Morton Kaish

Morton Kaish is an American artist born in 1927 whose work integrates the abstract and the figurative. Kaish's paintings and prints have been exhibited by and included in the collections of major national and international museums: the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum, among others. In addition to his accomplishments as an artist, Kaish has had a successful career as a fashion illustrator.

Kaish's father immigrated from Romania to the U.S. and served in World War I, where he fought and was wounded in the Meuse Argonne Offensive before marrying and starting a family.

Kaish was born in Newark, NJ, grew up in Maplewood, NJ and attended Columbia High School. Kaish had an early affinity for drawing and painting, which was fostered by weekend trips to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. He accelerated his high school studies, graduating at the age of 16 in order to attend Syracuse University's College of Fine Arts. Syracuse's College of Fine Arts had developed a national reputation after becoming the first university fine arts program to grant degrees in the United States.

During Kaish's years at Syracuse, the College of Fine Arts underwent radical change. Midway through Kaish's course of study, the university's president, William Tolley, swept out the current art faculty—artists steeped in Realism who taught traditional techniques—and hired Norman Rice, former head of the Art Institute of Chicago, who ushered in an emphasis on Abstraction and contemporary approaches to art. Kaish was deeply influenced by these changes, as were classmates including Sol LeWitt.

When Kaish turned 18, he enlisted in the U.S. Maritime Service and put his studies on hold in order to serve in World War II. His first post was as base artist at the Sheepshead Bay Maritime Training Center, where Kaish painted officers' portraits. One of his works was on view and won an award at the annual art exhibition by Merchant Seamen of the United Nations, held in December 1945. After being moved to a new post, Kaish received an officer's commission and served on missions to Europe on the S.S. Laconia Victory and the S.S. Helen Hunt Jackson.

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