Northern Image: The Muse III
1948
Leo Kenney
born 1925, Spokane, Washington; died Seattle, Washington, 2001
Kenney claimed that this fantasy picture depicted broken symbols of some world of the past, but it evolved unconsciously he said, the selection of objects being purely arbitrary. He started with one object in isolation—the head of the Muse, perhaps—and then slowly worked around that. “What I’m going to do is invent a world to go around her, for her to inhabit,” Kenney explained to a friend who was skeptical about his approach to composition. Having consumed the writings of Sigmund Freud, Kenney was coming to understand the unconscious as the realm of inspiration, the home of the Muse.
Oil on canvas
29 5/8 x 19 1/2 in. (75.3 x 49.5 cm)
Overall: 35 1/2 × 25 1/2 in. (90.2 × 64.8 cm)
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
49.129
Photo: Rob Vinnedge