William R. Kohn, professor emeritus in the School of Art, died Saturday, Nov. 13, 2004, of cancer at his home in St. Louis. He was 73.
A native of University City, Kohn was one of St. Louis’ most respected painters, known for large, colorful landscapes based on his travels around the world. Subjects over the years ranged from the small towns of Andalusia to Chicago city-scapes; Grand Canyon rock formations; the pyramids in Oaxaca, Mexico; the sandstone fortress of Jaisalmer, in India’s Thar Desert; and, most recently, Filippo Brunelleschi’s famous cathedral, the Duomo, in Florence, Italy.
Kohn typically sketched on-site then later adjusted and collaged those first impressions into final compositions.
“I can move mountains, and I have,” he quipped to the Record in 2002, on the occasion of a retrospective of his work at the Des Lee Gallery. “I want the abstract qualities to be as strong as they can, but without losing a sense of place. … It’s a matter of incorporating many, many points of view — up above and down below, through streets, from near and far.”
Kohn earned a bachelor’s degree in painting from Washington University in 1953 and studied printmaking in Paris with master printmaker Stanley Hayter.
The following year, he returned to Europe with the U.S. Army, afterward studying Spanish in Mexico City and earning a master of arts degree from Mills College in Oakland, Calif. He joined the School of Art faculty in 1963.
Kohn’s work is included in numerous public and private collections, and has been featured in one-person shows at the Saint Louis Art Museum, the University of Baroda in India and The Alcazar in Seville, Spain, among many others.
In 2002, he received the Missouri Arts Award, the state’s highest honor for achievement in the arts.
Kohn is survived by his mother, Dorothy Feinstein; his wife of 44 years, Patricia Kohn; a son, Joshua Kohn; a daughter, Sophie Kohn; and a brother, Robert Kohn, all of St. Louis.
Kohn donated his body to the Washington University School of Medicine and its Memory and Aging Project.
There will be no funeral service.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Bill Kohn Scholarship, Washington University School of Art, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130.