Thomas mcknight artist biography

Born in 1941 in Lawrence, Kansas, Thomas McKnight grew up in the suburbs of Montreal, New York, and Washington, D.C. After receiving his Bachelor's Degree from Wesleyan University, he studied art history at Columbia University.
Thomas McKnight (born 1941) is an American artist.
Thomas McKnight was born in Lawrence, Kansas and grew up in the suburbs of Montreal, New York and Washington, D.C. He graduated from Wesleyan University and.

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Thomas McKnight

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Thomas McKnight is an artist somewhat out of sync with his times. Born in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1941, by generation he should have been an early pop artist or a late neo-expressionist. But he came of age artistically during the 1970s, when art had practically done itself in with minimalism and conceptual experimentation. His work, full of color and image, seems to be a reaction to that gray decade.

McKnight discovered art at about thirteen when his mother gave him a set of oil paints, and his first painting--a snowy castle on a hill--was not unlike some of those he still creates. When he was sixteen, McKnight's choice of career was confirmed by the famous designer and art director of Harper's Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch, who told him that he "had it."

After growing up in various suburbs of Washington, D.C., Montreal, and New York, he attended Wesleyan University, a small liberal arts college in Middletown, Connecticut, where he was one of only five art majors. Perhaps this fostered his independent, even eccentric, approach to the art "isms"

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Thomas McKnight Bio

Thomas McKnight, American (1941 - )

Thomas McKnight was born in Lawrence, Kansas and grew up in the suburbs of Montreal, New York and Washington, D.C. He graduated from Wesleyan University and studied Art History at Columbia University. After serving in the Army in Korea, he worked for Time Magazine.

Since devoting himself to painting full time in 1972, he has had over 400 one-,an shows in the US, Europe and Japan. His works are in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York; the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and the New British Museum of Art in Connecticut.

In 1988 his print "Constitution was chosen as the official image of the US Constitution Bicentennial. It now hangs in the White House solarium. He also produced the Presidential Christmas card in 1995, 1995 and 1996.

Seven books of McKnight's art have been published (two in Japan). He was commissioned by the city of Kobe, Japan, in 1993 to create a series of paintings to serve as the centerpiece for two-year celebration of it's tricentennial. This was accompanied by a retrospecti

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The worldwide appeal of Thomas McKnight's prints, paintings, and posters place him in an elite group of contemporary artists whose work can be instantly recognizable as his own. Be it a carnival in Venice, a sun-drenched street in Greece, a cozy well -furnished room, a tropical beach, or a mythological scene, McKnight's images invite you to experience the unfettered joy of living.

"I try to integrate what is real about a place or thing with its underlying truth - that is, it's invisible soul," muses the artist. "In the process, I try to create symbolic reality that can serve was a catalyst for emotions - nostalgia, joy, the sadness of time passing." According to noted New York Times critic Gene Thornton, McKnight's work presents "vision of earthly happiness that are almost celestial. It is the vision of earthly paradise that exists in the here and now."

Born in 1941 in Lawrence, Kansas, Thomas McKnight grew up in the suburbs of Montreal, New York, and Washington, D.C. After receiving his Bachelor's Degree from Wesleyan University, he studied art history at Columbia University. H