Luise Clayborn Kaish was a key figure in the New York art scene of the late 20th century. Her multidisciplinary and process-oriented practice contributed to various artistic discourses at the time. The strength and breadth of her work, her influential role in education, and the prestigious awards she received in recognition of her practice set her apart as an early female leader in the arts. Kaish was Chair of Columbia University’s painting and sculpture division (1980-86), one of the first women to receive the Rome Prize Fellowship (1970-72), and a participant in pioneering shows such as the Sculpture Center’s “Women Welders” (1953), which highlighted women’s contributions to the welding process.
Kaish was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1925. After earning a BFA from Syracuse University in 1946, she won a grant to study in Mexico City, Mexico. She then returned to Syracuse to obtain an MFA under the mentorship of sculptor Ivan Meštrović. While a student, Kaish received her first major commission from Syracuse University for which she created the Saltine Warrior (1951), a bronze rendition of the university’s symbol at the time. Kaish’s work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, in which she was one of only a few women, including: “American Sculpture 1951”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1951); “Recent Sculpture U.S.A.”, the Museum of Modern Art (1959); annuals at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1962, 1964); “Luise Kaish, Sculpture” (retrospective), The Jewish Museum (1973); and “Luise Kaish, Recent Collages”, Staempfli Gallery, NY, 1981.
Kaish had a lifelong interest in the spiritual and metaphysical. This interest became a resonating theme throughout her practice, manifesting itself through both abstraction and figuration. In addition, Kaish paid homage to a broad range of natural, cultural, and philosophical allusions—from the Old Testament, Jewish history, and Kabbalah mysticism to the cosmos and the environment. Kaish’s sensitivity to human experience and expression allows her work to go beyond its aesthetic appeal, to addressing wider themes of spirituality, representation, process, figuration, and storytelling that remain relevant for new audiences today.
Her estate and legacy is maintained by the Kaish Family Art Project. Established in 2016, the Kaish Family Art Project is an artist-endowed organization dedicated to the preservation, display, scholarship advancement, and research of the work of Luise and her husband, the artist Morton Kaish. Its holdings include an extensive selection of artworks by both Kaishes as well as original papers and materials pertaining to their lives and work.
