NEW YORK — The electric and dramatic colors in the paintings of Wolf Kahn (1927-2020) transformed average-looking fields and forests into otherworldly spectacles, surprising the viewers “without being offensive,” according to the artist himself.
Born in Germany and emigrating to the United States as a youth, Kahn mainly worked in pastels and oils and is now celebrated for his distinctive and compelling landscapes. Having studied under Hans Hofmann and later worked as his studio assistant, he came to painting from the standpoint of monochromatism and abstraction, explained Pauline Archambault, an American art specialist at Hindman in Chicago. “During the 1960s, after the advent of Abstract Expressionism, Kahn recalibrated his palette to vibrant colors and his canvases to colorful landscapes, recognizable as such, but veering into the abstract. His aesthetic is best defined as an interplay between figuration and color fields, whereby the pictorial veers into abstraction in subtle but unmistakable ways.”
Khan’s signature subject matter — landscapes — was focused on New England, especially the features of Vermont, where he lived and painted for decades. “His trademark subject, that of the landscape – typically a row of trees, the edge of a forest, sometimes featuring a cabin or house – stands in this liminal space between realistic and blurry representation,” Archambault said. “The contours are soft, the elements of the landscape blend into each other, and from that emanates an emphasis on texture and pure color, through vibrant polychromatic arrangements.”
She noted that “both in the lineage of and in reaction to the ethos of pure abstraction that defined the mid-20th century, Kahn subsequently reinvented the traditional subject of the landscape, opening it to new ways of painting and seeing, but also recasting it as the locus where creative and aesthetic innovations are possible.”
Works such as Against Near Hills, Evening, in which forests are rainbow-fuschia instead of green and the grass is a dreamlike shade of seafoam-aqua, are among those that greatly appeal to collectors. This 1991 oil on canvas tripled its high estimate in November 2021 when it attained $150,000 plus the buyer’s premium at Swann Auction Galleries.
Archambault said collectors gravitate towards the dramatic qualities of Kahn’s work, which can be hard to pin down, but involve his peculiar use of color. “The color is never exactly realistic, especially where Kahn put[s] it in his painting. For example, a painting may unmistakably depict the edge of a forest, but the sky is of an intense purple hue, suggesting an impending change in the weather, or perhaps an unlikely time of day, or something else entirely,” she said. “There is a level of unease, whereby the work draws attention to its own artificiality while also releasing an evocative feel. The colors look jarring initially, sometimes imperceptibly so, but they imbue the landscape with calm and serenity. It is this dichotomy, this formal tour de force, that draws viewers in and makes Kahn’s works so fascinating.”
Kahn shows his mastery of color — knowing exactly how far to go but no further — in paintings such as A Grove Against a Hillside, a 1994 oil painting that attained $95,000 plus the buyer’s premium in July 2021 at Mark Lawson Antiques, Inc.
The secondary market for the artist hit a high around 2020, shortly after Kahn’s death from congestive heart failure at the age of 92; some collectors who had hung onto his paintings for years decided the time was right to sell. Many Kahn pieces became available then, as is typical when a major artist passes. The market for his work eventually settled back down, but it remains strong. “While his passing may certainly have factored in, with renewed attention to his legacy, it is also important to underline that his work corresponds to the taste that currently predominates among buyers, who are drawn precisely to what Kahn’s paintings have to offer: colorful, soft, modern,” Archambault said. “The market still appears strong in 2023, with top prices achieved for landscapes featuring trees, including six-figure prices for the most sizable examples.”
Among those strong prices are two paintings that Hindman sold in 2022 that are emblematic of Kahn’s aesthetic, having “vibrant color, nearing but not quite reaching abstraction, modernist softness, and a self-reflexive quality of the work bringing attention to its own texture and visual construction,” according to Archambault. One of these works was Against a Dark Blue Sky II, a 1998 oil on canvas that easily outperformed its high estimate when it sold for $90,000 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2022 at Hindman. In the same auction, Hindman offered an untitled Kahn painting from 1993 practically sizzled with bright colors, with yellow-orange trees topping a fuschia undergrowth in the forest. That painting took $50,000 plus the buyer’s premium.
Kahn arguably comes closest to approaching abstraction in an ethereal yet electric painting with a similar composition to that of Against a Dark Blue Sky II. In this work, titled Overall Green, his luminescent lime greens and cool pinks enliven a familiar forest scene, keeping the viewer engaged and also perhaps a little off-balance. The painting made $75,000 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2020 at Freeman’s. “Trees and mountains, skies and fields are nearly always recognizable, but are often reduced to bands of color that play off one another in a way that approaches abstraction.” according to the catalog description.
Many of Kahn’s paintings reflect no evidence of human beings or their existence, but a fine landscape from 1976, Looking Down to the Woodshed, has a rustic shed in the foreground. It sold for $75,000 plus the buyer’s premium in December 2022 at Palm Beach Modern Auctions.
Kahn’s work deftly straddles the line between abstract and representational art. His New England landscapes are clearly distinguishable, and his carefully organized arrangements of bands of color and light compel the viewer to dig deep into each atmospheric scene and all its nuances.
