{"id":792,"date":"2020-10-28T20:26:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T20:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/cfam\/?p=792"},"modified":"2020-10-28T20:38:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T20:38:46","slug":"pausing-to-appreciate-wolf-kahn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/rma\/2020\/10\/28\/pausing-to-appreciate-wolf-kahn\/","title":{"rendered":"Pausing to Appreciate Wolf Kahn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lost (for me at least) amid all the tumult of March, when the first wave of COVID-19-related shutdowns were cascading across the country, was the March 15 death at age 92 of the painter Wolf Kahn<\/a>. Having just completed my Luce project research on Kahn, I would like to take a few moments to appreciate the career of this remarkable man. Kahn was born in Stuttgart, Germany, and raised in Frankfurt by his wealthy and doting paternal grandmother, also spending a lot of time with his equally devoted maternal grandparents. Though his father\u2014who had lost his job as an orchestra conductor with the rise of the Nazis\u2014had emigrated to the United States with his older siblings and stepmother in 1937, the Kahns, like many other German Jews of the period, did not realize until it was nearly too late the true danger they were in. Young Wolf barely made it out of Germany, part of the famed Kindertransport that saw Jewish children allowed to England to stay with host families. Only when the United States relaxed immigration quotas to allow families to reunite in 1940 did Kahn travel to the United States. His three beloved grandparents were unfortunately not so lucky. They were sent to Theresienstadt in 1942. None of them was ever heard from again.1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahn spent his teenage years in Manhattan, where he numbered among his friends fellow future artist Allan Kaprow. It was his decision\u2014after a year or so in the Navy\u2014to use his GI Bill funds to attend the Hans Hofmann School of Art, however, that set him on the course that would define his life.2<\/sup> Way back in April I wrote about Tibor Pataky, a Hungarian-born artist<\/a> whose study with Hofmann on Cape Cod during the summers of 1952 to 1957 caused him to abandon realism in favor of a fully abstract style.3<\/sup> In one of those great bits of research serendipity, I was delighted to discover that Kahn was also on the Cape during the summers of 1953 and 1954, when he returned not to study with Hofmann but rather to work on his art and take part in the congenial social life surrounding the German teacher.4<\/sup> I have not come across any mention of the two men meeting, though it is hard to believe that they would not have crossed paths, perhaps at one of Hofmann\u2019s legendary criticism sessions. In any case, this bit of historical circumstance invites us to consider the influence of Hofmann once again. If Pataky is an example (one of many) of a painter completely changing his technique under Hofmann\u2019s influence, Kahn is something different. Kahn\u2014whose successful career saw him still an active artist well into his 80s\u2014successfully adopted many of Hofmann\u2019s techniques and approaches while never relinquishing his figurative style. In fact, the art historian Barbara Novak has called Kahn\u2019s work a perfect melding of the American landscape tradition with the Hofmann-influenced Abstract Expressionism that dominated the art world during his formative years.5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wolf
Wolf Kahn, American (Stuttgart, Germany, 1927 \u2013 New York, New York, 2020 ), Trees Along the Delaware<\/em>, 1983, Pastel, 23 in. x 21 in., Gift of Courtney Hinman, R’ 00, 1999.3 \u00a9 Wolf Kahn\/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n