December Issue 2000
(Ed. Note-See Bottom for photos of Wolf Kahn's work)
Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Produces Color Exhibition Catalogue for Wolf Kahn Retrospective
Jerald Melberg Gallery
in Charlotte, NC, is presenting a retrospective exhibition by
Wolf Kahn entitled, 50 Years of Pastels, which will be
on view through Jan. 6, 2001.
To compliment this 50 year retrospective, Jerald Melberg Gallery has published a color catalogue that will highlight Kahn's illustrious career as well as document pastels included in this major exhibition.
Jerald L. Melberg wrote the Introduction for the catalogue describing how he first met Wolf Kahn and the ongoing privilege of offering his work to collectors all these years. The Introduction is included here:
Introduction
Before I met Wolf Kahn, I met a Wolf Kahn painting. It was over twenty-five years ago when I was an assistant at the Greenville County Museum of Art. I cannot remember the title, but I do remember that it was wonderful, almost abstract, largely gray, with purples that hinted of things to come.
It captured me. And if something captures me, I want to show it to the world. I am an art dealer, after all. Shortly thereafter, when I became curator at the Mint Museum of Art, I proposed a Wolf Kahn exhibition.
On my next trip to New York, I met with Grace Borgenicht, Wolf's longtime dealer. By coincidence, a museum tour for Wolf was being organized and the only slot left coincided with an opening on the Mint's calendar. As if I was not ecstatic enough about that, Grace asked me if I had ever met Wolf. Of course I hadn't. She picked up the phone: "Hello, Wolf? There's a young curator here from the Mint Museum. I am going to send him down to the studio to meet you". She wrote the address on a sheet of paper. "He'll be looking for you", she said. The next thing I knew I was ringing the buzzer on Wolf's studio door. Doing so with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation, because after all, I was young and about to meet one of my true heroes in the art world. The studio was on the top floor of a four-story walkup. At the first landing I took a 180° turn. As I turned again at the next landing, there were two flights of stairs, straight up, ending at Wolf's door. I can remember the next moment as if it happened this morning. The door opened and there stood Wolf Kahn, in his painter's smock, with brush in hand. I could not see his features because he was silhouetted by the window behind him, the sunlight forming a halo around his head. As I climbed those last two flights I truly felt I was ascending to the heavens. I was truly awestruck.
I still am today. Wolf is one of the most important artists in my life. He is one of the most articulate artists I know, verbally, in his writing, and certainly in his art. He is generous in his time and energy and advice - there couldn't be another artist who understands his role and my role as well as he does.
But mostly, he gives us beauty. He moves our hearts and souls. There is a widespread notion that great art has to be "sophisticated" - incomprehensible, out of reach, politically motivated, and so forth - as if to declare that the other side of life experience is not worthy. On the contrary, I believe the reason the man and his work command so much respect is because he confronts us with positive emotion.
People who know me know I am emotional about what I do, that I feel privileged to do what I do. They know I never take lightly the representation of my artists, especially someone with the professional stature of Wolf Kahn, but more especially because it is a unique privilege to know him as a man and a friend.
At seventy-three, Wolf is at the pinnacle, well respected and well liked as an artist and a human being. For this alone he deserves to be celebrated.
But when it comes to celebration, to expressing
the sheer joy in being alive in the world, who does it better
than Wolf Kahn? He is a man in love with life, with light, with
nature, with art, with the color purple. He takes enormous pleasure
in sharing all of these things with all of us.
Jerald L. Melberg
50 Years of Pastel was organized by Jerald Melberg Gallery.
After the duration of this Charlotte venue, this exhibition will
travel to The Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach,
VA (Jan. 13-Mar. 4, 2001); Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, NC
(Mar. 17-May 13, 2001); and Butler Institute of American Art,
Youngstown, OH (July 8-Aug. 26, 2001). The exhibition will eventually
be shown at Jerald Melberg Gallery in historic Charleston, SC.
The exhibition catalogue is available at both Jerald Melberg Gallery locations in Charlotte and Charleston, as well as Wolf Kahn's new book, Wolf Kahn Pastels, just released by Harry N. Abrams.
For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings or call the gallery at 704/365-3000 or on the web at (http://www.jeraldmelberg.com).
*
*
*
*
*
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2000 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2000 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.