68 - KUHN Walt (1877–1949)

KUHN Walt (1877–1949) Carmen Amaya, 1933. Oil on canvas. Signed, dated, and titled in the lower right corner. Label reading “Elaine Graham Weitzen / Fine Arts in New York” on the reverse. (minor losses and restorations, slight wear, canvas slightly warped) 55 x 46 cm (frame: 68 x 59.5 cm) Note: A leading figure of American modernism, Walt Kuhn (1877–1949) played a pivotal role in organizing the 1913 Armory Show in New York, a historic exhibition that helped introduce the European avant-garde to the American public. Fascinated by the world of entertainment, the circus, and vaudeville, he devoted a significant portion of his work to stage performers, dancers, and acrobats, whom he depicted with remarkable psychological depth. This 1933 oil on canvas depicts Carmen Amaya (1913–1963), a Spanish dancer and singer born in Barcelona, whose virtuosity and temperament revolutionized the history of flamenco. Painted when she was in her early twenties, this portrait predates her international acclaim, particularly in the United States during the 1940s. The work bears a label on the reverse from the New York gallery Elaine Graham Weitzen Fine Arts, which was involved in the circulation of American modern art and whose name also appears in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art.