FROM THE ESTATE OF DR. EDMUND P. PILLSBURY. FRANCES KUEHN (American, b. 1943). Untitled, 1972. Acrylic on paper. 20 x ...

Description

FROM THE ESTATE OF DR. EDMUND P. PILLSBURY

FRANCES KUEHN (American, b. 1943)
Untitled, 1972
Acrylic on paper
20 x 26 inches (50.8 x 66.0 cm)

PROVENANCE:
Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, April 1973

NOTE:
New York artist Frances Kuehn has painted still lifes throughout much of her career, although it is not an exclusive subject. In a recent telephone interview, she noted that the present work "belonged to a body of four or five paintings I made of a shiny black enameled chair, a window, a plant and white fabric. They were photo-based, based on black-and-white photographs I took at my home, then in New Jersey. I used a limited palette, white and dark brown acrylic paint on a toned paper, which became the middle tone of the painting. And then I varied the way I applied the paint, using it like watercolor. Single applications only barely toned the paper, but multiple applications made darker or lighter, more opaque passages."

Kuehn studied with Roy Lichtenstein at Douglass College in New Jersey, "from 1960, the same year he came there, until 1963," she recalls. "He was right out of the abstract painting curriculum he'd established at Ohio State." After receiving her BA from Douglass, she earned her MFA from Rutgers.

Ted Pillsbury purchased this painting from the Max Hutchinson Gallery, where Kuehn says she enjoyed working with Max Hutchinson, even though he eventually became primarily interested in exhibiting sculpture. Laughing, the artist confessed, "Max showed almost all abstract artists! Actually, I loved showing with abstract painters because I feel that I'm fundamentally an abstract artist."

We are grateful to Frances Kuehn for sharing information on her artistic methods and details of her biography with us.

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