Ken Shutt (1928 – April 2, 2010) was an American sculptor and

watercolorist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

. He was active in California and Hawaii.

Life

Ken Shutt was born 1928, in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

. He grew up in

Whittier, California Whittier () is a city in Los Angeles County, California, and is part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States census, 2010 census figure. Whittier ...

. Shutt graduated from

Pasadena City College Pasadena City College (PCC) is a Public college, public community college in Pasadena, California. It was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. History Pasadena City College was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. It originally o ...

, the

Art Center College of Design The ArtCenter College of Design is a private art college in Pasadena, California. It was incorporated in 1930 as a degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both the visual arts and design. ...

, and the

Chouinard Art Institute The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 by Nelbert Chouinard, Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879–1969) in the Westlake, Los Angeles, Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1961, Walt Disney, Walt and ...

. He moved to Hawaii in 1963, and lived there until 1995. He returned to California in 1995, to be near his foundry, when he was commissioned to create a bronze sculpture for the entrance of

Sea Life Park Hawaii Sea Life Park Hawaii is a marine mammal park, bird sanctuary and aquarium in Waimānalo near Makapuʻu Point, north of Hanauma Bay on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, United States. The park first opened in 1964 and in early 2025, the park was so ...

. His best known paintings are watercolors of Hawaii's flora (see image). His sculptures often combine such diverse materials as

resin A resin is a solid or highly viscous liquid that can be converted into a polymer. Resins may be biological or synthetic in origin, but are typically harvested from plants. Resins are mixtures of organic compounds, predominantly terpenes. Commo ...

, wood,

terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

, and

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

. He died 2010, at age 81, in

Atascadero, California Atascadero ( Spanish for "Mire") is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States, located on U.S. Route 101. Atascadero is part of the San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses the extents of t ...

Collections

The

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...

and the

Hawaii State Art Museum The Capitol Modern Museum, formerly (until 2023) named the Hawaii State Art Museum, is a small art gallery located on the second floor of the No. 1 Capitol District Building in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. Long known as HiSAM, the m ...

are among the public collections holding work by Ken Shutt. His sculptures in public places include:Ken Shutt in the Art Inventories Catalog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
/ref> *A granite and bronze sculpture at the Kauai Performing Arts Center,

Lihue, Hawaii Līhue () is an unincorporated community, census-designated place (CDP) and the county seat of Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. Līhue is the second-largest town on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, following Kapaa. As of the 2010 census, th ...

. *Untitled 1976 sculpture,

Leilehua High School Leilehua High School is a public, co-educational, college preparatory high school in Wahiawa, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. It is part of the Hawaii State Department of Education, nationally recognized as a Blue Ribbon School by the United State ...

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

*''Waialua'', 1976, Waialua High and Intermediate School,

Waialua, Hawaii Waialua () is a census-designated place and North Shore community in the Waialua District on the island of Oahu, City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a population of 4,062. Waialua was one of th ...

*''Konohiki'', 1980-1981, King Intermediate School,

Kaneohe, Hawaii Kāneohe () is a census-designated place (CDP) included in the City and County of Honolulu and in Hawaii state District of Koolaupoko on the island of Oahu. In the Hawaiian language, ''kāne ohe'' means "bamboo man". According to an ancient ...

*''Celebrating the Arts'', 1999,

Kauaʻi Community College Kauai Community College is a public community college in Līhue, Hawaii and it is the only institution of higher learning on the island. It is part of the University of Hawaii system and is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Communi ...

Kauai, Hawaii Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the List of islands of the United States by area, 21st-largest ...

*''Heritage Growing'', 1975, Laupahoehoe High and Elementary School, Laupahoehoe, Hawaii *''Lanai Ohana'', 1977,

Lanai High and Elementary School Lānai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. The island's on ...

Lanai City, Hawaii Lānai is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. The island's on ...

*''Kauai Ola'', 1981,

Kauai High School Kauai High School is a public high school in Lihue, Hawaii. It is named after the island Kauai and is part of the Hawaii Department of Education. Kauaʻi High School serves students from ninth through twelfth grades. It was the first public high ...

*''Hawaiian Porpoises'', 1976,

Honolulu Zoo The Honolulu Zoo is a zoo in Queen Kapiʻolani Park in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the only zoo in the United States to be established by grants made by a sovereign monarch and is built on part of the royal Queen Kapiʻolani Park. The Honolulu ...

*''Family Structure'', 1971,

Kauikeaouli Hale Kauikeaouli Hale is a district courthouse for the Oahu, Island of Oahu in Hawaii. It is located at 1111 Alakea Street between downtown Honolulu and the Hawaii Capital Historic District at . Its lower floors house the courts of the first circuit, c ...

(courthouse),

*''Matrix'', 1990,

Hilo High School Hilo High School is a Public school (government funded), public, Coeducation, co-educational high school operated by the Hawaii State Department of Education, and serves grades nine through twelve. Established in 1906, its first class graduated ...

Hilo, Hawaii Hilo () is the largest settlement in and the county seat of Hawaii County, Hawaiʻi, United States, which encompasses the Island of Hawaiʻi, and is a census-designated place (CDP). The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 census. I ...

*''Four Valleys'', 1978,

Waianae High School Waianae High School is a public, coeducational secondary school in the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, on the leeward (western) coast of the island of Oahu, Oahu. The school about northwest of central Honolulu CDP. Waianae Hi ...

Waianae, Hawaii Waianae () is a census-designated place (CDP) in the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP population was 13,614. Its name means "waters of the mullet". Its etymology is shared with the far norther ...

*''Konohiki'', 1973,

sculpture garden

References

*Haar, Francis, ''Artists of Hawaii: Volume Two'', University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1977, pp. 74–78 *Radford, Georgia and Warren Radford, ''Sculpture in the Sun, Hawaii's Art for Open Spaces'', University of Hawaii Press, 1978, 76-77, 96

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shutt, Ken 1928 births 2010 deaths 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists 21st-century American sculptors 21st-century American male artists American male sculptors Artists from Hawaii Artists from Long Beach, California Chouinard Art Institute alumni ArtCenter College of Design alumni Pasadena City College alumni