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Although Kane was born in Scotland, he began to paint in the United States and was the first American folk artist to be exhibited by major museums.
Born in 1860, John Kane emigrated from Scotland to America at the age of eighteen. He had quit school to work in the Scottish coalmines as a child, and was able to find similar employment in western Pennsylvania. He would also take various other manual labor jobs, such as house painting and carpentry, and while he was interested in studying art, he generally was too poor to afford formal instruction. Following a terrible train accident in 1891, Kane lost his leg and was unable to continue working his usual laborer jobs. He was hired to paint railroad cars instead, and he liked to secretly practice his skills by painting scenery onto the cars first before finishing them and covering up his own artwork. He was also beginning to sketch and paint scenes from his native Scotland, but the death of his small son in 1904 affected Kane deeply and he started to drink and wander. Eventually he found his way back to Pittsburgh, where he would ultimately settle for the rest of his life. Unique Style and TechniqueLike many self-taught artists, Kane copied photos to develop his technique, and sometimes he even painted directly over black and white photos to colorize them. This would lead to Kane's disqualification from Pittsburgh’s prestigious Carnegie Exhibition in 1924, because his entry had been replicated from a photograph. Kane kept on with his naïve approach, however, using strong color and flatly unique perspectives, and his work eventually found success. Kane is often praised for his keen insight into the expressions and characteristics of the people he painted -- including his own intense self-portait. Kane’s Scene from the Scottish Highlands was championed by fellow painter Andrew Dasburg, who persuaded the Carnegie judges to finally allow Kane admission to their exhibition in 1927. While this inclusion was at first dubiously received by some critics, it helped to open doors for other American folk painters such as Grandma Moses and later “Outsider” artists. Success and LegacyBy the time Kane died from tuberculosis in 1934, he had sold his work to Mrs. John D. Rockefeller and his paintings been exhibited at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Whitney Museum of American Art and Harvard University. News of his fame eventually reached his estranged wife, Maggie, from whom Kane had been separated for many years, and the couple reunited before Kane’s passing. John Kane’s self-trained folk art style was highly praised following his death, and his work is still part of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Washington D.C.’s Phillips Collection, and of course Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art – in the same city where Kane labored and lived and made his groundbreaking debut. Sources
The copyright of the article John Kane in 20th Century Art is owned by Meg Nola. Permission to republish John Kane in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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