Home / About Ivan Kende

Fleeing Communist ruled Hungary, the Kende family arrived in the U.S.A., in late 1956. Ten years old, restless from a very long plane ride, Ivan Kende made a sketch that first night in a small notebook he received enroute as a gift. He has been drawing ever since.
During his teen years, he had the good fortune to be enrolled in figure drawing classes at “The Art Students’ League”, in N.Y. City. In his twenties and thirties, he practiced figurative painting with oils and taught himself several forms of leather craft. He switched to Acrylics in the early 1990’s. Practicing a precisely textured technique, he explored formal compositions and also developed an extensive series of delicate Conté drawings on paper, both depicting ethereal subjects.
Around 2004, a moment of absentminded musing with leather scraps, prompted a sculpture series. A complete system of fabrication revealed its self as the inherently primal nature of the material fused seamelessly with a construction technique he invented in his earlier years. That this was an artform that could fully express visually his interest in metaphysical concepts was confirmed as he delved into African tribal masks. All none-perspective based art traditions became a reservoir. The magical beauty of the Neolithic paintings in the Lascaux and Altamira caves inspired the last step to completely embracing a more primitive, symbolic approach to image making. The coarse, tactile feel of their pigments on rough cave surfaces was the final ingridient. His original, delicate, Conté drawings on textured paper, transformed into large, gritty, pastel drawings on canvas.
Since then, ancient art forms, metaphysical themes and wisdom traditions have become the source as well as the intent of his imagery.

Solo Exhibitions
- 2021 Flatlanders Gallery, Blissfield, MI
- 2017 Art on Madison, Lakewood, OH
- 2012 River House Arts, Toledo, OH
- 2010 Flatlanders, Blissfield, MI
- 2006 The Tom James Gallery, Northville, MI
- 2005 Turkaly Gallery, Cleveland, OH
- 2005 Chelsea Gallery, Chelsea,MI
- 2002 Toledo Museum of Art Westgate Gallery, Toledo, OH
- 2001 Chelsea Gallery, Chelsea, MI
- 2001 Pierre Paul Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
- 1998 Yribar Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
Selected Group Exhibits
- 2011 Flatlanders Gallery, Blissfield, MI
- 2010 Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH “Art Inspires Art”
- 2010 River House Arts, Toledo, OH
- 2008 Paoli House Gallery, Madison, WI
- 2007 Parkwood Gallery, Toledo, OH
- 2007 Secor Gallery, Toledo, OH
- 2004 Turkaly Gallery, Cleveland, OH
- 2002 TAA Exhibit, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
- 2000 Caelum Gallery / Hiroshima, Japan
- 2000 Pierre Paul Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
- 1999 Claire Spitler Works of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
- 1998 Caelum Gallery, New York, N.Y.
Education
- 1960 – 64 Art Students’ League, New York, N.Y.
Gallery representation
Flatlanders Gallery
September 7, – October 30, 2021