Walter Kuhn

American (1880-1949)

Born William Kuhn in New York City in 1877, Kuhn studied at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute as well as in Paris and Munich. After living in San Francisco and his studies abroad, he returned to New York where he began working as a cartoon illustrator, and took the name “Walt.” Kuhn also had a love of theatre, and designed many sets and costumes, as well as railroad car interiors. Kuhn became most well-known for his portrait paintings, often of clowns, as well as for his bold, modernist style.

Kuhn exhibited at the Boston Art Club, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery and at the 1913 Armory Show, of which he was executive secretary. As secretary, he traveled to Europe with director and organizer Arthur Davies to select the groundbreaking art that was shown in the show. Kuhn’s works are part of the collections of many major national museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Institute, the Cincinnati Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Philips Collection and the Whitney Museum of American Art.