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July Issue 2006
Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, Features Works by Wolf Kahn
The
Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, presents an exhibition
of American beauty in Wolf Kahn's Barns, on view July 16
through Oct. 1, 2006. This exhibition explores the concept
of confrontation conveyed by a large, solitary structure in a
simple, rural setting. Featuring approximately 40 drawings
and paintings, the exhibit showcases luminous works by one of
American's premier contemporary landscape painters.
In the book, Wolf
Kahn Pastels, Kahn stated, "When I look at a barn, it
is never the barn itself that engages me, but the way it grows
out of the land, the way the sky and trees surround it, and how
the horizon is interrupted by the barn's silhouette."
Kahn was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1927 and immigrated to
the United States at age thirteen. Following graduation from
New York City's High School of Music and Art, Kahn served for
one year in the United States Navy. He then studied painting
and printmaking at the New School for Social Research before enrolling
in the Hans Hoffman School of Fine Arts in 1947. Hoffman
greatly impacted Kahn's development as an artist, as did the relationships
he forged with fellow students. In 1952 Kahn and several
Hoffman students organized the Hansa Gallery, a cooperative that
would include such artists as John Chamberlain, Allan Kaprow,
George Segal and Richard Stankiewicz.
Kahn explored a number of styles before finding his unique manner of artistic expression. During the 1950s his influences included Vincent Van Gogh and Chaim Soutine, as evident with the bright colors and energetic brushwork of his paintings from this period. In the early to mid 1960s Kahn worked in an Abstract Expressionist style with muted colors and simplified compositions. He created his first barn painting in 1966, marking a shift in the direction of his work. During the late 1960s Kahn began to employ a bolder color palette to create increasingly representational pastels and oils and throughout the 1970s, he continued to depict barns. Kahn continues to explore barns today through the creation boldly-colored, light-infused pastels and oil paintings.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at 843/722-2706 or at (www.gibbesmuesum.org).
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