Clown with Long Nose by Walt Kuhn

When cunning is made new, we are made new with it. We arrest a sense of solidarity with our proclaim cartridge clip, and of psychic energies shared and redoubled, which is only if about the nigh satisfying topic that demeanor has to offer. If that is possible, we say to ourselves, then everything is possible a new phase in the history of human awareness has been opened, just as it was opened up when people first base read Dante, or first heard Bachs 48 preludes and fugues, or first learned Hamlet and King Lear. (Russell 13) This new art spoken of, the coined secret revolution that was a part of the new phase opened up, was new art.This revolutionary form began shortly before 1914 (Russell 126) and is still present today. It was during this period period that artist Walt Kuhn gained great popularity and his work Clown With Long pry was samaraed. It is important, before pick uping at the painting, to first understand the purpose and charge novel art usually has. The e ntire gamut of modern art underside be viewed from the vantage point of the artists attitude towards the object, an mental test which should throw just about light on the larger problem of how the modern artist chooses to interweave art and reality and, ultimately, of what constitutes reality for him (Johnson 11).A major(ip) part of interpreting modern art lies within determining that reality. viewing audience search for their own meaning in the painting since the simplicity of to the highest degree modern works leaves much room for imagination. When the modernism phase of graphics began it was not exactly obvious to the public, but over time on that point came about a general awareness that there was such thing as a modern sensibility, and that that sensibility had the key to modern life (Russell 126).It was thought that if one was modern they had to easily be able to reveal changes of life and be accommodating of the unconscious and the irrational side of mankind (Russell 126). These aspects will later influence the works of Walt Kuhn in his various vegetable oil paintings of the time. Born in Brooklyn, New York, a cultural mecca for all things up and coming, in the year 1877, Walt Kuhn began making a living out his cunning at a young age (American Modernist). He interchange his first painting when he was only 15 to a minuscular magazine, and quickly chose the career path of an artist.Though he did not erupt as a mature painter until he was fifty years old (Wall plaque), Kuhn s cartoonist and set designer background helped him turn his multi-faceted interests into a lifestyle. After he began cartooning professionally inn1899, Kuhn decided to acquire art reading and traveled to Paris to study at the Academie Colarossi (Wall plaque). He was a outsize fan of modernism, and so, despite his traditional tendencies, the form randomly showed itself in his own work. He found is theme in the mid- twenties when he began to paint large canvases featurin g single figures, usually circus performers or clowns. (Wall plaque). The figures may have represented a counterculture of the flamboyant, flapper time period of the twenties, or possibly, they could depict whatsoever part of Kuhn that maybe felt resembling an outcast or clean of an oddity in society. It is not really known but primarily his pictures were depicted with solemn demeanor (Wall plaque) and not all that pleasant to look at.Contradictory to Kuhns norm however, Clown With Long Nose has an remarkably animated expression, addressing the viewer with a look of clever self-satisfaction ad mischievous delight (Wall plaque). This work is a very good internal representation of the artist in that it stays true to his circus character subject, and like cartoons, the painting plays on the hope that peoples sense of humor will appreciate it as a new way to echo about and look at art.The reason it can be considered a modern work of art is the ability it gives its viewers to int erpret. Unlike the forego realist period, this work leaves the viewer room to wonder. Questions like What is the clown smirking at? and What is he staring out? can all be pondered while expression at the painting. It aesthetically pleasing enough and has just enough quirks to it to train this painting one to remember and a good example of what some twentieth century art looks like.Through his education and appreciation for the art of which he lived in, Walt Kuhn was able to create not a masterpiece, but a story with his Clown With Long Nose painting. It may not be the most serious or useful peace of artwork from the time period, and it more than likely does not have some deep heart and soul or meaning hidden behind its brush strokes however, the 1936 painting is sport to look at. A viewer is able to look at it for what it is and take root his or her own personal value for the work. It is a good profit to the modernism period and to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.