The following article was written by Diana Bolander, Assistant Director/Curator of the Rahr-West Art Museum for the Art Forward series.
These two paintings from the Rahr-West Art Museum’s collection were created by the same artist, the same year, and have basically the same subject matter, yet they are extremely different. A key question: what similarities and differences seem to matter to the artist and why?
Walt Kuhn was an artist during the development of American Modernism between WWI and WWII: the breaking away of American artists from working in the traditional, realistic style of the academy with an emphasis on creating beauty. New pieces began experimenting with the abstraction of image: altering aspects of the subject to look different than “real” life. Abstraction can be achieved by using non-naturalistic color, exaggerating the scale of some aspects of a subject, or by flattening the forms into two-dimensional shapes and breaking the subject down into essential lines and shapes.
On the left, Kuhn works in a traditional style of painting. The subject is generally depicted in realistic style and color. One could argue he has been influenced by the loose brushwork of the Impressionists, but overall the painting is quite traditional, depicting depth and texture as one would expect from a floral still-life.
On the right, the background has been reduced to flat areas of color. The flowers and leaves are composed with deeply contrasting shading. The image doesn’t depict depth created through shadow and illusion of three-dimensional space like the other.
Kuhn was exposed to abstraction when he helped organize the Armory Exhibition of 1913 introducing Americans to modern art styles like Cubism and Fauvism. Kuhn experimented with several styles of art during this period, as many other artists did, including Pablo Picasso.
The installation of the Armory Exhibition of 1919. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Archives of American Art, Walt Kuhn, Kuhn Family Papers and Armory Show Records.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, artists were trained to create realistic works in the style of the high Renaissance at schools called academies. By the turn of the 20th century, ideas about art in Europe were in flux; artists like the Impressionists and Fauvists were challenging ideas of what art was and could be. It would take longer to accept Modern art in America. Representational artists like Winslow Homer and William Bougeureau were valued over artists that challenged the academy.
A group of young, anti-Academy artists (including Walt Kuhn) organized in New York City and created the association of American Painters and Sculptors. This group put together an exhibit of over 1,300 pieces by young American artists alongside the European. This exhibit, which became the famous Armory Show of 1913, took place at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The organizers wanted to showcase American art, but also expose Americans to new, modern European forms. They wanted Americans to see the “new” art and judge it for themselves.
The exhibition was seen by over 87,000 people before it traveled to Chicago. There was significant inflammatory, reactionary press coverage nationwide. More than any other event, the Armory Show got Americans talking about the avant-garde and abstraction and begged the ultimate question: what is art? The Armory Show marked the opening salvo of the American Modernism movement; American artists explored different styles and used abstraction as well as other methods to express the world around them.
Who was Walt Kuhn?
Kuhn was one of a generation of American artists who transformed his love of contemporary European art into a distinctly American style. Born William Kuhn in Brooklyn, New York, in 1877, the painter and illustrator received his first artistic training at a polytechnic institute in Brooklyn. At the age of twenty-two he moved to San Francisco, worked as a cartoonist, and began using “Walt” to sign his work. From 1901 to 1903, Kuhn studied in Europe, first at the Académie Colarossi in Paris and then at the Royal Academy in Munich. Although he settled in New York upon his return, Kuhn’s European experience continued to inform his work throughout his career.
In New York, Kuhn initially worked again as a cartoonist for popular magazines and also became involved in the planning of the Armory Show. He traveled to Europe with Arthur B. Davies, the show’s director, to select avant-garde art for display in the pivotal 1913 exhibition. From 1912 to 1920 he also advised John Quinn, a wealthy art patron, on purchases of French art and after 1930 served in a similar capacity for Marie Harriman, a collector and gallery owner. At this time, he was painting figure studies and still-lifes that were influenced by both the Cubist and Expressionists. Gradually, however, Kuhn developed a personal style in which he placed flattened, simplified, outlined forms, often rendered in brilliant color, against a dark background. He often painted portraits of showgirls and members of the circus. He died in 1949.
These Walt Kuhn paintings from the Rahr-West Art Museum collection are not currently on exhibit, but other abstract works from the museum can be seen this week, along with the Chagall: Le Cirque exhibit and quilts by the Ladies of the Lake quilting group. For more information see Rahrwestartmuseum.org.
