



Wolf Kahn(American, 1927-2020)Gihon River, Vermont, 1994
US$10,000 - US$15,000
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Jelena James
Senior Specialist, Head of Sale

Bids (Bonhams Skinner)

Jewel Bernier
Cataloguer

Claire Dettelbach
Cataloguer
Wolf Kahn (American, 1927-2020)
signed 'W Kahn' (lower right); identified on a typed label from Obelisk Gallery, Boston (affixed to the backing paper)
pastel on paper
sheet size 56.5 x 75.6 cm (22 1/4 x 29 3/4 in).
framed 87.0 x 106.0 x 2.5 cm (34 1/4 x 41 3/4 x 1 in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Obelisk Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts.
The present private collection (acquired from the previous).
N.B.
Wolf Kahn's atmospheric, hazy New England landscapes reflect the diverse influences he absorbed throughout his life and career. Kahn was born in Stuttgart, Germany, to Jewish parents. His father was a well-known musician and composer with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra until 1933, when he was forced out by Hitler's regime. At around this time the Kahns fled Germany; Wolf's siblings and parents went to the United States while he was sent to live with his grandmother in Frankfurt. Wolf finally reunited with his family in New York in 1940. Over the following decades, Wolf took art classes in and around New York City, including with New School's Stuart Davis and Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann. He completed a bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago in 1950 and eventually settled down with his wife, Emily Mason, in Brattleboro, Vermont.
When he moved to Vermont, Kahn developed a new focus on the foggy, atmospheric New England landscape and Maine coastline. Kahn's landscapes apply an evocative, vibrant blend of Realism, Impressionism, and Color Field painting, demonstrating the influence of the variety of artist with whom he worked throughout his career, including impressionists, modernists, and abstract artists, to create a style wholly unique and identifiable as his.
This work will be included in the Wolf Kahn Foundation's catalogue raisonné project of the artist's work and is accompanied by a letter of acceptance issued by the Wolf Kahn Foundation (WK.1993.3333.P).