Linda LeKinff
1949-
Linda LeKinff was born in Paris from French and Brazilian parents. She
started her career as a painter at the age of 20. In the 1970`s she traveled
to India, Tibet, Mexico and Italy. She lived and worked in Italy for twelve
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 she 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. She 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 original
serigraphs in the mid 1980`s and uses this technique exclusively in the
creation of her original graphic works. She also creates hand-embellished
versions of her serigraphs on canvas and wood, and spends countless
hours re-visiting each example to extract new artistic possibilities from every
individual image.
LeKinff 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, LeKinff was selected as the official World Cup Artist. 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. In 2002 LeKinff 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;
Yokohama-RedBrick-Warehouse.
Recent Museum acquisitions include: Jeju Island, Korea; Moulin de Villedoin
Velles, France; La Maison de Van Gogh, Auvers sur Oise, France; Musee
de Montmartre, Paris, France.
In 2005, Linda LeKinff participated in the following group shows in France:
Salon Violet; Salon d'autumn; Salon des Artistes Francais; Salon des Beaux
Arts; Salon Comparaison.