Artists
Linda Le Kinff (1949–)
Linda Le Kinff was born in Paris in 1949 from French and Brazilian parents. She started her career as a painter at the age of 20. In the 1970s she traveled to India, Tibet, Mexico and Italy. She lived and worked in Italy for 12 years learning the ancient techniques of tempera, egg painting and the gold leaf method taught by masters in Florence and Livorno. She also served an apprenticeship in wood engraving, copper engraving, and excelled in learning the modern techniques of acrylic and airbrush painting.
In Paris in 1975 Le Kinff learned lithography, meeting the artists Brayer, Corneille and Lapique. In 1976 she met Okamoto Taro, the Japanese Picasso, who introduced her to the sand and sumi technique. In 1981 she spent six months in Morocco where she worked with Chabia, the poetess of the naive abstraction movement. Le Kinff returned to school in south Tyrol where she became interested in painted, polished and varnished woodwork, using a special material made of casein. She applied it to her paintings and continues to use this technique today, but still keeps the traditional approach of painting in acrylic on canvas, as well. She began to create serigraphs in the mid 1980s, and excels in the technique.
Le Kinff also expresses herself through watercolors or, more precisely, a mixing of greasy pastels, ink and watercolor. Recently she began to use collage. She works without a model and her inspiration comes from travel, her dreams, reading and her imagination. Her subjects are extremely diverse and include musical scenes, poetic interpretations of people caught in an intimate moment of their lives, and couples elegantly dressed, out for a night on the town. Her influences include the hidden sensuality of Braque, the masterful drawing of Matisse, the elegance of Modigliani and the precocious maturity of Egon Schiele, who died at the age of 28.
In 1998 Le Kinff was selected as the official World Cup Artist, and exhibited in the cities where the matches took place: Montpellier, Saint Denis, Mantes, Marseilles, Toulouse, and Lyon. For that distinction, she created a painting that was minted into a commemorative coin by the French Government, an honor never before offered to a living French artist. The medallion was exhibited at the prestigious museum, the Monnaie de Paris, where since the 15th century the French Nemaic and – since 1999 – the Euro were minted.
In 2002 Le Kinff participated in the "Exposition of Prestige," organized by the Ambassador of France in Japan, and her work was exhibited in museums and art foundations in Japanese cities, including: Tokyo-Bunkamura Museum; Nagoya-Tenjin Salaria Art Foundation; Osaka-Kirin Foundation; Fukuoka-Loft Gallery; and Yokohama-RedBrick-Warehouse.
In 2008, a catalog raisonné of Le Kinff's graphic works was published by Park West®, with an introduction by art historian, essayist, art critic and curator for several museums, Joseph Jacobs. Le Kinff was selected as the official artist for the 2010 Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks; she participated in the unveiling ceremony for the two artworks at the historic Kentucky racetrack, and her work appeared on posters, prints, tickets, racing programs and officially licensed product for the two famed races.
Linda Le Kinff at The Official Blog of Park West Gallery
