Molten Molt, c. 1972
acrylic on canvas
74" x 87"
Untitled, c. 1972
acrylic on canvas
approx. 72" x 84"
Mesa, 1973
watercolor on paper
22" x 30"
Bird 2, 1974
watercolor on paper
22" x 30"
Bird, 1972
watercolor on paper
22" x 30"
Untitled, 2020
watercolor on paper
30" x 22"
Untitled, 2015
watercolor on paper
30" x 22"
Hatshepsut's Vase, 2020
watercolor on paper
30" x 22"
Graces, c. 2010
watercolor on paper
22" x 30"
Untitled, 2015
watercolor on paper
30" x 22"
Untitled, 2014
watercolor on paper
30" x 22"
Untitled, 2016
watercolor on paper
30" x 22"
Untitled, 2014
watercolor on paper
30" x 22"
Hatshepsut, 2020
watercolor on paper
30" x 22"
Untitled, 1972
watercolor on paper
22" x 30"
Dan Yellow Kuhne (b. 1942, Oneida, NY) is an American abstract painter from a cadre of artists who took up the legacy of the Washington Color School a decade after the original artists. Coming out of the University of Maryland, Kuhne was inspired by his predecessors and their exploration of color as form. Fittingly, it was around this time that Kuhne adopted the nickname “Dan Yellow,” after a friend referred to him as “Daniello," and he liked how the moniker sounded like his favorite color.
Kuhne took classes from Gene Davis and exhibited around the DC area in the 1970s at venues like the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the University of Maryland. After a successful show at Jacob’s Ladder Gallery in 1972, the Phillips Collection hosted a solo show of his watercolors the following year.
The Phillips show curator, Richard Friedman, called Kuhne “the most talented newcomer” working in the tradition of the Washington Color School. The show met positive reviews in The Washington Post and The Evening Star and Daily News. The Post reviewer, Paul Richard, remarked that ”[Kuhne’s watercolors] are full of subtle, carefully controlled color, and of local history as well,” particularly noting the influence of Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis. However, Richard remarked that Kuhne’s work was “freer” in contrast to the more rigid, hard-edge style of other Color School artists.
To create his work, Kuhne first draws out his imagery in pencil. He then applies paint directly from the tubes and dilutes the pigment with washes to stain the surface with color. The combination of “bars of pigment and attached flowing veils,” as described by Friedman, resulted in imaginative forms open to the viewer’s interpretation. Kuhne continued his signature style between 1970-74 with his notable Dog Eared series, comprising approximately 45 canvases. Starting around 2000, Kuhne has shifted his primary focus to landscape paintings. In an Art in America review of Kuhne's paintings at Maryland Art Place, Joe Shannon described his work as "romantic expressionism," citing the movement and variety of paint strokes, and their "Turneresque passion."
Kuhne has exhibited for decades in solo and group shows in the DC area, recently in Full Circle: Hue and Saturation in the Washington Color School at the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery at the Corcoran School of Arts & Design in 2018. He taught for nearly 40 years as a professor of art at the Anne Arundel Community College.
Kuhne's works are in the collections of The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; George Washington University Museum, Washington, DC; American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC; National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, MD; and the Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA.
Kuhne was the 2022 recipient of the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County Annie Award for Visual Art.
Jo Fleming Contemporary Art will be featuring Dan Kuhne in an upcoming exhibition. Grand impressionist landscape masterpieces are a cornerstone of Maryland artist, Dan Kuhne’s rich career. They utilize synesthesia: exploring several senses at one time… music, dance, as well as visual, where forest becomes figure, line becomes movement and music.
Kuhne studied at the University of Maryland, and later took classes with Washington Color School artists including Gene Davis. He exhibited in the D.C. area during the 1970s at venues including Corcoran Gallery of Art and the University of Maryland. The Phillips Collection hosted a solo show of his work in 1972. Kuhne developed expertise in drawing, print, watercolor, as well as grand-scaled oil painting. Kuhne exhibited in the D.C. area at the Corcoran School of Arts & Design in 2018. His works are in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, University of Maryland, Baltimore Museum of Art and American University Museum.
The annual Annie Award from the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County publicly recognizes exceptional artists for their lasting, significant, and inspiring contributions to an art form, an arts organization and/or to the wider community of Anne Arundel County. For the 2022 Annie Award for Visual Art, Kuhne's honorees cited his longtime arts teaching and paintings of the local landscape: "He records the many moods of Anne Arundel County. The rivers, the land, the weather, the flora and fauna, all the while expressing his love for nature. His work is expressive and romantic, a joy with which to live. He is 80 years of age now. It's time for us to honor him with an Annie."
Bethesda Fine Art is proud to present #Corcoran1970s, an exhibition celebrating the circle of abstract artists who showed, taught, and were affiliated with the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1970s. The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an artistic center for Washington, D.C. artists, particularly abstractionists, during the 1970’s. Active in the Corcoran’s orbit were Washington Color School notables such as Leon Berkowitz, Cynthia Bickley-Green, Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam, Mimi Herbert, Dan Yellow Kuhne, Howard Mehring, Paul Reed, and Kenneth Young. While most showed in group shows, a select few, including Berkowitz, Davis, Mehring, Reed, and Young, had their own solo exhibitions.
Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. reviews #Corcoran1970s on East City Art.
