Nationality American Period Surrealism | Role Writer Name Kenn Davis | |
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Full Name Kenneth Allan Schmoker Born February 20, 1932 ( 1932-02-20 ) Salinas, California Movement Beat Generation, Surrealism, Mystery Died January 12, 2010, Roseville, California, United States Books The Dark Side, Words Can Kill, Blood of Poets, Bogart '48, Acts of Homicide, As October Dies, Nijinsky Is Dead Education City College of San Francisco, San Francisco Art Institute Nominations Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original | ||
Known for Painting, Mystery, Horror | ||
Kenn Davis (1932–2010) was an American surrealist painter and mystery novel writer. During the 1950s and 1960s he was associated with the Beat Generation at San Francisco's North Beach.
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Life and Education
Kenn Davis was born as Kenneth Allan Schmoker in Salinas, California. After his parents divorced, he moved with his mother and brother to San Francisco at age five. He attended grammar school in San Francisco. He went finger painting and to drawing classes on Saturdays at the San Francisco Museum of Art, today's San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. At age 10, at the beginning of WWII, Kenn and his brother attended a catholic boy school in Marin County, a boarding school. At the end of the war, Kenn and his brother moved back to their mother and step father, Henry Davis, who bought him his first easel. Kenn changed his surname to his step father's name. (His brother changed his name to Zekial Marko and became a mystery author under the name John Trinian.) Kenn attended City College of San Francisco before being drafted to the Korean War in 1952. He left the military in 1954 and returned to study art at the City College of San Francisco. In 1956 he transferred to the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1964, he was hired by the San Francisco Chronicle as photo retoucher and illustrator, a position from which he resigned in 1984.
Friendship with Richard Brautigan
Davis was a close friend of author Richard Brautigan, whom he met in 1956 or 1957. He designed the covers for two of Brautigan's poetry collections, The Galilee Hitch-Hiker (1958) and Lay the Marble Tea (1959). He also frequently sketched him together with others of the North Beach Beat scene. In 1959, Kenn Davis painted a portrait of Richard Brautigan in oil on linen, which also appeared on the cover on a collection of essays on Brautigan edited by John Barber. This book contains also many sketches by Kenn Davis.
Paintings
Davis was mostly a surrealist. Some of his paintings reflect critical analysis of society while others show introspection in human psychology. Some paintings still draw on material reality and thus could be classified under magic realism. The style of his surrealistic paintings show influence of European surrealists like Hieronymus Bosch. His earlier paintings of the 1950s and 1960s are darker both in color schemes and mood than his later paintings. The technique of his oil paintings at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s show influence of old masters. His later paintings often include a humorous or satirical detail. Kenn Davis first solo exhibition was at the Studio 44 Gallery in San Francisco in 1956. Davis' paintings were displayed at the Coffee Gallery in San Francisco.
Davis designed the book covers of Robert Bloch's Lost in Time and Space with Lefty Feep, edited by John Stanley, 1987, Creatures at Large Press, as well as Creature Features Strikes Again Movie Guide and Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide, both by John Stanley.
Books
Kenn Davis together with John Stanley is the creator of Carver Bascombe, a black Vietnam veteran with military police background who is a private investigator in San Francisco. This character first appeared in 1976 in the mystery novel The Dark Side that Kenn coauthored with John Stanley. Carver Bascombe appears in seven more mystery novels. Kenn Davis was an Edgar Award Nominee twice, once in 1977 for The Dark Side (with John Stanley) and again in 1985 for Words Can Kill.