Edward Kienholz
Artist

Edward Kienholz in 1958. Image courtesy of Marvin Silver and Craig Krull Gallery. © Marvin Silver
Edward Kienholz (1927-1994) was born in Washington State and spent his youth on his family’s farm. His early skills in carpentry, metalwork, and auto repair would later shape his unique artistic vision. After spending seven years on the road, Kienholz moved to Los Angeles in 1952 and three years later opened his first gallery at the Coronet Theater in an effort to foster Los Angeles’s artistic community. In 1957 Kienholz and Walter Hopps started the now-famous Ferus Gallery and, in 1960, Kienholz had his first solo exhibition there. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he produced large-scale tableaux from assembled and constructed objects that sharply criticized the politics of the period. View a period film on the Internet Archive: Kienholz on Exhibit is a short film about Edward Kienholz directed by June Steel in 1969.
Works of Art
-
Walter Hopps Hopps Hopps, 1959, Edward Kienholz. Paint and resin on wood, printed color reproductions, ink on paper, vertebrae, telephone parts, candy, dental molds, metal, pencil, and leather. 87 x 42 x 21 in. The Menil Collection, Houston, Gift of Lannan Foundation. © Nancy Reddin Kienholz. Photo: Susan Einstein