1956 Kenneth Callahan Modern Nude Painting

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Kenneth Callahan (1905–1986) MCM nude en grisaille watercolor on paper. Signed and dated lower right.

Kenneth Callahan was born in … Read more Kenneth Callahan (1905–1986) MCM nude en grisaille watercolor on paper. Signed and dated lower right.

Kenneth Callahan was born in Spokane, Washington on October 30, 1905. At the age of sixteen he was a good enough realist to have a watercolor of the Seattle waterfront hung in a major exhibition. Shortly afterward he gave up both local notoriety and his studies at the University of Washington to go to San Francisco, where between odd jobs he worked on his style, and tried his hand, without success, at commercial art. He traveled to Mexico where he fell in love with the work of Orozco, Rivera and Tamayo.

Finally heading home again, he got a job opening crates at the Seattle Art Museum and rose to become curator. That job gave him twenty years of being able to spend his summers painting for himself. It also gave him the opportunity to develop friendships with people like Morris Graves and Guy Anderson.

Provenance: From the estate of Northwest artist Neil Meitzler (1930-2009). See less