Biografie von Jacob KAINEN (1909-2001)

Birth place: Waterbury, CT

Death place: Chevy Chase, MD

Addresses: Wash., DC; Chevy Chase, MD

Profession: Printmaker, painter, teacher, lecturer, writer, museum curator

Studied: ASL, with Nicolaides, 1925; NY Univ. Evening Sch. of Indus. Art at Pratt Inst., 1926-30; George Washington Univ.; F.L. Allen.

Exhibited: Phila. Print Cl.; Springfield (MA) AM; AIC; Albright Art Gal.; PMG, 1942-45; Oakland Art Gal., 1944; LOC, 1944; BMA, 1944; ACA Gal., NYC; Corcoran Gal. biennial, 1959; other Corcoran Gal exh, 1942-45; Catholic Univ., Wash., DC, 1952 (retrospective); U.S. Info. Agency "Contemp. Am. Painting" tour of Latin America, 1961-62; Roko Gallery, NYC, 1964-66 (solos); Pratt Manhattan Center, NYC, 1972 (solo); Smithsonian American Art Museum,1976 (print retrospective), 1994 (retrospective); Hemphill Fine Arts, 1997; Katherina Rich Perlow Gallery, NYC, 2001 (memorial exh.).

Member: Am. A. Cong.; United Am. Artists; Soc. Wash. Artists; Washi. Artists Guild; Landscape CI., Wash.; Washington SE; AEA; Soc. Wash. Printmakers.

Work: MMA; Phillips Coll.; CGA; Carnegie Inst.; Bezalel Nat. Mus., Israel; Brooklyn Pub. Lib.; Queen's College; Biggs Mem. Hospital, Ithaca, NY; NY State Merchant Marine Acad.; E. Texas State Teachers College

Comments: WPA printmaker and social realist of the 1930s who explored new techniques in color lithography. Kainen also worked in drypoint, etching, woodcut, silk screen, serigraph, and aquatint. By the end of the 1940s he was using non-objective forms in his work; during the 1950s and 1960s, he became known for his woodblock portraits. He later turned to abstraction in oil. Between 1942 and 1970, he was associated with the Division of Graphic Arts for the Smithsonian Inst., Wash., DC.

Sources: WW73; WW47; Baigell, Dictionary.