Jacob Kainen Etching and Aquatint "Arrival"

Details

Description

A wonderful example of the work of Jacob Kainen, an important and influential modernist artist. The piece is one of … Read more A wonderful example of the work of Jacob Kainen, an important and influential modernist artist. The piece is one of a very limited edition of 25. Vibrant colors and abstract composition. What appears to be discoloration in the upper left corner in one of the photos is a shadow.

Jacob Kainen (1909-2001) was one of three sons born to Russian immigrants in Connecticut. He studied painting at Pratt Institute in New York and befriended artists such as Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning. During the Depression, he worked for the Works Progress Administration, where he learned printmaking. Through long study and practice, he would become a master of varied printmaking techniques as well as oil painting.

In 1942, he moved to DC with his young family to take a position in the Division of Graphic Arts at what’s now called the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Within a few years he became the division’s curator. He worked in curatorial posts for the next almost 25 years.

His work is featured in major museum collections, including the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yale University Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among other public and private collections.

He and his wife built one of the finest collections of 20th-century German expressionist prints and drawings in private hands, as well as outstanding works by 16th-century Dutch mannerists and 20th-century American abstract expressionist artists. They also became major benefactors of the National Gallery of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum New York, and other museums. See less