1913

Kenneth Campbell born in West Medford, Massachusetts, on April 14, 1913, the first anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Second son of Bertha Ryder Campbell (1881-1956) and Alphonse S. Campbell (1878-1941), an inventor and industrialist.

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Bertha Ryder Campbell’s parents died when she was young, and she was raised by her grandmother. Her family claimed to be related to the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder.

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Alphonse S. Campbell was the seventh son of a seventh son. His grandfather, William Campbell was born in Lymington England in 1794, was pressed into service, jumped ship, and settled in Boothbay Maine. His father, Alpheus Campbell (1829-1888), was a seaman and married Angeline Greenleaf (1838-1883), a cousin of John Greenleaf Whittier. Alpheus Campbell was lost at sea, as was his son Charles W. Campbell (1869-1906). Alphonse S. Campbell died on a trans-Atlantic cruise. Kenneth Campbell believed that men in his family were destined to die at sea, and remembered, in the Episcopal Hymnal, the prayers for those lost at sea.

1919-33

Kenneth Campbell attends public schools and is active in the Boy Scouts. Graduates from Winchester High School, Winchester, Massachusetts. A member of the high school track team, and also attends painting classes with his mother.

1933-37

Enters Massachusetts College Of Art (Boston) as a special student. Studies painting with Ernest Major, Richard Andrews, William Porter, and John Whorf.

1937

Moves to New York and lives on west 55th Street. Studies painting at The Art Student's League in the mornings (with Arthur Lee, Vaclav Vytlicil) and at The National Academy Of Design in the afternoons (with Gifford Beal, Sidney Dickinson, Leon Kroll) (1937­-40). Works at 1937 World's Fair, where he meets Eleanor Roosevelt.

1938-39

Receives Hallegarten Award for Painting from the Nude (1938) and Saltus Silver Medal for Portraiture (1939) at National Academy of Design.

1940-45

Lives in Boston, where he studies engineering part-time at The Franklin Institute, The Boston Trade School, and The Lowell Institute (Cambridge). Employed in Boston and Cambridge as a tool maker, experimental machinist and mechanical designer for The Polaroid Corporation, The Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory, White Research Associates (1376 Beacon Street, Boston), and his father's firm, A. S. Campbell Company (East Boston 28, Massachusetts).

1944-45

Buys and remodels 5 Otis Place, where he establishes The Studio Five School of Creative Painting, continued in Boston until 1949 and in Provincetown during the summers from 1948 through 1952. Architect for the renovation of the Boston building is Robert Coolidge (d. 1955), a student of Walter Gropius.

1947

Painting, Invention in Color Shapes, awarded First Prize for Modern Abstraction, Painters and Sculptors Society of New Jersey Annual Exhibition, Jersey City Museum. 

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One person exhibition of paintings at Smith Gallery, Boston.

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Group shows: Winchester Art Association, North Shore Art As­sociation (Rockport, Massachusetts), Provincetown Art Associa­tion, Fitchburg (Massachusetts) Art Center.

1948-49

Sells 5 Otis Place. Acquires studio at 11 Brewster Street, Provincetown, Massachusetts.

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Actively associated with Myron Stout, Jim Forsberg, Bruce McKain, Philip Malicoat, Nat Halper, Hans Hofmann, Leo Manso, Adolph Gottlieb, Jack Tworkov. Particularly influenced by discussions with Karl Knaths.

1948

Meets Baroness von Rebay and shows in group exhibitions in New York at Museum of Non-Objective Art, now the Gug­genheim Museum (1948-52). 

1949

Painting, Overture to The Fire God, awarded Modern Jury Award Prize and Gold Medal. 20th Annual Exhibition of New England Artists, Boston.

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Second Award for Painting, Birth of Phoenix, in New England Painting and Sculpture 1949, a traveling ex­hibition organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. 

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One person exhibition (paintings) at Norlyst Gallery, New York City. 

1949-51

Instructor of Drawing, Painting, and Art History at The Erskine School, Boston. 

