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Seed and Beyond II

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Seed and Beyond II

1964

Leo Kenney

born 1925, Spokane, Washington; died Seattle, Washington, 2001

Although Kenney’s paintings after 1962 are wholly abstract, their symbolism was deeply felt and their spell is even more intense than that cast by his self-referential allegorical pictures. Now the symbolism is universal and not simply personal. This intricate ovoid design suggests seeds deep within a living, expanding space. It is perhaps an embryonic form, or the cosmos.
Gouache on Chinese paper mounted on painted composite board
sheet: 19 1/2 x 15 1/8 in. (49.5 x 38.4 cm)
mount: 20 7/8 x 16 5/8 in. (53 x 42.2 cm)
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
64.139
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, University of Washington, Henry Art Gallery, Exhibition of Flower Paintings, 1964.

Mount Vernon, Washington, Skagit Valley College, 1965.

Olympia, Washington, State Capitol Museum,Governor's Invitational Exhibition of Washington Artists, 1967.

New York, New York, National Institute of Arts and Letters, Award Winners Show, May 24 - June 25, 1967.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Leo Kenney Retrospective, 1973.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Map, Northwest Traditions, June 29 - Nov. 19, 1978.

La Conner, Washington, Museum of Northwest Art, Leo Kenney - Celebrating the Mysteries: A Retrospective, June 2, 2000 - Oct. 1, 2000.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Asian Affinities, Aug. 28, 1999 - Jan. 2, 2001.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Robert Davidson: Abstract Impulse, Nov. 16, 2013 - Feb. 16, 2014 (New York, New York, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Apr. 12, 2014 - Sept. 28, 2014). Text by Barbara Brotherton. No cat. no., p. 36, reproduced fig. 11.
Published ReferencesBrotherton, Barbara. Robert Davidson: Abstract Impulse. Exh. Cat. Seattle, Washington: Seattle Art Museum, 2013-14; p. 36, reproduced fig. 11 [not in exhibition].

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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