Wolf Kahn: Pastels

Jerald Melberg Gallery proudly presents a solo exhibition of pastels by the celebrated landscape artist, Wolf Kahn (1927-2020).  Wolf Kahn touched thousands of lives as a friend, teacher, patron and brilliant colorist. He doggedly explored the infinite possibilities found in the landscape before him or conjured from his splendid imagination.  A master of both pastel and oil, Kahnwas an artist who embodied the synthesis of his modern abstract training with the palette of Matisse, Rothko's sweeping bands of color, and the atmospheric qualities of American Impressionism. It is precisely this fusion of color, spontaneity and representation that has produced such a rich and expressive body of work with unmatched luminosity.   

Born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1927, Wolf Kahn arrived in the United States in 1940 and in 1945 graduated from the High School of Music and Art in New York. After time in the Navy he attended classes taught by Stuart Davis and Hans Jelinek at the New School for Social Research. He then studied at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Art in New York. In 1950 he enrolled in the University of Chicago from which he was graduated in 1951 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Wolf Kahn has been honored with numerous awards, including the 2016 International Medal of Arts from the United States Department of State and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Design and School of Fine Arts.  A recipient of both Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, he is an elected member of the National Academy of Design, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and served on the New York Arts Commission. Kahn’s work has been represented in countless solo exhibitions and can be found in the permanent collections of over 100 museums, including such prestigious institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Mint Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.