Elena Borstein Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Work : Original Drawing, Handmade Artwork, Unique Work. The work has been treated with UV-resistant varnish and it is not framed. Medium : Soft Pastel and oil based pencils on ARCHE...

Work : Original Drawing, Handmade Artwork, Unique Work. The work has been treated with an anti-UV varnish and it is not framed. Medium : Soft Pastel on ARCHES paper 300Gsm, 100% pur...

James Wilson Rayen's 'Untitled Pastel #10' is from a series of studies of spring and summer rural landscapes.This piece, loose and impressionistic in technique, depicts a cluster of ...

'Study for Connecticut at Putney' is an original pastel drawing by American artist Wolf Kahn. The landscape is an exploration of color and light: it is rendered in cool blues and purples with fields of subtle yellow, the pastels treated with the same gesture as Kahn's paintbrush on a canvas. Indeed, this pastel was a study executed en plein air for a painting – the painting now sometimes called 'Bend in the River' – that he later created in the studio. This process of creating studies, selecting the best of the studies, and then recreating them as paintings was typical of Kahn's studio process and makes this pastel a significant example of the artist's creative output. 9 x 11 inches, artwork 15.5 x 18.13 inches, frame Signed 'W. Kahn' lower right Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag matting. Housed in a gold finish wood moulding. Acquired directly from the artist. Wolf Kahn, the youngest of four siblings, was born into a well-to-do artistic family. His father was the conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Symphony, and his mother came from a family of art collectors.(1) During 1938, Kahn took his first art lessons, but most of his initial drawings were of military or historical events. The next year Kahn was sent to England for safety following the ascendancy of Hitler to power, and in 1940, he immigrated to the United States. In 1942, he entered New York's High School of Music and Art, and while there, he was employed by a commercial art firm doing illustrations. After a stint in the Navy, Kahn entered Hans Hofmann's school, and among his fellow students were Neil Blaine, Jane Freilicher, Allan Kaprow and Larry Rivers. His initial results were done with a dark palette and abstracted forms, and although Hofmann's style of teaching was difficult, Kahn has consistently praised him for teaching him the value of control and understanding.(2) Kahn's first exhibition was a 1951 group show in a loft with several other artists in lower Manhattan. From this impromptu show, a group effort evolved called the Hansa Gallery Cooperative.(3) In 1953, Wolf Kahn had a one-man show at this gallery, which was reviewed by Fairfield Porter, and at this same time bolder, more vivid colors began to appear in his work. By the mid-1950's, on a summer trip to Provincetown, Kahn's paintings indicated a new direction of softening warm colors in the manner of Bonnard. He was included in Meyer Shapiro's seminal exhibition, The New York School: The Second Generation at the Jewish Museum, and by the end of the 1950s, he had developed his abstracted landscape style for which he is best known. In 1966, he made his first "barn" painting on Martha's Vineyard that reduced the complexities of detail of the architecture to a more basic shape, a stylistic convention that is evident in the Museum's painting. Kahn has since commented frequently on his use of color as a unique and specific component of each work as the situation demands, where the gradual buildup of the colors resembles the beauty and translucent nature of pastels.(4) Since then Kahn has had one-person exhibitions at the Kansas City Art Institute, Chrysler Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art and the Columbus Museum, among others. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums throughout the United States. Footnotes: 1. Much of the biographical information is drawn from Justin Spring, Wolf Kahn (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996). 2. Spring, 21. Wolf Kahn draws this from a 1973 address to the College Art Association. 3. This group included Jane Wilson...

James Wilson Rayen's 'Untitled Pastel #11' is a 15 x 15 inch pastel drawing on paper from a series of studies of spring and summer rural landscapes. This piece depicts three flowerin...

This piece is framed measuring 27.5 by 35 inches. Based in Carrollton, Georgia, Erin Dixon is a mixed media artist whose work bridges realism and surrealism. Her work is often heavi...

This piece is framed in a natural wood frame measuring 30 by 45.5 inches. Based in Carrollton, Georgia, Erin Dixon is a mixed media artist whose work bridges realism and surrealism....

This piece is framed measuring 46 by 34 inches. Based in Carrollton, Georgia, Erin Dixon is a mixed media artist whose work bridges realism and surrealism. Her work is often heavily...

Courtyard with Sculpture by Kamil Kubik, Czech/American (1930–2011) Pastel on Paper, signed l.r. Size: 19.5 x 25.5 in. (49.53 x 64.77 cm)

ink and pastel on paper

Church in Prague by Kamil Kubik, Czech/American (1930–2011) Pastel on Paper, signed l.r. Size: 19.5 x 25.5 in. (49.53 x 64.77 cm)

Ballet Folklorico Festival - San Antonio, TX by Kamil Kubik, Czech/American (1930–2011) Pastel on Paper, signed l.r. Size: 19.5 x 25.5 in. (49.53 x 64.77 cm)