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Wolf Kahn Art

German, 1927-2020

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1927, Wolf Kahn fled Nazi Germany to Britain through the Kindertransport in the late 1930s. He eventually settled in the United States, where he completed high school and enrolled in the Navy. Following his service, he studied with the legendary teacher and Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann, eventually becoming his studio assistant.

In 1950, Kahn enrolled at the University of Chicago and completed his bachelor of arts degree within one year. He had his first solo exhibition at Hansa Gallery in New York City in 1953 and went on to be represented by Grace Borgenicht Gallery, where he exhibited regularly until 1995.

Kahn was the recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Medal of Arts from the State Department. He married the artist Emily Mason in 1957. Their marriage lasted sixty-two years until Emily’s death in December 2019, just a few months before Kahn's passing. The pair lived and worked between New York City and W. Brattleboro, Vermont.

Kahn’s work has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout North America. His work is held in important museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Find authentic Wolf Kahn paintings and prints on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by Miles McEnery Gallery)

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Artist: Wolf Kahn
Venice by Wolf Kahn
By Wolf Kahn
Located in New Orleans, LA
Wolf Kahn 1927-2020 American Venice Signed "W Kahn" (lower right) Pastel on paper An exceptionally rare early work by one of America’s preeminent colorists, this pastel captures ...
Category

20th Century Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Paper, Pastel

"Summer Studio" Wolf Kahn, Vermont Landscape, Abstract Impressionist, Pastels
By Wolf Kahn
Located in New York, NY
Wolf Kahn Summer Studio, 2012 Signed lower center Pastel on paper 9 x 11 1/2 inches An important member of the second generation New York School, Wolf ...
Category

2010s Abstract Impressionist Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Paper, Pastel

Ocean Cove, unique signed pastel painting by renowned artist Wolf Kahn FRAMED
By Wolf Kahn
Located in New York, NY
Wolf Kahn Ocean Cove, 1996 Pastel on paper painting Hand signed and dated by Wolf Kahn on the lower right Frame included: elegantly matted and framed in a wood frame with UV plexigla...
Category

1990s Contemporary Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Oil Pastel, Pastel

Glade, 2009
By Wolf Kahn
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
Oil on canvas 52 x 36 inches (132.1 x 91.4 cm) Framed dimensions: 53 1/4 x 37 1/4 in Dated and inscribed on verso: 2009/42 Provenance Morrison Gallery, Kent, CT; Private collection,...
Category

Early 2000s Modern Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Oil

Glade, 2009
Glade, 2009
$100,000 Sale Price
20% Off
Corps de Ballet
By Wolf Kahn
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Signed, original, 1994, oil–on-canvas painting, Corps de Ballet by significant American artist, Wolf Kahn (b. 1927). Winner: Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships. Award in Art from...
Category

Late 20th Century Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

20th century landscape pastel drawing colorful grass path hills sky signed
By Wolf Kahn
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'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...
Category

1970s Contemporary Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Pastel, Paper

Sunlit Hill, 2006
By Wolf Kahn
Located in New York, NY
Wolf Kahn paints a row of trees with the sun peeking out from underneath in his stellar oil painting entitled “Sunlit Hill.”
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Modern Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Winter Valley" Purple and Brown Toned Winter Landscape Townscape
By Wolf Kahn
Located in Houston, TX
Blue, purple, and green toned winter landscape pastel drawing by German-American painter, Wolf Kahn. Signed by the artist in the lower right corner. Framed and matted in a gold frame...
Category

1980s Abstract Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Paper, Pastel

Wolf Kahn, Emily Mason & The Baby II (Grace Borgenicht Gallery) unique signed
By Wolf Kahn
Located in New York, NY
Wolf Kahn Emily & The Baby II (Grace Borgenicht Gallery), 1960 Pastel on Paper. Hand signed on the front. Grace Borgenicht gallery label on the back Vintage frame included Proven...
Category

1960s Modern Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Pastel

Bay with Boats Color Monotype unique signed abstract color field landscape frame
By Wolf Kahn
Located in New York, NY
Wolf Kahn Bay with Boats, 1987 Color monotype on Somerset white wove paper Hand signed and dated by Wolf Kahn on the lower right front, bears labels on the back Frame Included: matte...
Category

1980s Color-Field Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Lithograph, Monotype

