Juggler

Alternate TitleBlue Juggler

Artist Walt Kuhn (American, 1877 - 1949)

Date1934

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 30 1/8 x 24 1/4 inches (76.52 x 61.6 cm)
Framed: 38 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches (97.79 x 85.09 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Friends of Art

Object number38-1

SignedSigned and dated lower left: Walt Kuhn / 1934

On View

Not on view

Collections

American Art

Terms

DescriptionThree-quarter-length, full-face portrait of a man wearing blue tights; holds one white ball in left hand and two white balls in right hand; brown backgound.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Walt Kuhn, Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, February 16–March 13, 1937, no. 2.

Walt Kuhn, Studio House, Washington, D.C., March 31–April 25, 1937, no. 7.

Bennington College, Vt., May 1937, no cat..

This Is Our City: An Exhibition of Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Prints, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 11–April 13, 1941, no. 45.

Paintings by Walt Kuhn, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, April 3–May 4, 1942, no. 7.

Contemporary American Painting, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, May 17–June 17, 1945, unnumbered (as The Blue Juggler).

L’Exposition d’Art Américain Contemporain, Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, Belgium, March 20–mid-July 1948 (traveled), no. 57.

Carnival and the Circus, John and Mable Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Fla., Art, January 23–February 17, 1949, no. 25.

Juliana Force and American Art: A Memorial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 24–October 30, no. 74.

The Friends of Art in Retrospect, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Mo., December 1953, no cat..

Communicating Art from Midwest Collections, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, October 13–November 6, 1955, no. 16.

Walt Kuhn: 1877–1949, Cincinnati Art Museum, September 8–November 22, 1960, no. 61.

The Organizers of the Armory Show, University of Kansas Museum of Art, Lawrence, March 1–April 15, 1964, unnumbered.

Painter of Vision: A Retrospective Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings by Walt Kuhn, 1877–1949, University of Arizona Art Gallery, Tucson, February 6–March 31, 1966, no. 77.

The Thirties Decade: American Artists and Their European Contemporaries, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Neb., October 10–November 28, 1971, no. 122.

Walt Kuhn: A Classic Revival, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, August 6, 1978–April 15, 1979 (traveled), no. 26.

Gallery Label

Walt Kuhn sustained a long, successful career as a figure painter throughout the early 20th century. His favorite subjects were circus performers. Typically, Kuhn depicted this juggler at an unexceptional moment, removed from the larger spectacle of the circus. Absent also are the emotions of joy and wonder associated with the circus. The painting's dull, even melancholic mood, accentuated by Kuhn's no-frills technique, suggests that juggling is the performer's job and, like any job, it can become tediously unrewarding. The Juggler's moroseness might also allude to the fact that the circus business struggled throughout the Great Depression. In this way, he might be interpreted as an emblem of the suspension of pleasure that many Americans experienced at this time.

Provenance

To (Marie Harriman Gallery, New York, by 1937);

to NAMA, 1938.

Published References

“A New Kuhn,” Art Digest 11 (February 15, 1937), 16, cover.

Henry McBride, “Walt Kuhn and Howard Cook,” New York Sun, February 20, 1937, 33.

E[dward] A[lden] J[ewell], “Among the New Exhibitions,” New York Times, February 21, 1937, X9.

E. G. Powers, “Under Postage,” letter to the art editor, New York Times, February 28, 1937, XI10.

“Walt Kuhn Holds First Exhibition in Three Years,” Springfield (Mass.) Union and Republican, February 28, 1937, 6E.

“Canvassing the Canvases,” Spur 59 (February 1937), 65.

Frank E. Washburn Freund, “Exploring the Art World of New York,” Travel 68 (February 1937), 44.

Margaret Breuning, “Current Exhibitions,” Parnassus 9 (March 1937), 34.

Howard Devree, “Succeeding Secessions,” Magazine of Art 30 (March 1937), 178.

“Impressive Showing by Walt Kuhn at Studio House,” Washington Post, April 3, 1937, B3.

Alice Graeme, “Studio House Exhibits Art Work of Walt Kuhn,” Washington Post, April 4, 1937, 73.

“In Gallery and Studio,” Kansas City Star, December 3, 1937, 33.

M. K. P., “In Gallery and Studio,” Kansas City Star, December 10, 1937, 20.

“Triple Gift to Gallery,” Kansas City Times, December 11, 1937, 9.

“Painting Bought for Kansas City Museum,” New York Times, December 17, 1937, 32.

“Kansas City: Gift of an Important Canvas by Kuhn,” Art News 36 (December 25, 1937), 18.

Walt Kuhn, exh. cat. (New York: Marie Harriman Gallery, 1937), unpaginated.

Walt Kuhn, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Studio House, 1937), unpaginated.

“Friends of Art,” Art Digest 12 (January 1, 1938), 16 (as The Blue Juggler).

“Friends of Art Gifts,” News Flashes (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 4 (January 1, 1938), 2 (as The Blue Juggler).

“‘The Juggler’ by Walt Kuhn Given by Friends of Art to Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star, January 30, 1938, 4A.

“Work by Walt Kuhn Is Nelson Gallery’s Masterpiece for Month,” Kansas City Journal-Post, January 30, 1938, 6B.

“Masterpiece of the Month,” News Flashes (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 4 (February 1, 1938), 2.

“Friends of Art Give Three Pieces of Contemporary Work to Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum,” Kansas City Journal-Post, December 19, 1939, 8B (as The Blue Juggler).

