Walt Kuhn

An illustrator, printer, painter, sculptor, and advisor to American art collectors such as John Quinn and Lillie Bliss, the versatile Walt Kuhn was also an avid supporter and promoter of contemporary art. Overseas in 1912 as executive secretary for the newly established Association of American Painters and Sculptors, Kuhn combed exhibitions in such cities as Cologne, Munich, Berlin, and Paris for avant-garde art. The loans of European art he procured on this trip, together with notable examples of American art, formed the renowned International Exhibition of Modern Art—the 1913 Armory Show. Consisting of over 1300 objects, the exhibition brought diverse trends in modernism to the American public and served as a watershed in the history of American art. Kuhn’s early interest in the European avant-garde slowly shifted. By the early 1920s his focus was local and he was creating figurative work depicting the subjects around him in New York. It is this later work for which Kuhn is best known, specifically his renderings of vaudeville actors and circus performers.