WALT KUHN
Buffalo Hunt.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, circa 1930. 190x232 mm; 7¼x9 inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin.Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; DC Moore Gallery, New York, with the label; Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, with the label; 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. 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 Americans 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 dances and acrobats—referencing his lifelong interest in performance and theater.