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Kenney, Leo
| Last Name: | Kenney |
|---|---|
| First Name: | Leo |
| Dates: |
*1925 (Date of Birth)
*2001 (Date of Death)
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| Biography/History: | Leo Kenney was born in Spokane and came with his family to Seattle in the 1930s. In his late teens, his artistic talent was innate and intuitive. While most of the Northwest artists were relatively mature before their work was recognized, Leo Kenney was 19 when he had his first solo exhibition, and at 20, Dr. Richard Fuller, founder of the Seattle Art Museum, bought one of his paintings for the museum's collection. Marian Willard, Morris Graves’ New York art dealer, invited Kenney to show with her after seeing Kenney’s work in Graves’ collection. Over the course of his career, his style evolved from Surrealistic figures, to circles that radiated transparent color, to jewel-toned geometrics. At age 37, Kenney experimented with mescaline and his art, changing forever, initiated the art for which he is best known: psychedelic circle paintings that he considered representations of nature. The figures were replaced by variations of a radiating inner circle. Over time, he began to stack the circles in his paintings into ascending pillars that suggested illuminated chakras, the 7 centers of spiritual energy in the human body. His paintings expressed profound beauty; an inner reality that was revealed as light. Kenney once expressed that he’d never seen the real world as others see it. |
| Related Objects: |
4395.30 (Painting, December Hours, 1980)
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