Ken
Showell
died in 1997 at the age of fifty-eight. The Folded Painting Series
were shown at the David Whitney Gallery in 1969-70. Ken supposedly destroyed
most of these folded paintings and left only his landscapes (mosty of
Central Park) and his still lifes. He was best known for his abstractions.
Ken
Showell photographed my paintings for years. He was one of the most
amiable men I ever met in the art world, and one of the most discreet.
He never gossiped about his customers, partly because he saw everyone
as a friend. He was self-effacing to a fault, so I was surprised,
at first, by the transparencies of his paintings that he began to
show me in later years. He was a true, even luscious painter, maybe
not great or whatever, but solid and he had a quintessential touch,
a natural painterliness and, forgive me, a modesty before nature that
I envied. He was once an abstract painter but figuration served his
eye, his touch and his sweetness best, acknowledging his limits, he
was also wise. He could not have made a fortune, I have learned since
his death, given his reasonable prices. In fact he never changed them
as far as I can recall. He did this I think because he wanted to keep
the company of artists and not impose. He tried always to be the bearer
of good news, I never heard him complain, even on the day he went
to the hospital and I happened to call. He was one of the good guys.
Sidney
Tillim , September 5, 1997