"Four Winds" Blue House with White Roof in Yellow Field Abstract Landscape
By Wolf Kahn
Located in Houston, TX
Abstract drawing of a blue house in a yellow field by German-American painter, Wolf Kahn. Signed and dated by the artist in the lower right corner. Framed and matted in a silver wood...
Category

1980s Abstract Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Paper, Pastel

"Umbria, " Pastel signed by Wolf Kahn
By Wolf Kahn
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Umbria" is a landscape pastel by American artist Wolf Kahn. Green hills and trees dominate the composition as a light blue sky evens it out almost exactly in the middle. Titled and ...
Category

1970s Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Pastel

Wolf Kahn, Memorial Bridge, Springfield, Mass, signed, dated & inscribed, Framed
By Wolf Kahn
Located in New York, NY
Wolf Kahn Untitled, 1982 Original Etching 10 × 15 inches Edition AP (aside from the regular edition of 90) pencil signed, dated and inscribed to Cynthia Frame included: Ships framed ...
Category

1980s Contemporary Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Etching

Hardback monograph book with dust jacket: Wolf Kahn (hand signed by Wolf Kahn)
By Wolf Kahn
Located in New York, NY
Wolf Kahn (hand signed by Wolf Kahn), 2011 Hardback monograph with dust jacket (hand signed by Wolf Kahn) Hand signed by Wolf Kahn on the title page 13 × 12 × 1 1/2 inches This gorge...
Category

2010s Color-Field Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Lithograph, Offset

Wolf Kahn's America (Hand signed and inscribed illustrated hardback monograph)
By Wolf Kahn
Located in New York, NY
Wolf Kahn Wolf Kahn's America (Hand signed and inscribed), 2003 Hand signed and dedicated hardback monograph with dust jacket Boldly signed in ink with heartfelt personal dedication ...
Category

Early 2000s Color-Field Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Lithograph, Offset

Machias Seal Island Light
By Wolf Kahn
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Wolf Kahn was commissioned by the Smithsonian to design a postcard for them. He made four designs and they selected a singular one. This drawing here is one of the few rejected designs. This piece was given to the founder, David Barnett, of the David Barnett Gallery...
Category

19th Century American Impressionist Wolf Kahn Art

Materials

Paper, Pastel

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Vintage Rockwell Kent Copy of "Vermont Winter 1921" Oil on Canvas Painting, 1960
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Previously Available Items
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Wolf Kahn, Red Barns, rare 1980 color lithograph, hand signed 45/50, Framed
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Wolf Kahn Blau-Grün (Blue-Green), 2000 Pastel painting on paper Signed on the lower left front Frame included: elegantly framed in a museum quality white wood frame with UV plexiglas...
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Down in the Valley by Wolf Kahn (Purple and blue landscape)
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'Down in the Valley' is a screen print on wove paper created by Second Generation New York School artist, Wolf Kahn (1927 – 2020). As a child of German-Jewish parents, Kahn emigrate...
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Foggy Morning By Wolf Kahn
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Wolf Kahn 1927-2020 American/German Foggy Morning Signed "W. Kahn" (lower left) Oil on canvas Beloved for his strikingly vivid and colorful landscapes, Wolf Kahn is one of the mo...
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Wolf Kahn-Barn and Forsythia III-Signed
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This limited edition print titled Barn and Forsythia III by renowned artist Wolf Kahn was printed by Brand X on Somerset Textured Rag paper and published by the Lincoln Center for th...
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2003 Wolf Kahn 'Down in the Valley' SIGNED
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Beaver Swamp in Autumn, 1975
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Wolf Kahn art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Wolf Kahn art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange, green and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Wolf Kahn in crayon, pastel, oil paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Wolf Kahn art, so small editions measuring 6 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Friedel Dzubas, Mala Breuer, and Maureen Chatfield. Wolf Kahn art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $595 and tops out at $295,000, while the average work can sell for $19,000.

Artists Similar to Wolf Kahn

Questions About Wolf Kahn Art
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 16, 2024
    How Wolf Kahn painted changed over the years. Throughout his career, Kahn achieved depth and texture by thinning his paint and building up his compositions with layers of brushstrokes. Toward the end of his life, he switched to using oil sticks, which allowed for more saturated colors. On 1stDibs, find a collection of Wolf Kahn art.

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