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Lamentation

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Lamentation

1947

Leo Kenney

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

Kenney was steeped in the Catholic liturgy, and his post-war apocalyptic imagery draws heavily upon the Bible. This image may have its source in one of the Old Testament Lamentations on the destruction of ancient Jerusalem by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar:


"The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned into mourning.
The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim . . .
Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou are very wroth against us." (Lamentations 5:15-22)

Ink and opaque watercolor on black paper
18 1/2 × 9 in. (47 × 22.9 cm)
Gift of the Estate of Robert M. Shields
2013.4.4
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
location
Not currently on view

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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