The strength and vitality of Denver artist Paul Kontny’s work reflected his passion for life and the inspiration he found in his environment. A native of Poland’s Upper Silesia region happy to have escaped death during World War II, he relished the opportunity to paint and sculpt those subjects that fascinated him. He took images from the visual world and recast them in works ranging from the representational to the abstract and never ceased to evolve in a career that spanned more than fifty years.
Kontny’s creative output—works on paper, sculptures, and oils done in his signature marble dust technique—derived from his keen observation of people and the world around him, whether in Europe or on his trips to North Africa, Central and South America, and the Pacific or later in the United States and Mexico.
Paul Kontny: A Modern Artist in Europe and America is rich in the history of early twentieth-century Poland and the plight of soldiers conscripted into the German army—and the life of an architect dedicated to helping rebuild and then embarking on a transcontinental life as an artist. The book includes photographs and images of Kontny’s life and travels, input from friends, collectors, and family, and more than 100 color reproductions of his striking and varied works.
Learn more about Kontny and his work on display at Kirkland Museum.
About the Author
Stan Cuba, a graduate of Columbia University in New York, is associate consulting curator (and former associate curator) of the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art in Denver. In addition to curating and writing catalogs for many exhibits of regional art, he has written John F. Carlson and Artists of the Broadmoor Academy, Sandzén in Colorado, The Denver Artists Guild—Its Founding Members: An Illustrated History, and coauthored The Art of Charles Partridge Adams, The Colorado Book, Pikes Peak Vision: The Broadmoor Art Academy, 1919–1945, and Celebrating the Broadmoor Art Academy and Its Legacy 1919-1970.
Published by University Press of Colorado in association with Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art.
Details
Published: March 2023
Pages: 316
Illustrations: 316 color, 77 b&w