Wolf Kahn American, b. 1927

Overview

Known to balance his color palette with unmatched finesse, Wolf Kahn creates landscape paintings that have a luminosity unsurpassed by other artists. His well-balanced colorist technique of depicting landscapes has made him one of the most influential American artists of our generation. Kahn has formulated a unique way in which he employs simplified geometric designs while carefully contrasting numerous colors and tones.  With studios in both New York and Vermont, Kahn is able to draw his artistic inspiration directly from scenes in nature. 

 

A native of Stuttgart, Germany, Wolf Kahn attended the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in New York City.  It was here that he and a group of young artists, under the direction of Hans Hofmann, forged a style that was both representational and Abstract Expressionistic. Hans Hofmann's didactic artistic theories proved to be one of the most significant influences upon Kahn's work. In his own words,

 

"We who studied with Hofmann felt ourselves to be the bearers of a more profound message, one better suited to give content and weight to the calling of 'artist.' We felt we were learning the essence of modernism, art stripped of everything extraneous.  What remained was its esthetic/philosophical foundation, its raison d'être." 

 

These progressive artists included Nell Blaine, Jane Freilicher, Allan Kaprow, Jan Muller, and Larry Rivers. They adopted Abstract Expressionistic spontaneity with the idea that the finished piece was an accumulated history of a process, a visual representation of energetic action and reaction. His influences and inspiration can be found in the works of such European artists as Braque, Bonnard, Soutine, and Van Gogh.  Kahn embraced the ideas of the Old Masters as well as those of Impressionism, Expressionism, and Post-Impressionism.

Associations

National Academy of Design

American Academy of Arts and Letters

Awards

Fulbright Award

Guggenheim Fellowship, 1967

Exhibitions

Hansa Gallery, 1952-53, 1955

Borgenicht gallery, 1956, 1959, 1967

Seligmann Gallery, 1947

"813 Broadway", 1950

Stable Gallery, 1954-5

Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC

Guggenheim Museum, New York

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Museum fur Kunst unde Gewerbe, Hamburg

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Whitney Museum of American Art

Museums and Public Collections

Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, Missouri

Art Institute of Chicago

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio

Brooklyn Museum, New York

Canton Museum of Art, Ohio

Cheekwood Museum of Art & Botanical Garden, Nashville, Tennessee

Columbus Museum, Georgia

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, Oklahoma

Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Fresno Art Museum, California

Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina

Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Hickory Museum of Art, North Carolina

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana

Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

Jacobs Gallery at Georgetown College, Kentucky

Jewish Museum, New York City, New York

John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida

Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan

Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Mississippi

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California

Mandeville Gallery at Union College, Schenectady, New York

Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, Minnesota

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama

Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Museum of the National Academy of Design, New York

National Museum of American Art

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York

Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey

San Diego Museum of Art, California

Sara Roby Foundation Collection, Washington, DC

Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

Smithsonian Associates, Washington, DC

Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, Pennsylvania

USC Fisher Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts

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