Matisse - Short Bio

Henri Matisse. 1869-1954.

He migrated south within his native France; born in the north, then to Paris in the central part of the country, and finally he settled in the south on the French Riviera. He found color to his liking, and it became his chief tool of expression. M. Henri Matisse bestrode the Modern Era as a titan, and showed the visual world color and line in their pure forms, all the while working from life. 

French painter Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954) in his studio.

May 01, 1913. Credit: Alvin Langdon Coburn.

Artworks:

Henri Matisse - Music. 1910. 260 x 389 cm. / 102.4" x 153." Oil on Canvas.

Henri Matisse - La Mimosa, 1951. Mimosa, 1949–51, a cut-paper maquette for a rug that was realized in 1951.

le sot Matisse

NASA Messenger image of the Matisse crater on Mercury
Photo: NASA

The village idiot, in other words.  Henri Matisse was known in his home town of Bohain, France as a ner-do-well.  A weirdo, who on the national level was called a "wild beast."   What caused this buttoned-down man of the north to become the wild man of art?


My posts on Henri Matisse.


Hilary Spurling:

Matisse said the act of painting was for him like kicking down a door, or slitting an abscess with a penknife.

Henry Matisse on his painting:

I do it in self-defense. 

You would do well to read Spurling's article about the sartorial Matisse and her biography of him. 


Matisse's Pajamas


Now the Vatican will open a Matisse room to house a collection.

Picasso Biography Videos

This series of biographical videos on Picasso is very informative.  For some reason my mind works better with the chronological revelation of what happened, versus the all-at-once story that you get when you read a one page bio.


Now, I am beginning to get a handle on what Picasso did.  The link to the first vid of nine is here.

Sketch & Bio

Distant Ridge Sketch
6" x 7"
Pastel on Sketch Paper
Casey Klahn

It has been mentioned that I should differentiate myself from the artist Wolf Kahn, given that I'm doing a Wolf Kahn Project, the similarity of my subjects and style to his, the fact that Europeans may not know this otherwise famous American artist, and the lack of an "l" in his last name.

This post will cover my short biography. The next post will describe Wolf Kahn, the famous American artist, and also will provide a brief on the motivation for this project.

This is another example of the requirements of the artist business, where I should have a bio of myself ready at a moment's notice. I am up to speed on the resume, but I haven't drilled out the short bio, yet. Always something, huh?


My name is Kenneth C. Klahn. The nickname, Casey, is a play on my initials.

Max Klahn, my grandfather, immigrated from Germany around the turn of the 20th Century and pioneered on the very, very rugged and extreme northwest corner of the USA. I was born in 1958 and grew up in the hardscrabble logging town of Hoquiam, Washington, which is known mostly for logging. From the age of four until I graduated high school at age seventeen, I drew in excess of 100,000 drawings. Mostly the figure.

I did complete two of three large correspondence binders from the Norman Rockwell Famous Artist's School Course for Talented Young People when I was not quite a teenager. I co-founded a "Master's" art class for senior high schoolers, cartooned for and co-edited our award winning HS newspaper. Otherwise, I am a self taught artist, and began the fine art profession about ten years ago.

A few other interesting things about me include that I am married to Lorie Teel Klahn, who is a Nurse Practitioner, and we have two young children. We own a small farm in eastern Washington, but don't actively farm.

My work life before fine art included specialty retail sales work at REI, mountain guiding on Mount Rainier, and ten years in the Army National Guard where I was a Captain of Infantry. I have done a modest amount of international travel, and hold a Bachelor's degree in the Bible. I served as a short-term missionary in the deep jungles of Costa Rica, affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.

Famous Artists School