history.
In 1909, Kuhn had his first solo exhibition in New York. In the following years, he took part in founding the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, the organization ultimately responsible for the
Armory Show
The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of ...
. Kuhn acted as the executive secretary and was delegated as one of the men to find European artists to participate. He, Davies, and artist Walter Pach made a whirlwind tour of Europe in 1912 to find the best and most audacious examples of new art to introduce to New York audiences. The
Armory Show
The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of ...
of 1913, which displayed both European and American modernist art, resulted in both an historic controversy and a long-range triumph. Smart and sensational publicity, combined with strategic word-of-mouth, resulted in attendance figures of over 200,000 and over $44,000 in sales, far exceeding anyone's expectations for the venture. After its New York venue, the Armory Show toured, receiving widespread attention, in Chicago and Boston. "Kuhn had a talent for promotion," art critic Robert Hughes has noted. This unprecedented exhibition had demonstrated that Americans might be receptive to modern art and that there was a large potential market for it; Kuhn played a major role in a transformative cultural event.
Following the Armory Show, Kuhn acted as an art advisor to the lawyer and collector
John Quinn and assisted in the formation of his unique collection of modern art, unfortunately dissolved and sold at the time of Quinn's death in 1924. He also exhibited with the Whitney Studio Club and became a much-appreciated artist at the
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
.
Kuhn's work in the 1910s often showed the influence of the modern European painters whose art he had helped to promote. ''The Polo Ground'' (1914), for instance, contains strong echoes of Raoul Dufy. Other critics noted an affinity for André Derain and the German Expressionists. By the end of the decade, though, Kuhn's paintings had become more traditionally representational again, though he never worked in the manner of an academic realist; his portraits and still lifes are composed of broad painterly effects, strong colors, and thick textures. In brushstroke and intensity, a Kuhn face or still life is unmistakably Kuhn's.
In 1925, Kuhn almost died from a
duodenal ulcer. Following an arduous recovery, he became an instructor at the
Art Students League of New York. He also completed a commission for the
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
, the club car "The Little Nugget" LA-701, currently under restoration at the
Travel Town Museum
Travel Town Museum is a railway museum dedicated on December 14, 1952, and located in the northwest corner of Los Angeles, California's Griffith Park. The history of railroad transportation in the western United States from 1880 to the 1930s is ...
in Los Angeles, California. In 1933, the aging artist organized his first retrospective. During these years, he began to question his earlier allegiance to European Modernism. On a 1931 trip to Europe with Marie and
W. Averell Harriman, his staunchest supporters, he declined to join the Harrimans on their visits to the studios of Picasso,
Georges Braque, and
Fernand Léger. Yet neither did he want to align himself with the anti-Modernist camp of Regionalists like
Thomas Hart Benton and politically-minded social realists. In the art politics of the day, Kuhn was caught between two extremes.
By the 1940s, Kuhn’s behavior began to take on unsound characteristics. He became increasingly irascible and distant from old friends. When the
Ringling Brothers Circus
Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows is a circus founded in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling brothers: Albert, August, Otto, Alfred T., Charles, John, and Henry. The Ringling brothers were sons of a Ge ...
was in town, he attended night after night. (During a hard-pressed period in the 1920s, Kuhn had worked as a designer and director for revues and circus acts.) He also became frustrated by the lack of attention his own work was receiving and was particularly strident about the Museum of Modern Art's support of abstraction and neglect of American art in the postwar period. In 1948, he was institutionalized, and on July 13, 1949, he died suddenly from a perforated ulcer. He is interred in
Woodlawn Cemetery in
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, New York City.
Work
Walt Kuhn is best remembered today for his key role in planning the
Armory Show
The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of ...
. Ironically, a man who was in the forefront of the modern movement and was seen as an advocate of adventurous new art in 1913 came to be labelled, because of his on-going commitment to representation, a conservative artist by future generations of art historians. Nevertheless, he holds a place in American art history as a skilled cartoonist, draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor and painter. Although he destroyed many of his early paintings, his works that remain today are powerful and are a part of most major American art collections.
His portraits of circus and vaudeville entertainers are some of the most memorable, confidently painted works of twentieth-century American art. They are reminiscent of ''
commedia dell'arte'' actor portraits done by the French masters centuries earlier. ''The Tragic Comedians'' (1916) in the collection of the
Hirshhorn Museum
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desi ...
and ''The White Clown'' (1929) in the collection of the
National Gallery of Art are intense, arresting images and are among his most respected paintings. Other works of his are held in the permanent collections of museums such as the
Brooklyn Museum, the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, the
Smithsonian American Art Museum, the
Smart Museum of Art
The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The permanent collection has over 15,000 objects. Admission is free and open to the general public.
