|
Journey to Abstraction: Jacob Kainen
Prints 1939 - 1977 presents twenty-five
of the artist's works, including seventeen that he donated to
Georgetown University in 2000. Jacob Kainen (1909 - 2001) was
for several decades one of the most internationally respected
of Washington artists. Born in Connecticut to immigrants from
Russia, Kainen was established in the New York art scene before
moving to Washington. In addition to his work as a printmaker
and painter, he was the curator of prints at the Smithsonian
Institution from 1942 to 1969. Kainen was a founder of the Washington
Print Club, and acknowledged "dean" of the Washington
art community up until his death in 2001.
"The most difficult problem for
an artist, granted technical competence, is to know how to be
himself. The strong artist clings to his own identity regardless
of the variety of pressures in our society. I have certain images
in my mind that won't go away. I begin with the aesthetic balancing
of forms but these psychological ghosts soon take over."1
Lauinger Library is proud to present
the work of one of Washington's foremost twentieth-century artists,
the late Jacob Kainen, in this exhibition made possible by his
generous gift in 2000 of twenty of his prints. As most Washingtonians
are aware, Kainen's influence in the local art community was
multi-faceted: as a talented artist, curator, teacher, mentor,
collector, and author. He played a major role in bringing Washington's
art community "up to speed" with major currents in
the evolving art world, encouraging younger artists such Gene
Davis and others of the Washington Color School, and helping
establish organizations such as the Washington Print Club in
1964.
When he moved here from New York in 1942
to accept a job as curator of graphic arts at the Smithsonian
Institution, Kainen was surprised at the lack of opportunities
for young artists, and the lack of critical response towards
modern art (a negative review of Paul Cézanne's work in
one local paper was understandably disheartening). The environment
he now found himself in was something of an "artistic backwater"
as noted in Kainen's Washington Post obituary of March 2001.
Before coming to Washington, Kainen's
career had already gained considerable momentum. He had studied
at the Art Students League, Pratt Institute, and New York University.
In 1935, at the suggestion of his friend Stuart Davis, Kainen
joined the graphic art division of the WPA Federal Arts Project.
This enabled him to work with very skilled, seasoned print makers
and to experiment with various techniques - mostly, lithograph,
woodcut, etching, and serigraph. During this time, Kainen met
and became friends with emerging artists such as Arshile Gorky,
Willem de Kooning, John Graham, and Adolf Dehn, whose friendships
brought him new inspiration and greater influence in the art
world. His friendship with Gorky began when the older artist
realized Kainen shared his enthusiasm for studying and copying
the works of the Old Masters. At one time Kainen posed for Gorky,
and the resulting portrait remained in Gorky's estate.2
Kainen's oil
wash portrait study in our exhibition, Mother and Daughter
II (1967) recalls the spirit of Gorky's famous Self-portrait
with the Artist's Mother (National Gallery of Art), which Kainen
must have seen while visiting Gorky's studio.
Kainen's largely self-taught knowledge
of, and familiarity with, the history of art, became one of the
important strengths of his subsequent curatorial career, and
as author on diverse artists and periods. His first one-man exhibition
was held in 1940. At the time he appeared to be on the threshold
of a promising career in New York; but family responsibilities
compelled him to accept a unique opportunity with the Smithsonian
Institution as curator, that provided financial stability while
enabling him to remain dedicated in his field. During his tenure
Kainen continued to paint and create intaglio prints in his free
time, but none were exhibited since he felt this would conflict
with his role as a curator.
The prints in this exhibition reveal
Kainen's gradual shift from figural to abstract forms, and his
growing interest in color lithography with the large-scale, calligraphic
prints of the 1970s. The first print in the exhibition, The
Sculptor (1939), resembles the social realist style in which
Kainen was working at the time. Evidently the artist was not
satisfied with this image, and destroyed most of these impressions.
A comparison of the landscapes Virginia Hills (1946) and
Headland (1947) shows a growing fascination with abstraction,
as natural forms in the former become fragmented and translated
into patterns and shapes in the latter. This breakdown of form
is more fully developed in the following decade, as seen in the
abstract cityscape Intersection II. Two figural woodcuts
from the mid-60s (Midnight and Girl with Ear Pendants)
seem inspired by German Expressionist prints. Kainen particularly
admired this movement for its unflinching immediacy, and was
an avid collector of the German Expressionist artists, as seen
in the recent exhibition of his outstanding print collection
at the National Gallery of Art last year.
According to Janet Flint, who wrote the
1976 catalogue raisonné of Kainen's prints, the
serigraph Abraham (1970) represents the transition to
a completely abstract style. She also noted that Kainen began
working in lithography at Landfall Press in Chicago in 1972,
producing the first lithographs since his WPA period in New York.
There are seven Landfall Press lithographs in this exhibition.
Kainen's success with these efforts led to his first color intaglios,
of which Masquerade (1976) is a magnificent example. While
the early intaglios in the exhibition reveal a rapid free-hand
drawing style, each of the large lithographs from the 70s was
a major undertaking to produce, involving days of work. Kainen's
painterly approach, together with a calligraphic line, combine
poetically in these colorful prints. His love of painting led
him to experiment with monotype in 1973, a medium he embraced
for its spontaneity and creative flexibility in later years.
In relation to one another, the late
lithographs are seamlessly linked by a kind of harmonic rhythm
of repeating forms and gestural lines, wherein the imagery of
the subconscious is conveyed by a harmonious balance of forms
in space. We are deeply indebted to the artist for making this
exhibition possible; and for his gracious commitment to fostering
greater appreciation for, and understanding of, the fine arts
in this beautiful city.
-LuLen Walker
Art Collection Coordinator
Georgetown University Library
llw@georgetown.edu
1 Artist's statement
printed in the exhibition brochure Three Contemporary Printmakers:
Jacob Kainen, Albert Christ-Janer, Tadeusz Lapinski (Washington,
D.C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution,
1973). (Return to essay)
2 Jacob Kainen, "Memories
of Arshile Gorky" in Arts Magazine (March 1976) Vol.
50, No. 7, p. 97. (Return to essay)
Suggested reading list:
David Acton, The Stamp of Impulse:
Abstract Expressionist Prints (Worcester Art Museum, 2001),
pp. 917; catalog entry 20.
Gene Baro, "The Blindfolded Calligrapher:
The Graphic Art of Jacob Kainen" in Arts Magazine
(November 1976) Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 9495.
Avis Berman, "Images from a Life"
in Jacob Kainen (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of
American Art, 1993), pp. 921.
Janet A. Flint, Jacob Kainen: Prints,
A Retrospective (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian InstitutionNational
Collection of Fine Arts, 1976).
Jacob Kainen, "Memories of Arshile
Gorky" in Arts Magazine (March 1976) Vol. 50, No.
7, pp. 9698.
Jock Reynolds, et al, "Jacob Kainen:
An Appreciation" in Art on Paper (NovemberDecember
1999) Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 2933.
Bill Scott, "Sidestepping the Mainstream"
in Art in America (September 1994) Vol. 82, No. 9, pp.
106109.
|
