KAHN’S GLOWING LANDSCAPE
by Joan K. Yanni
The radiant, sensuous colors in the painting appeal to everyone who visits the 20th-century galleries. Even adults who claim to dislike all "modern" art, who scoff at Albers, Hofmann, and Frankenthaler, stop and sigh in front of Wolf Kahn's Evening Glow. How do they know it's a landscape? They know. There's a horizon in the painting, with the elements of land, water, and sky. The colors may not be real, but they're wonderful and exciting. And that tiny white spot in the middle of the canvas makes everything come alive.
Wolf Kahn was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1927, fourth child of Emil and Nellie Kahn. His father was conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic. When he was three he went to live with his grandmother in Frankfurt, where he attended Philantropia, the "gymnasium" of the Frankfurt Jewish community, and began private art lessons. His love for art never diminished.
In 1939, two weeks before the outbreak of World War II, he was sent to England in a transport of refugee children. A year later he joined his father in the United States, then moved to New York City where he attended the High School of Music and Art. He joined the U.S. Navy at 18, and after his discharge returned to the pursuit of art, attending classes taught by Stuart Davis and Hans Jelinek.
In 1947 he began studies at Hans Hofmann's School of Fine Art in New York, and spent a summer painting with Hofmann in Provincetown. Hofmann became his mentor, and he found his roots in Abstract Expressionism.
After receiving a B.A. from the University of Chicago, Kahn settled in New York City, where he had his first one-man show in the Hansa Gallery at the age of 26. In 1957 he was part of the exhibition "New York School—The Second Generation" at the Jewish Museum in NYC. Shows throughout the country followed.
He made several trips abroad—to Italy, France and even Kenya—and lived in Venice and Rome for a time; but he found his inspiration mainly in New England, particularly around the Connecticut River Valley. He has said that one must be familiar with a place to paint it.
The influence of the Abstract Expressionists on Kahn's work can be seen in his fluid, gestural painting. He differs from them, however, in that he insists on the object in his works, while they eliminate it. He does not paint to manipulate or to evoke specific moods, but wants his audience to "freely participate in the paintings on their own."
Color is a primary interest, and he finds inspiration in the works of both Turner and Mark Rothko. Like Turner, he avoids sharp delineations in his paintings, preferring subtle transitions from earth to sky. Like Rothko, he uses radiant, vibrating colors. In Evening Glow one can see the hovering color and glowing layers of veiled light that are evident in Rothko's abstractions. "Rothko took the idea of radiance further than any previous artist," Kahn says. "Since I saw Rothko...I look at nature in a different way.” He found that, for example, if you make a hard edge between two colors you inhibit the radiance of one color against another...I am no longer so interested in the division between things, but am much more interested in the lack of division between them."
Kahn is married to contemporary artist Emily Mason, and they have two daughters. In 1968 he bought a farm in West Brattleboro, Vermont, and he has been spending his summers there ever since, soaking up the New England atmosphere. His winters are spent in a home and studio in New York City, where he transforms summer sketches and motifs into paintings or watercolors.
Today Kahn is widely regarded as one of the country's leading contemporary landscape painters. His work has been exhibited across the United States and abroad, and he is represented in major museums across the nation, including the Metropolitan, the Whitney, the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, and the Carnegie Institute.
A new book on his work is being written by noted art historian and critic Robert Hobbs and will be published in 1995.
Three Kahn pastels are on view in the Contemporary Gallery next to Evening Glow at this time: Key West Harbor, Bright Winter Day, and Evening at Deer Lake.
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