Kenn Kwint

Untitled (Abstraction), ca. 1999

Oil on paper

29 x 20 inches

Signed Kwint, lower right

#18054

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Kenn Kwint created a dynamic and expressive body artwork that crosses the disciplines of painting, drawing and printmaking. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1937, the decorated Korean war veteran exhibited his artwork across the Midwest at numerous public museums and galleries alike. The 82 year old artist began painting at the age of 13, and spent much of his early adult life as an accomplished drummer and professional Jazz musician, playing with such legends as Miles Davis and Stan Getz. Kwint received his training at The Layton School of Art in Milwaukee and spent three years as an apprentice in the studio of Plato Prokopis (1959-61).

Painting from his mind’s eye, Kwint prepared his surfaces with various materials such as marble dust, acrylic medium and oil paint. Often, these materials were layered and mixed to create a richly textured surface. Kwint used various tools to carve and mark the surfaces of his paintings, revealing the foundational layers of medium and capturing a unique and expressive mark. Kwint's work explores the innate gestures of painting and acts as a record of his own personal energy. Kwint’s artwork is often non-objective and abstract, offering the viewer an invitation to contemplate and interpret their subjective meanings. His marks echo a primitive, symbolic language- recognizable, yet neither literal nor predictable. Kwint’s paintings ask the viewer to enter the same creative mind-space as the artist and make their own meaning of the visual information in his works.

Kwint exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN and the Milwaukee Art Museum. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Racine Art Museum, the Cedarburg Art Museum, Carroll University, Lawrence University, The University of Wisconsin, Ripon College and St. Norbert College, among others. He died in Milwaukee on February 22, 2020.