A passion for art, this was something Ken had in him, and taught me a lot about. Together we often visited all sort of museums, but art museums were always his favorites. He had also an eclectic taste in art. He specially admired what was different and daring, and with renaissance art, he always enjoyed the darker, more obscure ones. We visited together at the Lisbon Ancient Art Museum one of his favorite paintings, called Inferno, from an unknown Portuguese artist. He also liked Pop Art, but was not a big Warhol fan, more of a Roy Lichtenstein; we did however visited a few Warhol works that he enjoyed particularly the Judy Garland portrait. I had never really visited many museums in my life, but Ken, he was always up for visiting one, and adored being surrounded by art. If he had heard about someone ruining something because of a careless selfie, he got very upset. He got to the point where he really did not liked the fact Lisbon had so many tourists, because a couple of times they ruined a work of art. He liked things preserved for future generations to appreciate. The 1920’s, 1930’s art period was also dear to him. Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and many obscure artists not very well known to the mainstream. Ken studied and dug into these unknown artists and their art. On sculpture, classic sculpture was the one he preferred and Rodin was his favorite. We were able to visit one Rodin sculpture together. Sometimes we would go for our long walks in Sintra, and Ken loved that there was so many art on display in the streets for everyone to see. He took many, many amazing photos of it. Every place we visited, art, was always one of the first things he looked for, even if it was the structure of a public toilette. One of the things he enjoyed the most by living in Europe was to have so much easy access to serious works of art. The tagline for this website, is “an eye for beauty, a mind for knowledge”, and Ken, he did had the best, greatest eye for beauty I ever knew. He could spot a tiny hidden thing in the ground, walking the streets and find beauty on it that nobody else would even notice. Often he took photographs of things like those. His eyes were amazing. Here he also discovered what would became his favorite artist, the Portuguese Almada Negreiros. I am Portuguese, but I never knew much about Negreiros’ art, with Ken, I came to learn so much about him, and when I look at one of his works today, I see Ken. This artist came to prominence during the first half of the 20th century, modern art, being the 1920’s and 1930’s two of the decades where he was more prolific, not only just paintings but also designing advertisement, movie posters, and even facades for residential buildings. One day we were browsing through an online market, and we came across a 1920’s Portuguese magazine that seemed to be in a good condition. The red, black and white illustration of a woman in the cover, caught his eye, and if you know Ken and see that, you can understand why. It was not pricey, but Ken did not wanted to get it. I ordered it and surprised him with it; he planned to frame it one day when we could move to a bigger apartment. Mexican art from that period was also among his favorite, we talked about one day visiting some specific cities in Mexico where there is several works of art of that style. He taught me about it too. One Christmas I offered him a rubber duck that was paint like Frida Kahlo; we named it Frida the Duck. Being the Halloween person he was, the Mexican “Dia de los Muertos” art pleased him, the very last present I gave him was a coffee mug with that theme. We went to a store he liked, and browsing through things for our Halloween night he spotted the mugs, that they had in two colors, black, and blue. I told him to get it because I knew when he loved somethings at first sight. However, Ken, being Ken, said, “No, its fine I don’t need it”. I told him I was going to come back to the store alone and get it for him if he didn’t took it then. He turns to me and with his smirk tells me, “I am just saying…the Blue is my favorite. Just in case…just in CASE” He was adorable. I did ran to that store the next day and got him that cup together with Halloween themed chocolates. He had a big smile on his face when he unwrapped the mug with the chocolates inside. I cannot talk about his favorite art without mentioning street art, graffiti. He took hundreds of photographs throughout the city of Lisbon of it, sometimes, he went for a walk alone just to discover new street art, new walls, new graffiti. He genuinely appreciated the talent of these artists that offer their work free to the city. To define by words what I know would touch Ken’s artistic sensitivity, can be difficult. Therefore, the following paintings, illustrations, drawings, are the very essence of what sparkled his sensitivity.
