Walt Kuhn was born in 1880 in New York City. He began his artistic career as a cartoonist for Life, Judge, and Puck. In 1910, he began painting. He was educated at the Academy Colarossi in Paris, and the Munich Academy. He also studied in Holland, Italy, and Spain. When he returned, Kuhn taught at the Art Students’ League as well as the New York School of Art.

Kuhn exhibited at the Harriman Gallery from 1930 to 1941; the Durand-Ruel Gallery from 1943 to 1945; and he had a retrospective exhibition in 1960 at the Cincinnati Art Museum. His works were also shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1921.

Kuhn’s work is in many private and public collections, including:  the Dublin Museum in Ireland; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Addison Gallery of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the art museums of Denver, Columbus, Los Angeles, Wichita, and Detroit.

As well as being an artist and cartoonist, Kuhn wrote The Story of the Armory Show in 1938, and in 1939 he wrote and produced a motion picture entitled Walt Kuhn’s Adventures in Art. In 1913 he and A.B. Davies organized the landmark Armory Show in New York City.

Walt Kuhn died in New York City in 1949.