1950

Paintings in group shows at Cape Cod Art Association (Hyannis, Massachusetts), and Margaret Brown Gallery (Boston).

1952-60

Free-lance industrial designer and model maker.

1952

Group shows: Museum of Non-Objective Art, Gallery 256 (Commercial St., Provincetown), "Cape Cod Moderns" (Den­nis Art Center, Dennis, Massachusetts), and Cape Cod Art Exhibi­tion (Hyannis, Massachusetts).

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Begins carving wood (c. 1952-53), using large pieces of driftwood found in Provincetown on the outer shore. First wood carving is Maya. Later (c. 1954), begins carving marble salvaged from demolition of old buildings.

1953

Work shown at Gallery 256. 

1954

One person exhibition at Artists' Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts.

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Group show: Provincetown Art Association.

1955

Work shown at Nat Halpert Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts. 

1956

Establishes permanent residence in New York City. Begins to devote himself entirely to sculpture. Through recommendation of Philip Pavia, becomes a member of "The Club," which meets for a time in his loft, and an active part of the avant-garde centering around Tenth Street. Also active in The Sculptor's Group, which includes Louise Nevelson, David Smith, George Sugarman, Abe Schlemowitz, and other artists.

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Group shows: Annual Exhibition, Stable Gallery. 

1957

Group shows: Lower East Side Neighborhood Association Exhibitions.

1958

Group shows: James Gallery, Terrain Gallery, Lower East Side Neighborhood Association. 

1959

Group shows: Willard Lucien Gallery; Grand Central Moderns. 

1960

One person exhibition of sculpture at Camino Gallery.

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Group shows: Stable Gallery (New Sculpture Group), and Willard Lucien Gallery.

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Wing Seed included in Sculpture Annual, The Whitney Museum of American Art. 

1961-63

Instructor of Sculpture at Silvermine College of Art, New Canaan, Conn.

1962

One person exhibition of sculpture at Grand Central Moderns.

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Ceres shown in Sculpture Annual at The Whitney Museum of American Art, and museum purchases pieces with purchase award from Ford Foundation. Ceres subsequently transferred to collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Schulhof, and Whitney purchases Birth of Spring.

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Harold Rosenberg selects Jet Flight and Flying Cloud for Longview Foundation Purchase Awards, both from show at Grand Central Moderns.

Longview Foundation donates Jet Flight to Dillard University and Flying Cloud to Kalamazoo Art Institute.

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Group shows: Tanager Gallery, Brata Gal­lery, Camino Gallery.

1963

Second one person exhibition of sculpture at Grand Central Moderns.

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To Windward (1960) selected by Lloyd Goodrich to receive First Prize for Sculpture at Fourteenth Annual New England Exhibition, The Silvermine Guild. 

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Group shows: Fourteenth Annual New England Exhibition (Silvermine Guild), Sculptor's Guild Exhibition (Lever House), Sculpture Exhibition at St. Marks on the Bouerie, faculty exhibition at Silvermine College of Art.

1963-66

Instructor of Sculpture at Queens College of the City University of New York. Teaches sculpture, three-dimensional design, drawing, and survey of Art History.

1964

Ford Foundation Purchase Award for The Door, stone carv­ing shown in 67th Annual American Exhibition (Directions in Contemporary Painting and Sculpture) at the Art Institute of Chicago (opening Feb. 27).

Ford Foundation donates The Door to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. 

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Popeye included in Sculpture Annual, The Whitney Museum of American Art. 

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Work shown in Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculp­ture, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

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One person exhibition of sculpture at Paul Clapper Library Art Center, Queens College. 

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Work shown at New York World's Fair in American Art Today (Fine Arts Pavilion of Contemporary American Art).

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Group Shows: Park Bernet Gallery (summer exhibition); Audubon Artists; Silvermine Guild (Annual New England Exhibition); Sculptor's Guild (Lever House). 

1965-66

Awarded Fellowship for Creative Sculpture, John Simon Guggen­heim Memorial Foundation. 

