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Walt Kuhn
Salute, 1934
Two years before completing Salute, Kuhn wrote that his paintings were "adventures in design, color, and human psychology." On all counts, this lively image fits his description. The figure's bright red-white-and-blue ensemble instills a traditional note of patriotism, punctuated by a crisp salute. At the same time, Kuhn undermines conventions by featuring such an audacious model -- a heavily made-up, scantily dressed showgirl, who looks out with a bold, disquieting gaze.
After studying art in Paris and Munich at the turn of the century, Kuhn returned to his native New York, where he aligned himself with the realist tenets of the so-called Ashcan painters. However, in 1913 his approach took a modernist turn after he helped organize the landmark Armory Show. By the following decade, he garnered critical acclaim with his monumental images of circus and theater performers -- a theme he continued to explore to the end of his career. |