Journey to Abstraction: Jacob Kainen Prints 1939 – 1977

Introduction

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 Curator
 

Notes

¹Artist’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).

²Jacob Kainen, “Memories of Arshile Gorky” in Arts Magazine (March 1976) Vol. 50, No. 7, p. 97.

Suggested Reading List

David Acton, The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints (Worcester Art Museum, 2001), pp. 9-17; catalog entry 20.

Gene Baro, “The Blindfolded Calligrapher: The Graphic Art of Jacob Kainen” in Arts Magazine (November 1976) Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 94-95.

Avis Berman, “Images from a Life” in Jacob Kainen (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art, 1993), pp. 9-21.

Janet A. Flint, Jacob Kainen: Prints, A Retrospective (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution­ National Collection of Fine Arts, 1976). N.B. References to “Flint” in the object list below refer to the checklist in this volume, pages 22-91 and Supplement.

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 (November-­December 1999) Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 29-33.

Bill Scott, “Sidestepping the Mainstream” in Art in America (September 1994) Vol. 82, No. 9, pp. 106-109.