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Accordian Envelope receives Richard Davis Memorial Award for Sculpture; 23rd Annual Exhibition of Audubon Art­ists, New York.

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Thunder Cloud shown at University of Illinois at Urbana (Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture).

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Group shows: The Whitney Museum of American Art (New Acquisitions); Sculptors Guild Annual Exhibition (Lever House).

1966

Does not receive tenure at Queens College. Takes position as Artist in Residence, University of Kentucky at Lexington (1966­-67). 

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Work shown in Century of American Sculpture, The Whitney Museum of American Art.

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Persephone Returns shown in Annual Exhibition of Sculp­ture and Prints, Whitney Museum of American Art (Dec. 16, 1966-Feb. 5, 1967). 

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Birth of Spring shown in Art of the United States: 1670-1966 (Whitney Museum of American Art).

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One person exhibition of sculpture at Grand Central Moderns.

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Group shows: Art on Paper, (University of North Carolina at Greensboro); Sculptor's Guild Exhibition (Lever house); University of Kentucky (The Media of Art: Now).

Gives stone carving demo in conjunction with Sculptor's Guild Exhibition.

1967

Retrospective Exhibition of sculpture, Stone on Stone, University of Kentucky, Lexington (January 8-February 19). 

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Visiting Professor of Sculpture, University of Rhode Is­land at Kingston, (summer).

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Work shown in Egan Gallery Group Show. 

1968

Invited as participant in International Sculpture Sym­posium at Proctor, Vermont. Project partially funded by The National Endowment for the Arts, The Vermont State Council on the Arts, and The Vermont Marble Company.

Begins Night and Day, which is subsequently (1972) moved to Maryland Park and placed on ten-year loan to The University of Maryland at College Park. 

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Work shown in Sculpture Annual at The Whitney Museum of American Art. 

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Group shows: Eagan Gallery, Sculptor's Guild Annual Ex­hibition (Lever House). 

1968-72

Teaches graduate and undergraduate stone carving classes at Columbia University.

1968-83

Teaches stone carving at University of Maryland. Lec­turer 1968-71, Associate Professor 1971-79, Professor 1979-83. 

1969

Invited as participant in International Sculpture Sym­posium, Symposium Europaischer Bildhauer, at St. Mar­garethan, Austria. Stays for three months, and carves Venusberg II, which remains on loan to Symposium. Travels through Czechoslovakia and Poland before returning to New York.

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Invited by Myron Stout to lecture at Fine Arts Work Cen­ter, Provincetown (24 Pearl Street). Gives slide talk on work, and on stacking and laminating processes.

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Work shown at Sculptor's Guild Exhibition (Lever House), and Columbia University Arts Faculty Exhibition.

1970

Recipient of Award in Art from The American Academy of Arts and Letters and The National Institute of Arts and Letters (May 26).

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Invited as a participant in Internationales Bilhauersymposion: Skulpturenfeld am Federsee, (Inter­national Sculpture Symposium: Sculpture Field at the Federsee). This takes place at Oggleshausen am Federsee, about a two-hour drive from Stuttgart, Germany.

Symposium organized under the auspices of the association Bemuhungen ("Endeavor") by Austrian stone carver Karl Prantl and German collector Gustav Laib (June 27-August 26). Campbell works at quarry with local Jurassic limestone and carves Venus of Federsee. Subsequently travels through Hungary.

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Group shows: Egan Gallery; View Points 4 (Dana Art Center at Colgate University, Hamilton New York); Sculptor's Guild Exhibition (Lever House).

1971

Work included in group shows at Egan Gallery, and Sculptor's Guild Exhibition (Lever House). 

1972

One person exhibition of sculpture at Landmark Gallery. 

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Group shows: Landmark Gallery Invitational Exhibition, University of Maryland Art Gallery, Sculptor's Guild ex­hibition in Bryant Park. Carves piece in Bryant Park and meets John Lindsay.