The Smart Muse ...
, the
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum, founded by Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, officially opened on 11 November 2011. It offers free public admission.
Overview ...
, the
Joslyn Art Museum
The Joslyn Art Museum is the principal fine arts museum in the state of Nebraska, United States. Located in Omaha, it was opened in 1931 at the initiative of Sarah H. Joslyn in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn. It is the only m ...
, the
University of Michigan Museum of Art
The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall ori ...
, the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the s ...
, the
Birmingham Museum of Art
The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It has one of the most extensive collections of artwork in the Southeastern United States, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts repres ...
, the
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the
McNay Art Museum
The McNay Art Museum, founded in 1954 in San Antonio, is the first modern art museum in the U.S. state of Texas. The museum was created by Marion Koogler McNay's original bequest of most of her fortune, her important art collection and her 24-room ...
, the
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...
, the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, the
Ogunquit Museum of American Art
The Ogunquit Museum of American Art is a small art museum located on the coast in Ogunquit, Maine. The museum houses over 3,000 pieces in its permanent collection.
The Ogunquit Museum of American Art collects and exhibits modern and contempora ...
, the
Pennsylvania Museum of Fine Arts, the
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pu ...
, the
Saint Louis Art Museum
The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, ...
, the
Chrysler Museum of Art, the
Frye Art Museum
The Frye Art Museum is a modern and contemporary art museum located in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1952 to house the collection of Charles and Emma Frye and has since grown to include rotating temporary e ...
, the
Currier Museum of Art
The Currier Museum of Art is an art museum in Manchester, New Hampshire, in the United States. It features European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture. The permanent collection includes works by Picasso, Matisse, Mo ...
, the
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...
, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, the
Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...
, and the
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art.
In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...
.
Selected catalogues and exhibitions
Walt Kuhn (1877-1949) - American Modernistat sullivangoss.com
DC Moore Gallery Exhibition, "Trees," June 11-August 7, 2009
DC Moore Gallery Exhibition, "Modern America 1917-1944," November 17-December 23, 2011
DC Moore Gallery Exhibition "Walt Kuhn: American Modern," February 7-March 16, 2013
* 1908-12, 1921, 1945-49: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts exhibitions
* 1911: Madison Gallery, New York
* 1913: Armory Show, New York
* 1932-48: Whitney Museum of American Art exhibitions
* 1966: University of Arizona Art Gallery, Tucson
* 1967-68, 1972, 1977, 1980: Kennedy Galleries, New York
* 1984: Barridoff Galleries, Portland, ME
* 1987: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
* 1987: Salander O’Reilly Galleries Inc., New York
* 1989: Maine University Art Museum, ME
References
Sources
* Adams, Philip Rhys. ''Walt Kuhn: Painter, His Life and Work.'' Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1978.
* Brown, Milton. ''The Story of the Armory Show.'' New York: Abbeville, 1988 edition.
* "Walt Kuhn: American Modern" (exhibition catalogue), DC Moore Gallery, March 201
* Loughery, John. "The Contradictions of Walt Kuhn," ''Arts Magazine'' (April 1985), pp. 106–107.
External links
BiographyWalt Kuhn, Kuhn Family Papers, and Armory Show records online at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art* DC Moore Gallery artist pag
* Antiques, January/February 2013, "Walt Kuhn at DC Moore
* Harper's Bazaar, "An Avant-Garde Pioneer Gets His Due,
*Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art - "Dragoon" https://collection.crystalbridges.org/objects/202/dragoon?ctx=002561b4-4750-47ef-bbd9-1567f9cc252f&idx=0
*Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art - "Cliff with Trees" https://collection.crystalbridges.org/objects/7888/cliff-with-trees?ctx=002561b4-4750-47ef-bbd9-1567f9cc252f&idx=1
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhn, Walt
1877 births
1949 deaths
Deaths from ulcers
19th-century American painters
19th-century American male artists
American male painters
20th-century American painters
American illustrators
American comics artists
Art Students League of New York faculty
People from Red Hook, Brooklyn
Painters from New York City
Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni
Académie Colarossi alumni
Pastel artists
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
20th-century American male artists