Famous Las Vegas Artist Katherine Gianaclis

I received this email today from her son Joey. Instead of summarizing, I’m just going to publish it.

There’s a fascinating story that’s told on the website. If any of you can help, let me know, and I’ll pass your information on to Joey.

I’m going to go to the Sahara today and take a picture.

Katherine Gianaclis Painted Murals For Many Las Vegas Casinos During The 1960’s

Hi Jack,

   My name is Joey Kantor. I found your site and saw that you have interest in anything concerning “vintage Vegas.”  There is not much known about the history of art here in Las Vegas, a lot about architecture, but fine art, no.

  My mother was Katherine Gianaclis. She was known as the foremost muralist in Las Vegas in the 1960s. She painted murals for almost every hotel/casino in Las Vegas at the time. Unfortunately, nearly all of these works are gone except two: a work still at the coffee shop of the Sahara and now the re-emergence of one of her finest murals, an Elizabethan woman, 8×5 oil on canvas, commissioned by the now defunct Copper Cart restaurant which was located beside the newly rescued La Concha.

   The owners of the work would like to sell it. I would like to see it displayed in a public place since it is a historical work. My mother was touted after her death as “an artist of the highest order”
and “twenty years ahead of her time” for her personal paintings which were the precursors to her mural period. She is perhaps our only homegrown “great” artist.

   I suppose I write to you in case you know of anybody who would be interested in a work such as this (or other works for that matter by a “vintage” Vegas artist) preferably with a desire to showcase it in a Las Vegas public space. You may see the mural at Gianaclis.com. Go to the Murals page and scroll to the bottom. It is just past the Circus Circus murals. Unfortunately, we don’t have pictures of most of the other lost works except for an old brochure, but I am in possession of many of her older and newer paintings however and many of them are for sale.

Thank you,

Joey Kantor