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Night and Day moved from Vermont by University of Maryland, and installed on campus at College Park. Placed on ten-year loan to university, and the loan is later extended.

1973

Work included in Landmark Gallery Invitational Exhibition. 

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Pyramus and Thisbe (14' h.) acquired by Wilfred Cohen collection.

1974

Honorable Mention, National Sculpture Competition, Society of the Four Arts. Palm Beach, Florida.

1975

Work shown in New York Cultural Center, Exhibition of National Sculpture Competition, Society of The Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida (October).

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Work shown in Landmark Gallery Invitational Exhibition. 

1976

Keynote speaker at Ninth International Sculpture Conference, Tulane University, New Orleans. Delivers paper, "Stone on Stone," and slide presentation. "Stone on Stone" published in conference Proceedings.

1977

Work included in group show, Perspective 1977 (Freedman Art Gallery, Albright College. Reading, Pennsylvania.)

1978

One person exhibition of sculpture at Andre Zarre Gallery. 

1979

Trustee of International Sculpture Symposium of Bal­timore Inc., a non-profit corporation funded through a grant from The Baltimore Parks and Recreation Department. Symposium held at the Shot Tower Site in Baltimore. Participating sculptors: Gerard Howler (Amsterdam), Hiroshi Mikami, (Japan), Will Bennett and Robert du Bourg (United States).

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Work shown in Tenth Street Days, The Co-Ops of the 1950's, Amos Eno Gallery. Traveling exhibition research­ed and organized by Joellen Bard in cooperation with the Pleiades Gallery and the Association of Artist Run Gal­leries.

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Group shows: Andre Zarre Gallery, University of Maryland Art Gallery ("On-Site" and faculty exhibitions), Foundry Gallery (Washington, D. C.), Landmark Gallery (Tenth Street Today and Invitational Exhibitions).

1980

Two-person exhibition with Julius Schmidt, Gallery K, Washington D.C., (May 20-June 21).

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Organizer of Eleventh International Sculpture Con­ference, Washington, D.C., June 1-10. Conducts stone carving workshop and demonstration at University of Maryland Art Department and in Washington.

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Work shown in Discovery—Rediscovery, exhibition curated by April Kingsley and Kathleen Goucheroff (Sculpture Center Gallery, December).

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Work shown in Sculpture Today: Traditional and Non­Traditional. Curated by James Reid, University of Maryland Art Gallery, (May 9-June 10).

1981

One person exhibition at Sculpture Center Gallery (April 21-May 13).

1983

Awarded grant for creative sculpture by University of Maryland Division of Arts and Humanities (spring semester 1983). 

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Dedication ceremony at site of Night and Day: A Meeting Place. Keynote Speaker, Chancellor John B. Slaughter, University of Maryland at College Park, May 11. 

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Reaches mandatory retirement age and leaves teaching position at University of Maryland. 

1984

Invited to sculpture symposium, Beli Vencac: Mermer I Zvuci, and given assistants who work with him. Creates sculpture, Eternal Light of Arandjelovac, for Bukovicka Banja Sculpture Park, Arandjelovac, Yugoslavia (August-Oct.). Visits Egypt and photographs Luxor.

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Works in bronze, casting from stone pieces. Four cast­ings in Yugoslavia; subsequently works at Excalibur Foundry, Brooklyn (five castings).

1985

Eternal Light purchased by Bristol Myers Collection.

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Work included in exhibition at One Penn Plaza, curated by April Kingsley and Carola van den Houten (June 7-September 10).

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Conquering Hero included in Sculptors Turn to Stone, exhibition at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, Grand Army Plaza, curated by Mariella Bisson. Gives stone carving demonstration in Brooklyn at Prospect Park.

1986

Manhattan, April 18, 6:00 p.m. Loses consciousness while seated in his car after leaving Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Fifth Avenue and Eighteenth Street with book by Buckminster Fuller. Taken to Mother Cabrini Hospital where he dies without regaining consciousness at 8:00 p.m.