WALT KUHN
American Indians Racing on Horseback.

Watercolor over lithograph on cream wove paper, circa 1918-20. 280x347 mm; 11 1/4x13 3/4 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.

Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.

Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Kuhn (1877-1949) took art classes at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and then worked as an illustrator. He met John Sloan and Robert Henri through his work as an illustrator and helped them organize the Exhibition of Independent Artists in April 1910. He then co-founded the Association of American Painters and Sculptors who organized the Armory Show and was in charge of finding European artists to participate. In 1912, he traveled throughout Europe with Arthur B. Davies and Walter Pach to find the avant-garde in European art, which led to the Armory Show largely introducing a broad swath of American to modern art.

As an artist he embraced a variety of modern styles, including Cubism and Fauvism, before developing his own style of painting single figures against dark backgrounds with a psychological and emotional intensity. He often depicted performers—clowns, burlesque dancers and acrobats—referencing his lifelong interest in performance and theater.

 

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500