John Kane

(b West Calder, Midlothian [now Lothian], 19 Aug 1860; d Pittsburgh, PA, 10 Aug 1934). American painter of Scottish birth. In 1879 Kane emigrated to western Pennsylvania. He worked as a bricklayer, coal miner, steel worker and carpenter in the Ohio River valley and, in 1890, began to sketch local scenery. After losing his leg in a train accident in 1891, he was employed painting railway carriages. When his son died in 1904, Kane left his family and spent years wandering and working in odd jobs; his earliest surviving paintings date from around 1910. Settling in Pittsburgh, he worked as a house painter and in his spare time painted portraits, religious subjects, the city's urban landscape and memories of his Scottish childhood. In 1927 the jury of the Carnegie International Exhibition, Pittsburgh, encouraged by the painter-juror Andrew Dasburg (b 1887), accepted Kane's Scene in the Scottish Highlands (1927; Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie Mus. A.). Kane's success, at first considered a hoax by the press, was based on the modernist interest in primitive and folk art. His work was regarded as non-academic and boldly original, and he became the first contemporary American folk artist to be recognized by a museum. Larimer Avenue Bridge (1932; Pittsburgh, PA, Carnegie Mus. A.) is characteristic of his style with its meticulous detail, flat colour and dominant green and red. Though he sketched and painted on the site, Kane freely transposed pictorial elements to create a more pleasing composition. This innate compositional sense is evident in his Self-portrait (1929; New York, MOMA). The angularity of his rigidly frontal body is contrasted by the arches above his head. He received numerous honours and his work was exhibited at major museums in the years before his death.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

---

John Kane (1860-1934) was a Scottish-born American primitive painter who specialized in landscapes and scenes of the industrial environment in and around Pittsburgh, Pa.

John Kane was born in West Calder, Scotland, and as a teen-ager worked in the coal mines. After he arrived in America in 1879, he again worked as a miner and also as a street paver, carpenter, house painter, and lumber cutter. He settled in Pittsburgh and by 1890 had begun to draw in his spare time. He started attending art classes in the various cities where he was working, but each time he was forced to quit because of poverty. About the turn of the century, he lost his leg in a railway accident and had to give up his arduous jobs as a laborer.

Kane supported himself, in part, by painting freight cars and doing the lettering on the sides. Later he colored photograph enlargements. Often, he would use photographs as the original stimulus for some of his paintings. When he first began to paint, he submitted, as originals, paintings done right over enlarged photographs without knowing that this was unethical. In 1924 he submitted a painting to the Pittsburgh Carnegie Exhibition, but it was rejected, partly because it had been based closely upon a photograph.

About 1915 Kane began painting subjects based on his memories of Scotland and his impressions of the region about Pittsburgh. This work is marked by bright colors, a feeling for pattern, and a naiveté of handling in which sophisticated devices such as perspective and modeling are not attempted. His paintings are imbued with an attitude of affection for the people and places pictured.

One of Kane's most memorable paintings is his selfportrait (1929). The work shows the artist half-length, nude from the waist up, staring fixedly ahead at the spectator. He flexes his muscles, his fists meeting at the waist, his elbows jutting to the sides. The rigidity of the pose and the almost absolute symmetry of the design, with three concentric arches above the head, create a hieratic image of tension and power.

Recognition came to Kane late in life. With the support of another painter, who was a member of the jury of the Carnegie Exhibition, he began to be exhibited. In 1927 he was accepted in the Carnegie Exhibition, and his first oneman show was held in 1931, when he was over 70 years old. In 1936 his first one-man show abroad was held post-humously in London.

Further Reading

John Kane, Painter, edited by Leon A. Arkus (1971), reprints the artist's autobiography; it also includes a catalogue raisonné. Sidney Janis, They Taught Themselves: American Primitive Painters of the Twentieth Century (1942), contains quotations from Kane and some biographical material on him.

Kane, John, 1860–1934, American primitive painter, b. Scotland. He came to Pittsburgh at the age of 19 and worked for years as a day laborer, painting in his spare time. His paintings exhibit a delight in precise pattern and a sturdy disregard for academic conventions. Examples of his work are Across the Strip (Phillips Memorial Gall., Washington, D.C.) and his striking self-portrait (1929; Mus. of Modern Art, New York City).

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1938).

Quotes:

"The public interest is best served by the free exchange of ideas."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)