Wayne DuQuoin

Wayne DuQuoin was an artist and designer born in 1913 in Illinois. His father was a house painter and interior decorator, drawing DuQuoin to art from an early age. After graduating high school, Wayne DuQuoin moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming and spent several years running his own commercial design studio. He moved to Kansas City in 1940 and graduated with a Bacherlors of Fine Arts in commercial design from the Kansas City Art Institute. There he met his spouse, sculptor-ceramicist Eleanor DuQuoin, and the two married in 1943 after they were both hired as instructors.

Over the course of his twenty-two years at the Art Institute, Wayne DuQuoin taught commercial design, advertising design, and graphic design while heading the Design Department. He helped prepare students for the commercial industry with assignments like designing packaging for candy companies and sketching horse races. He also created an official logo used by the Art Institute for many years.

DuQuoin judged national artwork and scholarship competitions while contributing his own work to local exhibitions. Watercolor was his passion and he frequently painted the surrounding landscape and architecture. Wayne DuQuoin spent the latter decades of his life in Lawrence, Kansas where he and his wife both taught at the University of Kansas. Upon his death in 2003, Wayne DuQuoin bequeathed a significant portion of his estate to the Lawrence Art Center.