Untitled (partial portrait)

Walter Egel Kuhlman

Walt Kuhlman’s work often meditated on the human condition, using veiled symbolism as a means of portraying our concern with death, isolation, and the unknown. His time in the Navy during World War II likely had a great impact on his subject matter, and in 1949 the chaos of war was still fresh in the minds of many former soldiers, including Kuhlman, who studied art on the G.I. bill upon his return.

This mixed media drawing focuses on a head, rising out of a mist, surrounded by a gray foreground, a vision of an afterlife? Emerging or sinking? Birth or death? The image brings to mind the enigmatic works of Redon and, more closely to home, Nathan Olivieras's mystical portraits.

Walter Egel Kuhlman was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on November 11, 1918. Between 1936 and 1939, he attended the Saint Paul School of Fine Art in Minnesota where he was a student of Cameron Booth. In 1941, he received his B.A. from the University of Minnesota. Following a solo exhibition at the Walker Art Center in 1940, Kuhlman joined the faculty of the St. Paul School of Art. Within two years, however, he was drafted into the U.S. Navy. Moving to San Francisco in 1947, he enrolled in the California School of Fine Arts under the GI Bill, Kuhlman studied at the school until 1950 and during that time he was a member of the abstract expressionist group the Sausalito Six. He also studied at Tulane University and, in 1950, at the Acadamie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. In 1951, his work was included in the Salon des Realities Nouvelles at the Petit Palais in Paris.

Kuhlman's teaching career began in 1956 when he joined the faculty of the California School of Fine Arts. He also taught at Stanford University, Santa Clara University, Arizona University, New Mexico University, University of Michigan and the National Academy of Design in 1995. Recognition of his work includes fellowships from the Tiffany Foundation, the Cummington Foundation and the Graham Foundation, and, in 1982, the California Arts Council presented him with the Outstanding California Working Artist and Teacher award.