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Kenn Davis (* 1932 in Salinas, California; † 2010 in Roseville, California) was an American surrealist painter and mystery novel writer. During the 1950-60ties he was associated with the Beat Generation at San Francisco's North Beach.

Kenn Davis was born as Kenneth Allan Schmoker in Salinas, California^[1], where he also attended kindergarten.^[2] After his parents divorced^[3], he moved with his mother and brother to San Francisco at age 5.^[4] He attended grammar school in San Francisco.^[5] He went finger painting and to drawing classes on Saturdays at the San Francisco Museum of Art, today's San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.^[6] At age 10, at the beginning of WWII, Kenn and his brother attended a catholic boy school in Marin County, a boarding school.^[7] As a teenager, Kenn Davis was influenced by Milton Caniff, American cartoonist and creator of Terry and the Pirates.^[8] At the end of the war, Kenn and his brother moved back to their mother and step father, Henry Davis, who bought him his first easel. Kenn changed his surname to his step father's name.^[9] (His brother changed his name to Zekial Marko and became a mystery author under the name John Trinian.^[10]) Kenn attended City College of San Francisco before being drafted to the Korean War in 1952.^[11] He left the military in 1954 and returned to study art the the City College of San Francisco. His instructors at the City College of San Francisco where Evans Ecke and Fanchon Gary.^[12] In 1956 he transferred to the San Francisco Art Institute, where he was instructed by Ralph DuCasse.^[13] In 1964, he was hired by the San Francisco Chronicle as photo retoucher and illustrator, a position from which he resigned in 1984.^[14]

Kenn Davis has been a close friend of Richard Brautigan, a notable author of the Beat Generation, who met in 1956 or 1957.^[15] He designed the covers for two of Brautigan's poetry collections, The Galilee Hitch-Hiker (1958) and Lay the Marble Tea (1959).^[15] He also frequently sketched him together with others of the North Beach Beat scene, like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, another Beat poet and co-founder of the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.^[16] In 1959, Kenn Davis painted a portrait of Richard Brautigan in oil on linen, which also appeared on the cover on a collection of essays on Brautigan edited by John Barber.^[15] This book contains also many sketches by Kenn Davis.

Kenn Davis was mostly a surrealist. His subjects and motifs were apparently influenced by his dreams.^[17] Some of his paintings reflect critical analysis of society while others show introspection in human psychology. Some paintings still draw on material reality and thus could be classified under magic realism. The style of his surrealistic paintings show influence of European surrealists like Hieronymus Bosch. His earlier paintings of the 1950ties and 1960ties are darker both in color schemes and mood than his later paintings. The technique of his oil paintings at the end of the 1950ties and early 1960ties show influence of old masters. His later paintings often include a humorous or satirical detail. Kenn Davis first solo exhibition was at the Studio 44 Gallery in San Francisco in 1956.^[18]

Kenn Davis designed the book covers of Robert Bloch's Lost in Time and Space with Lefty Feep, edited by John Stanley, 1987, Creatures at Large Press, as well as Creature Features Strikes Again Movie Guide and Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide, both by John Stanley.

Kenn Davis together with John Stanley is the creator of Carver Bascombe, a black Vietman veteran with military police background who is a private investigator in San Francisco.^[21] This character first appeared in 1976 in the mystery novel The Dark Side that Kenn coauthored with John Stanley.^[22] Carver Bascombe appears in seven more mystery novels.^[23] Kenn Davis was an Edgar Award Nominee twice, once in 1977 for The Dark Side (with John Stanley) and again in 1985 for Words Can Kill.^[24]

• 1978 - Nightmare in Blood (co-written and co-produced with John Stanley)

• Kenn Davis, American Surrealist (1932-2010)
• Kenn Davis Memorial Blog
• Rap Sheet - A Painter Leaves the Picture
• Obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle

Category:Artists from California Category:1932 births Category:Painters from California Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni Category:City College of San Francisco alumni Category:Beat Generation Category:20th-century American painters Category:21st-century American painters Category:San Francisco Chronicle people Category:People from San Francisco Category:American surrealist artists Category:American mystery writers