Jacob Kainen
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Jacob Kainen | |
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Abstract Expressionist |
Jacob Kainen (December 7, 1909 – March 19, 2001) was an American painter and printmaker. He is also known as an art historian, writing books on
Biography
Jacob Kainen was born in
Kainen was finally granted admittance to Pratt in the fall of 1927. Though he had a deep interest and appreciation for the old masters during this period of his life, he quickly found the Pratt curriculum backward, too anti-
This event proved monumental in Kainen's conceptual and artistic development. After his expulsion, Kainen sought out other
Kainen's wrote a highly regarded and informative essay on the WPA Graphic Arts Division in a collection of essays called The New Deal Art Projects: An Anthology of Memoirs.[3][2]
Career
Kainen also frequented cafeterias that had become the places where urban artists met to debate and develop ideas, both social and aesthetic. Kainen and Arshile Gorky became acquainted during a particular exchange in which they both defended the importance of copying master works and admitted to lurking in museums. The friendship with Gorky and his influence that resulted from their meeting would prove to be a lifelong one. Kainen was an active participant in the WPA's graphic arts program during the second half of the decade, but he eventually parted with the aesthetics of social realism in favor of abstraction. Yet his work would never lose its humanism or its concern for history: "However abstract the forms and colors seem, they should somehow give off an aura of human experience."[4] When opportunities in New York for work with the WPA ran low, Kainen moved to Washington, DC in 1942.[5]
Curator
From 1942 to 1970 Kainen was curator of the Division of Graphic Arts at the Smithsonian's U. S. National Museum. Though jarred by the elementary state of Washington's then slow-paced art scene, Kainen found inspiration in the Victorian skyline and architecture that defined the buildings surrounding his studio in Dupont Circle. In the 1940s he was one of the first abstract artists working in the city, and produced abstract compositions of symbols and forms that resounded with both his physical surroundings and personal experiences.
In 1949 Kainen's national loyalty was questioned and he was placed under investigation by the Civil Services loyalty board. During the 1930s, and the time spent in New York after his expulsion from Pratt, Kainen had written art reviews for the Daily Worker and signed legal petitions that attempted to institute social change. Such activities later put his job in jeopardy when he was being considered an "enemy of the state".[This quote needs a citation] Kainen was not cleared of formal charges until 1954. The psychological strain and anxiety of this period became evident in his vivid abstractions with titles like Exorcist (1952), Unmoored #2 (1952) and The Listener (1952). Kainen later remembered this time as a period when: "I begin with the aesthetic balancing of forms but these psychological ghosts take over."
Soon after his clearance by the Civil Services board, Kainen shifted from abstraction to elegant figurative work. As evidence of fervent independence, Kainen rejected the popularity of
Kainen taught evening classes in painting and printmaking at the Washington Workshop Center for the Arts,[6] and was instrumental in introducing Morris Louis to Kenneth Noland and hiring Louis to teach painting at the Workshop. Shortly thereafter, Louis and Noland began collaborating on "staining", the fundamental notion of Washington Color Field Painting, and a groundbreaking technique with many influential practitioners, although Kainen did not consider himself to be a member of the Washington Color School.[7] After his departure from the Smithsonian Institution in 1970, Kainen's work shifted back to pure abstraction.
Exhibitions
- Jacob Kainen (Retrospective). Catholic University, Washington, D.C., December, 1952; organized by Kenneth Noland.[7]
- Jacob Kainen: Recent Paintings. Middendorf Gallery, Washington, D.C., April 9-May 7, 1988[8]
- Jacob Kainen: Recent Drawings. Nancy Drysdale Gallery, Washington, D.C. March 23-April 29, 1995.[9]
Death
Jacob Kainen died in his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, at the age of 91 as he was preparing to go to his studio to paint. He was the father of mathematician Paul Kainen and inventor Daniel Kainen.
See also
- Color Field
References
- ^ "John Baptist Jackson". ManyBooks.net. Archived from the original on 2012-04-01. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
- ^ ISBN 0-520-23155-4.
- ISBN 0-87474-113-0.
- ISBN 9780965380560.
- from the original on 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2017-09-29.
- from the original on 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2017-09-29.
- ^ S2CID 192194255.
- from the original on September 29, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
- from the original on 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2017-09-29.
External links
- Official website of the Jacob Kainen Art Trust
- Works in the Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Smith, Roberta, "Jacob Kainen, 91, Painter and Print Curator," The New York Times, March 23, 2001
- Archives of American Art, Jacob Kainen papers, 1905-2003
- Works by Jacob Kainen at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Jacob Kainen at Internet Archive