July 15, 1904 – January 10, 1994.

Art dealer, museum curator, art consultant, and art writer.

Born Katharine Woolf and raised in Chicago, Katharine graduated from Vasser College in 1925, and then obtained her Masters Degree in Art History at University of Chicago in 1929. She moved to New York to pursue her Ph.D. at New York University.

She married George Kuh in 1930, but they divorced in 1935, the same year in which she opened the Katharine Kuh Gallery in Chicago. She was a pioneer of modern art, showing such artists as Klee, Miro, Ansel Adams, Picasso, and Kandinsky to the Chicago public.

The Katharine Kuh Gallery closed in 1943 at which point she joined the staff of the Art Institute. From 1944 until 1959 she occupied various positions at the Art Institute. In 1954 she was named the first curator of Modern Painting and Sculpture.

One of her most defining accomplishments took place in 1956, when Kuh curated and directed the exhibition "American Artists Paint the City," held in the American Pavilion during the 28th Venice Biennale. A showcase for the best and brightest modernist talent, the exhibition united paintings by early 20th century realists and abstract expressionists. Kuh's contribution to the tremendous success of this international event was not properly credited to her for many years, in her opinion due to the fact that she was a woman.

A visionary and forward thinking curator and art historian, critic and advisor, Kuh was Art Editor of Saturday Review from 1968 until 1978, Art Consultant for the 1st National Bank of Chicago, author of several books including The Artists Voice, The Open Eye, and Break-Up: the Core of Modern Art.

Katharine Kuh died in New York in 1994 at age 89. In her bequest she left many works from her private art collection to the Art Institute, including Will Barnet's "Homage to Leger with K.K. [Katharine Kuh]," 1982, currently on display in the reading room of the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute.

1. Katharine Kuh, My Love Affair with Modern Art: behind the scenes with a legendary curator, edited and completed by Avis Berman. New York: Arcade Publishing Inc., 2006.
2. Katharine Kuh, Queen Elizabeth 2nd and Prince Phillip. Art Institute of Chicago, July 6th, 1959.
3. Katharine Kuh. Lewellyn Studio Ltd. Chicago, May, 1951.
4. Katharine Kuh, Art Has Many Faces, the Nature of Art Presented Visually. New York: Harper Brothers, 1951 [p.1 of 2].
5. Katharine Kuh, Art Has Many Faces, the Nature of Art Presented Visually. New York: Harper Brothers, 1951 [p.2 of 2].
6. Nancy Malloy and Avis Berman, Katharine Kuh: Interpreting the New. New York: Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution, 1994 [p.1 of 2].
7. Nancy Malloy and Avis Berman, Katharine Kuh: Interpreting the New. New York: Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution, 1994 [p.2 of 2].
8. Katharine Kuh with Marcel Duchamp. Lewellyn Studio Ltd. Chicago, May, 1951.