KEN COSGROVE SWAc
KEN COSGROVE
But what then is the value of the finished product? Maybe the value was in the journey, not the destination and the end expression is just the footprint.
I have great respect for the artists in history who influence my work., Halls, Ruben, Kollwitz. Yet I am equally influenced by contemporary artists who question disciplines of the past. Kline, Duchamp, Bacon. It is not the subject matter they paint that interests me but the intensity, the emotion they render in their work.
I find myself working to express that same emotion, joy or grief in the quality of a fine charcoal line or the sweep of a full brush. It has never seemed important to deliver answers, only to ask questions and contribute to the conversation.
An American native, Ken trained at Ringling School of Art and Design where he earned a BFA studying classical painting with Morris Mitchell and Loran Wilford. His early years as an abstract painter were influenced by the structural simplicity of the works of contemporary painters such as Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline. In recent years he is strongly influenced by the New York Ashcan School painters of the early 20th century, Robert Henri, George Bellows and Thomas Eakins, among others. Perhaps no artist has provided stronger influence than Kathe Kollwitz.
Ken has also explored his craft through graphic design and illustration. Clients have included The White House, Apple Computers, The National Air and Space Museum and The National Holocaust Memorial Museum, among others. His work has been exhibited nationally and regionally in permanent and private collections in the US and the UK.
CV available on request.