Editor's note: The William D. Cannon Art Gallery
provided source material to Resource Library Magazine for the following
article. If you have questions or comments regarding the source material,
please contact the William D. Cannon Art Gallery directly through either
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Jacob Kass: Painted Saws
May 2 - June 25, 2004
The William D. Cannon
Art Gallery has the privilege to be the only venue west of the Mississippi
to host an 
exhibition on loan
from the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City. "Jacob Kass:
Painted Saws" features 65 paintings and 19 drawings. Jacob Kass (1910-2000)
painted on tools of all sizes and shapes -- handsaws, circular saws, ice
saws, coping saws, sickles, corn cutters, and carpenter's squares. The nostalgic,
anecdotal scenes of American life cover the sometimes turbulent years from
the early part of the 20th century through the 1980's, filtered through
the lens of the artist's imagination. (right: Jacob Kass, Painted
Saws)
Jacob Kass began his career as an artist following a five-decade
career as a master letterer and painter of commercial vehicles in Brooklyn.
After his retirement to Vershire, Vermont, he became interested in repairing,
decorating, and reselling furniture and accessories he bought at yard sales
and auctions. His early embellishments on milk cans and frying pans soon
gave way to decorations on saws and other cutting tools. Beginning with
a depiction of his Vermont house, he painted landscapes and scenes of his
New England surroundings, memories of his Brooklyn neighborhood, and idealized
scenes of Largo, Florida, where he spent winters with his wife.
Jacob Kass's panoramic paintings on saws and tools are
optimistic and reassuring in their sense of order; they reflect something
of the American spirit -- the values of work, leisure, community and the
blessing of nature. These painted vignettes serve as poignant reminders
of what appear as simpler, trouble-free times. It is ironic that Kass chose
potentially dangerous tools -- saws and sickles with jagged edges -- as
supports for his idealized paintings. But these old tools were available
at reasonable prices, and their varied shapes offered flat work surfaces
and asymmetry that provided compositional challenges. The blade has potential
for menace. But it also has power to harness natural forces to create a
better life -- in construction and agriculture, and through personal expression.
Kass saw work as a basic American value; many of his pictures focus on man
at work. His compelling painted tools have dignity and invite the viewer
to share his respect, awe and pleasure in the mystery of life.
Additional text concerning Jacob Kass: Painted Saws:
Jacob Kass's panoramic paintings on saws and tools depict
nostalgic, anecdotal scenes of American life. They are optimistic and reassuring
in their sense of order, they reflect something of the American spirit (the
values of work, leisure, community and the blessing of nature). These painted
vignettes -- largely benign landscape and cityscapes -- serve as poignant
reminders of what appear as simpler, trouble-free times. The images, however,
filtered through the lens of the artist's imagination, cover the sometimes
turbulent years from the early part of the 20th century through the 1980's.
Through his art, Kass -- a professional truck painter, designer, and letterer
long before he started painting on saws -- reflected a certain bucolic and
idealized image of 20th century America.
Jacob Kass earned his living as a painter and the manager
of a family business, but his satisfaction as a working artist truly began
after his retirement. It is curious but natural that he chose to continue
painting as a hobby following a five-decade career as a master letterer
and painter of commercial vehicles in Brooklyn. "When I retired at
age sixty-three," he wrote, "I didn't want to look at a paintbrush
again in my life." But he changed his mind after moving to Vershire,
Vermont, where he became interested in repairing, decorating, and reselling
furniture and accessories he bought at yard sales and auctions.
Kass's potrayals of America are broad and panoramic. His
bird's-eye scenes are reminiscent of 19th century landscapes and townscapes.
His compelling painted tools have dignity and invite the viewer to share
his respect, awe and pleasure in the mystery of life. Kass enjoyed his life
as an artist and continued to find pleasure in painting and the recognition
it brought. "In my retiring years," he wrote, "I am fulfilling
my lifelong ambition -- painting what I want for the pleasure of it and
not because I have to."
The William D. Cannon Art Gallery has the priviledge of
being one of three venues outside New York to host this exhibition, and
the only venue west of the Mississippi. (It showed in Arkansas and in Massachussetts)
Read more articles and essays concerning this institutional
source by visiting the sub-index page for the William
D. Cannon Art Gallery / Carlsbad City Library in Resource Library Magazine
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Copyright 2003, 2004 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.