Witness
1947
Leo Kenney
born 1925, Spokane, Washington; died Seattle, Washington, 2001
Leo Kenney is one of the most celebrated Northwest artists. SAM's collection is rich in his work, numbering twenty-nine pieces across many periods, and as time goes on, his early work looks increasingly prescient. During the 1940s and 1950s, he pursued provocatively surrealist imagery such as this, a haunting portrait suggesting a psychiatric X-ray, deconstructing and demarcating the contours (both inner and outer) of the human face.
Ink and watercolor on paper
23 x 18 3/4 in. (58.4 x 47.6 cm)
Gift of Jack Strickland and Woodside/Braseth Gallery
2008.42
Provenance: Gift of the artist to Jack Kennemur and Jack Stickland, San Francisco; Woodside/Braseth Gallery, Seattle
Photo: Elizabeth Mann