Wolf Kahn

Wolf Kahn (born October 4, 1927) is a German-born American painter.

Kahn is known for his combination of realism and Color Field, and known to work in pastel and oil paint. He studied under Hans Hofmann,^[1] and also graduated from the University of Chicago.^[2] Kahn is a resident of both New York City and, during the summer and autumn, West Brattleboro, Vermont.^[3]

Biography

Wolf Kahn was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1927. He states that he began drawing at the age of 4.^[4] In 1939, at the age of 12 he fled Germany for England and in 1940 moved to the United States of America.

He attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City and graduated in 1945. Under the GI Bill, he was able to continue his studies with abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann at the Hans Hofmann School.^[5] He became Hofmann’s studio assistant. He enrolled for a degree from the University of Chicago in 1950 and completed this in only one year, receiving a Bachelor's Degree in 1951.

His wife Emily Mason is also a painter. They have two daughters, Cecily and Melany.

Wolf Kahn's Art

Wolf Kahn works in oils and pastels. His works usually covers the subject of landscapes and his own personal vision of nature. His convergence of light and colour has been described as combining pictorial landscapes and painterly abstraction.

Ameringer & Yohe, his gallery, state (in the biography on his official website)

The unique blend of Realism and the formal discipline of Color Field painting sets the work of Wolf Kahn apart. Kahn is an artist who embodies the synthesis of his modern abstract training with Hans Hofmann, with the palette of Matisse, Rothko's sweeping bands of color, and the atmospheric qualities of American Impressionism. It is precisely this fusion of color, spontaneity and representation that has produced such a rich and expressive body of work.

Awards and Memberships

Wolf Kahn has received a number of awards including a Fulbright Scholarship, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.^[6]

His official biography indicates that he is a member of the National Academy of Design and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 2005 the Smithsonian Art Collectors Program commissioned Kahn to produce a print to benefit the cultural and educational programs of the Smithsonian Associates. The screen print, entitled Aura, hangs in the Graphic Eloquence exhibit in the S. Dillon Ripley Center in the National Mall.

Wolf Kahn is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for Marlboro College, in Marlboro, VT.

Museum Collections

According to his official website, Mr Kahn has work in the following museum collections:

• the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY;
• the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY;
• the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL;
• the Memorial Gallery Permanent Collection, University of Rochester, NY;
• the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA;
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
• the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.;
• the Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA.;
• Minnesota Museum of American Art
• National Academy of Design

Wolf Kahn regularly exhibits at galleries and museums across North America.

Notable works

• Evening Glow (Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, New York)
• My Barn on a Summer Night, 1982 (Hirshhorn Museum)
• Pond in November, 1977 (National Academy of Design)

References

• Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6. p. 32; p. 37; pp. 194–197

External links

• Wolf Kahn website
• Wolf Kahn on ARTCYCLOPEDIA
• Wolf Kahn Artwork Examples on AskART.
• Wolf Kahn's advice for artists looking for subject matter
• Wolf Kahn's Aura, The Smithsonian Art Collectors Program
• Documentary film, Wolf Kahn at Niagara Falls