Wolf Kahn: Pastels at Ann Long Fine Art
On View: Friday, May 5th – Friday, June 2nd
Opening Reception: Friday, May 5th, 5-8pm

“Pastel is the dust on butterflies’ wings. It is the milkiness of the haze over Venice or the velvet darkness of a barn’s interior seen through open doors on a brilliant summer day.”
-Wolf Kahn

This May Ann Long Fine Art presents 16 pastels from 1958 to 2009 by acclaimed German-born American artist Wolf Kahn (b. 1927).

While he works in oil on a larger scale, Kahn has long been known to mention pastels are his favorite medium. From a view of Venice, where he once lived, to his quintessential barns and graceful tree lines, these vibrant pastels may be seen as intimate reflections of Kahn’s life from his earliest work to his more recent. Many critics consider Wolf Kahn America’s finest living landscape artist.

The featured works are from a long-time collector and represent Kahn’s rare combination of bold color field and realism. The artist was a student of renowned teacher Hans Hofmann, an Abstract Expressionist whose art had rigorous concern for spatial illusion and color relationships. Kahn was likewise a colleague of the titans of the New York School. He reflects, “DeKooning, Rothko, Kline, Motherwell, Avery. I would meet these artists at the Cedar Street bar, and we’d discuss art and technique. It was an incredible education for a young artist.” In 1951, Kahn graduated in less than two years from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Kahn is represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Hirschhorn Museum, the National Museum of American Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Wolf Kahn, ‘A Saturation of Red’, 2009, 11.25” x 15.5”, pastel on paper

Wolf Kahn, ‘Barn with a New Barn Door II’, 2007, 14” x 17.5”, pastel on paper