H[enry] C. H[askell], “The Friends of Art Present a Portrait to the Gallery,” Kansas City Star, December 29, 1939, 6 (as Blue Juggler).

Martha Candler Cheney, Modern Art in America (New York: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1939), 69, pl. 7, jacket.

“Currently, the Most Popular Books,” Baltimore Sun, January 14, 1940, Metrogravure sec., 3.

“Kuhn’s One Painting Show,” Art Digest 14 (April 1, 1940), 13 (as Blue Juggler).

“Widely Acclaimed ‘Trio’ at Nelson-Atkins Gallery,” Kansas City Journal-Post, April 14, 1940, 7 (as Blue Juggler).

Paul Bird, Fifty Paintings by Walt Kuhn (New York: Studio Publications, 1940), 30.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts: Founders and Benefactors (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1940), 23 (as The Blue Juggler).

Edward Alden Jewell, “Whitney Museum Shows Art of City,” New York Times, March 11, 1941, 28.

Elizabeth Sacartoff, “Three Groups in Ambitious Shows,” PM’s Weekly (New York), March 16, 1941, 52.

“Loan Exhibitions,” Gallery News (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 7 (March 1941), 7.

“When Art Study Becomes a Game, There’s Great Fun at the Gallery,” Kansas City Star, June 15, 1941, 4 (as Blue Juggler).

H[enry] C. H[askell], “The Nelson Gallery Displays Its Most Published Pictures,” Kansas City Star, December 5, 1941, 19 (as Blue Juggler).

Gallery Events (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 8 (December 1941), unpaginated (as Blue Juggler).

This Is Our City: An Exhibition of Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Prints, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1941), unpaginated.

Sheldon Cheney, The Story of Modern Art (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 572.

The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 149, 158, 166.

“Paintings by Walt Kuhn,” Monthly Bulletin (Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts) 12 (April 1942), unpaginated.

Ethlyne Jackson, “Museum Record: Kansas City’s Tenth Birthday,” Art News 42 (December 15, 1943), 15 (as The Blue Juggler).

Contemporary American Painting, exh. cat. (San Francisco: California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1945), unpaginated (as The Blue Juggler).

“Modern Painters Are Aided by the Friends of Art,” Kansas City Star, April 13, 1947, 9D.

L’Exposition d’Art Américain Contemporain, exh. cat. (Brussels, Belgium: Galerie Georges Giroux, 1948), 17.

“Walt Kuhn Dead; Noted Painter, 71,” New York Times, July 14, 1949, 27.

“Walt Kuhn Dies; Artist a Pioneer, U.S. Modernist,” New York Herald Tribune, July 14, 1949, 16.

Art, Carnival and the Circus, exh. cat. (Sarasota, Fla.: John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 1949), unpaginated.

Juliana Force and American Art: A Memorial Exhibition, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1949), 70.

The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd. ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 203.

Winifred Shields, “A Special Collection of Works Is Growing at Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star, May 19, 1950, 28.

Winifred Shields, “Key Role at Art Gallery Filled by Society of 500,” Kansas City Star, January 4, 1953, 8D.

Communicating Art from Midwest Collections, exh. cat. (Des Moines, Iowa: Art Center, 1955), unpaginated.

Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, Mo.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 150, 256.

Walt Kuhn: 1877–1949, exh. cat. (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1960), unpaginated.

The Organizers of the Armory Show, exh. cat. (Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1964), 11.

Donald L. Hoffmann, “For Friends of Art: Four Lively Paintings,” Kansas City Star, May 1, 1966, 1F.

Painter of Vision: A Retrospective Exhibition of Oils, Watercolors and Drawings by Walt Kuhn, 1877–1949, exh. cat. (Tucson: University of Arizona Art Gallery, 1966), 34, 45, 67, 111, 126.

The Thirties Decade: American Artists and Their European Contemporaries, exh. cat. (Omaha, Neb.: Joslyn Art Museum, 1971), 66.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 204, 253.

Donald Hoffmann, “Tracing the Ups and Downs of the Friends of Art,” Kansas City Star, September 19, 1976, 1E.

Philip Rhys Adams, Walt Kuhn, Painter: His Life and Work (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1978), x, 158–59, 172, 175, 201, 262–63.

Walt Kuhn: A Classic Revival, exh. cat. (Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1978), unpaginated.

George Ehrlich, “An Atypical Walt Kuhn Watercolor,” Source: Notes in the History of Art 1 (Spring 1982), 29, 31.

Joe Buhler and Ron Graham, “Fountains, Showers, and Cascades: Juggling’s Quintessential Combinations of Algebra and Acrobatics,” Sciences 24 (January–February 1984), 45.

Philip R. Adams, “Walt Kuhn’s Salute,” Arts in Virginia 25 (1985), 7, 9.

Lee Pentecost, “50 Years of Collecting: The Friends of Art at the Nelson; A Retrospective Exhibition,” typescript, 1984, NAMA curatorial files, 4–5.

Walt Kuhn, 1877–1949, exh. cat. (New York: Midtown Galleries, 1989), 17.

Henry Adams, Handbook of American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1991), 170.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collections. 6^th ed. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 228, 248.

Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1: 17, 369-71 (repro.), 2: 152-54 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 179 (repro.).

"American Art Collection Highlighted in Expanded Galleries," Member Magazine (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (Spring 2009), 6 (repro.).

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