The Kende family arrived in the U.S. as refugees from the “Iron Curtain” in late 1956. Ivan  was ten years old. En route, all children were offered welcoming gifts but only a couple of minutes given to choose. He grabed a pencil, a pocket notebook and a small, mysterious  box with a picture of a truck on it. Finally landing in New York City the next day, restless from the long plane ride and an unprecedented impulse, he drew a copy of that picture. His first sketch ever.

He has been drawing ever since.

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His early realistic stryles gradually evolved towards mythic content within structured compositions. Around 2005, this mythic sensibility led him to Neolithic cave paintings. The coarse, tactile feel of pigments on the rugged cave surfaces struck a deep chord prompting a totally new direction in his imagery. In his new works,  a sense of the primordial and metaphysical themes are explored with materials those ancient cave artists had primitive versions of.

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Ancient art forms and wisdom traditions have become the source as well as the intent of Kende’s imagery.