Leo Kenney, a Retrospective

by Sheila Farr

"Now for the first time, the full range of Kenney's extraordinary oeuvre is revealed in this catalog of his year 2000 retrospective at the Museum of Northwest Art. "Celebrating the Mysteries," which spans nearly fifty years, shows the systematic, disciplined progression of an artist whose work developed in synchronicity with the spirit of the times and, in the end, transcended it. From his dark early paintings executed under the sway of Andre Breton's theory of "psychic automatism" to the radiant mandala paintings of the 1960s to the final series of shimmering "geometrics," the works strike variations on a theme. Kenney paints the dualities of human nature, the vastness of the universe, and the microcosm of life on earth - in a spectrum of color as dazzling as any jewel. With a foreword by MoNA curator, Barbara Straker James, and comprehensive essay by poet and art critic Sheila Farr, this book establishes Kenney's rightful place in the history of Northwest painting."--BOOK JACKET.