Jacob Kainen

"Jacob Kainen (1909-2001) was born in Waterbury, Connecticut. The child of Russian immigrants. He began studying art at a young age. He was predominately known as a Social Realist in the 1930s, who largely worked in the medium of color lithography. His later work however, included pieces of a more abstract nature. He was the Curator of Graphic Arts at the United States National Museum from 1942 until 1970, where his unparalleled knowledge of art history was utilized effectively.
In 1993 a major retrospective of his work was held by the NMAA, which featured his early Social Realism pieces, as well as his later more abstract and poetical works.

Today he is considered to have formed an integral part of American Modernism by rejecting the avant-garde milieu of New York in the 1950s and pursuing his own style in Washington D.C.. He loved traditionalist elements, but rejected them in lieu of subjects more ""socially relevant,"" incorporating a great deal of German Expressionism. Kainen tended to use heavily applied, deep colors, and twisting line shapes. Later in his career he returned to semi-formal portraits which incorporated a great deal of figurative imagery, during which time he began using more muted tones and geometric shapes. Kainen's works became more extreme, being either bold and hard, or soft and lyrical. Often he would repeat the same images, changing only the shades involved, which led him to experimentations in printmaking. Only in the last few years has he been credited with the true artistic worth of his creations. His artwork is in various public and private collections across the United States such as Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. Kainen is a member of the American Artist Congress, United American Artists, the Society of Washington Artists, and the Washington Artists Guild, just to name several." [Source: unknown and currently being researched]