Frederick Kann | |
Birth Date: | May 25, 1886 |
Birth Place: | Gablonz, Czechoslovakia |
Death Place: | Los Angeles, California |
Nationality: | American (b. Czechoslovakia) |
Education: | Czech Technical University in Prague, Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich |
Field: | Painting, Educator |
Movement: | Abstract Expressionism |
Frederick Kann (1886–1965) was an American painter and founding member of the American Abstract Artists.
Kann was born on May 25, 1886, in Gablonz, Bohemia (then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire). He studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague, the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague and the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.[1] In 1920 he moved to New York where he worked as a commercial artist. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen the same year.[2] He then moved to Paris, returning to the United States in 1936 to begin his teaching career at the Kansas City Art Institute.[1]
He was a cofounder of the American Abstract Artists in 1936.[3] In 1939 his work was included in the Galerie Charpentier's exhibition Realites Nouvelles Renaissance Plastique.[1]
In 1943 Kann moved to Los Angeles.[4] There he worked to promote Abstract artists' work by establishing the Circle Gallery, and co-found the Modern Institute of Art.[5] [4] In 1953 he started the Kann Institute of Art.[1]
He died on July 6, 1965, in Los Angeles, California.[1]