Walt Kuhn wood carvings, 1913-1946

Kuhn’s sculptures were collected by the noted early modernist collector John Quinn (1870-1924). Among the works in Quinn’s collection was the icon Brancusi Portait of Mlle Pogany, the work that inspired Kuhn to create the wood carving “Mask” (FA10815).  Mlle Pogany was chosen by Kuhn for exhibition at the Armory Show, 1913. Other sculptures by Kuhn are in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum and the Heckscher Museum.

The group of 15 wood carvings came from the estate of the artist to his daughter Brenda Kuhn.

The Kuhn Estate (Brenda) originally worked with Kennedy Galleries of New York who published a detailed illustrated catalog of offerings from the estate in 1967.  The estate left Kennedy Galleries some time prior to 1983.  They established estate representation with Barridof Galleries of Portland, Maine in partnership with Salander O’Reilly Galleries Inc. of  New York.

This partnership published a monograph catalog on the artist in 1984.

Of our group of 15 works, three of the early c. 1913 examples have Salander O’Reilly labels affixed to them. The group of works were involved in the Salander O’Reilly bankruptcy liquidation where they were bought from. There have been several related examples that have come to auction since the year 2000.