Richard Kirsten

born Chicago, Illinois, 1920; died Seattle, Washington, 2013

Biography[Source: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?pid=163701476]

Richard Kirsten was a Seattle painter, printmaker, sculptor, and Zen Buddhist priest. He spent several months each year for 49 years in Japan and Korea and many of his works were created there or inspired by his travels.

Kirsten attended the Art Institute of Chicago, then in 1939 relocated to Seattle where he studied at the University of Washington. He enlisted in the Navy during WWII and taught and did illustration work for the military. After the war ended he returned to Seattle where he worked a number of odd jobs until going to work for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper in 1950. Kirsten worked in the Editorial Art Department for the next 30 years, eventually serving as head.

In 1958, Kirsten made a trip to Japan and fell in love with the country. He began studying Buddhism and in 1967, he was ordained a Zen Buddhist priest and given the name Daiensai Kuden Bonseki Dojin. From that day on he signed all his paintings Kirsten-Daiensai. In 1972 his son Rick opened Kirsten Gallery in Seattle, where he worked alongside his son when he was not traveling in Asia.

Kirsten’s work is in the permanent collections of The Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the deYoung Museum and others in the United States and Japan. He founded Artist Equity Association in Seattle and was a life member and past president of the Northwest Watercolor Society.

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