Clown with Long Nose by Walt Kuhn

When maneuver is made new, we are made new with it. We have a sense of solidarity with our own period, and of psychical energies shared and redoubled, which is just about the most satisfying thing that life sentence 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 read Dante, or first heard bachelors 48 preludes and fugues, or first learned Hamlet and nance Lear. (Russell 13) This new cheatistry spoken of, the coined secret revolution that was a stir up of the new phase opened up, was untriede art.This revolutionary form began presently before 1914 (Russell 126) and is still present today. It was during this time period that artist Walt Kuhn gained bully popularity and his lam Clown With broad Nose was painted. It is important, before looking at the painting, to first understand the purpose and direction mod art averageally has . The entire gamut of modern art tail end be viewed from the vantage pass of the artists attitude towards the object, an examination which should throw some roost 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 part of interpreting modern art lies within determining that reality. Viewers search for their own meaning in the painting since the simplicity of most modern works leaves more than room for imagination. When the modernism phase of artwork began it was non exactly self-evident to the public, but over time there came about a world(a) 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 nonice changes of life and be cooperative of the unconscious and the irrational side of humans (Russell 126). These aspects will late r trance the works of Walt Kuhn in his various oil paintings of the time. Born in Brooklyn, spick-and-span York, a cultural mecca for all things up and coming, in the year 1877, Walt Kuhn began fashioning a living out his craft at a young age (American Modernist). He sold his first painting when he was only 15 to a small magazine, and quickly chose the career lane of an artist.Though he did not emerge as a grow painter until he was fifty years old (Wall plaque), Kuhn s cartoonist and deal designer background helped him turn his multi-faceted interests into a lifestyle. After he began cartooning professionally inn1899, Kuhn decided to acquire art training and traveled to Paris to probe at the Academie Colarossi (Wall plaque). He was a big fan of modernism, and so, despite his conventional tendencies, the form randomly showed itself in his own work. He found is reputation in the mid- twenties when he began to paint large canvases featuring single figures, unremarkably circu s 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 some part of Kuhn that maybe felt like an outcast or somewhat of an oddity in society. It is not really known but generally his pictures were depicted with solemn doings (Wall plaque) and not all that pleasant to look at.Contradictory to Kuhns norm however, Clown With Long Nose has an unusually animated expression, addressing the witnesser with a look of clever self-satisfaction ad mischievous delight (Wall plaque). This work is a very good representation of the artist in that it be true to his circus character subject, and like cartoons, the painting plays on the consent that peoples sense of humor will appreciate it as a new way to think about and look at art.The reason it can be considered a modern work of art is the ability it gives its viewers to interpret. Unlike the preceding 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 looking at the painting. It aesthetically loving enough and has just enough quirks to it to make this painting one to concoct 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 grow 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 message or meaning unnoticeable behind its brush strokes however, the 1936 painting is fun to look at. A viewer is able to look at it for what it is and determine his or her own personalized value for the work. It is a good addition to the modernism period and to the capital of Alabama Museum of Fine Arts.