Wolf Kahn [Hardcover]

Justin Spring (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1996

In the 1950s and 1960s a group of young artists forged a fresh, representational art that made use of the Abstract Expressionists' spontaneous brushwork and brilliant colour to document the world. One of the leaders of this group, Wolf Kahn, specialized in landscape painting, which he has developed over the last 40 years. This book aims to demonstrate how his use of colour has placed him at the forefront of American representational art. The text presents an overview of Kahn's life and career - his childhood in Germany, his study at the Hans Hofman school, his early success as a latter-day Expressionist, and his ten years as a painter of austere, tonalist canvases, before he turned to the luminous landscapes that established his reputation. There is also an analytical essay by the painter and critic Louis Finkelstein which discusses the origins and value of Kahn's fusion of abstraction and representation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Austere in design, American painter Wolf Kahn's landscapes, pure constructions of color and light, evoke a world of timeless beauty. In this exceptionally attractive monograph featuring 100 color plates, art critic and novelist Spring traces Kahn's wildly exuberant experimentation in an informal chronicle based on interviews with the artist and his associates. Born in 1927 in Germany to a Jewish orchestra conductor and a mother who died in a sanatorium when he was five, Kahn was shipped to England in 1939 and was reunited with his father in the U.S. one year later. In the late 1940s, Kahn studied with abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann, a purist for whom art was a sacred calling. Absorbing the lessons of Van Gogh and Pierre Bonnard, he achieved in his mature work an original vision concerned with the direct, sensual experience of color. His serene late pictures of woods and sunsets radiate an air of spiritual transcendence. Painter/critic Finkelstein illuminates the dialogue between abstraction and representation in Kahn's work.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Justin Spring is a novelist and art critic. His work has been published in Art Forum, the New York Times, and the Village Voice. Karen Wilkin is a curator and critic. She is a contributor to the New Criterion, Art in America, and the Wall Street Journal. The late Louis Finkelstein, artist and critic, was a professor emeritus at Queens College, City University of New York.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 164 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First Edition edition (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810963221
• ISBN-13: 978-0810963221
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 10.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #930,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Abstract Expressionism

More About the Author

Justin Spring is a New York based writer specializing in twentieth-century American art and culture. His biography SECRET HISTORIAN is a 2010 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a 2010 National Book Award Finalist, an Amazon Top 10 Biography of the Year, an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book for 2011,winner of the 2011 Lamda Literary Award in Biography; the winner of the 2011 Randy Shilts Prize in Non-Fiction from the Publishing Triangle; and winner of the 2011 Geoff Mains Non-Fiction Prize of the National Leather Association. It is also an ARTFORUM Top 10 of 2010 pick and a Top 10 Book of the Year for 2010 in the San Francisco Chronicle.

For a full review of SECRET HISTORIAN by Mark Harris in the New York Times Book Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Harris-t.html?_r=1&ref=bookreviews

For a feature on Justin Spring's discovery of the Steward Archive, by Patti Cohen in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/books/26secret.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Justin%20Spring&st=cse

For a slide show in the New York Times about the Steward Archive:
www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/.../20100726-secret.html

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, April 25, 2000

By 

Jake Zoucha (Me a rude boy from Omaha Nebraska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wolf Kahn (Hardcover)

I had never even heard of Wolf Kahn until I saw this book at a local store. I looked through it fell in love with the art and had to have it. I recieved the book as a present(ordered from amazon--saved 15 bucks or so) and loved it. It has great info on Kahns life and comments on style, use of color etc. But what really makes this book great are the pages and pages of paintings. What makes most art books truly great(to me at least) is a lot of high quality color photos of the artists work to go along with some insightful commentary. This has many. From his early works up to as recent as 1995 paintings I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the painting on the cover. If you like that you will not be disappointed

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good reproductions, good text, January 29, 2009

By 

! "erik_satie_rollerblading" (yahoo chat: books and literature) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wolf Kahn (Hardcover)

I own a few coffee table art books. This is one I have actually read, cover to cover, several times. There are two major sections, one about Wolf Kahn's life and the other concentrating on his artistic content. Both are insightful into this genuine imported American Treasure.

I've been following Kahn since the 1980's. Somewhere online is a remarkable video lecture by Kahn with some title like 'Why not to be a Landscape Painter'. This captures his independent spirit perfectly.

Many of us artists struggle with the vision we want to express. In this book, you can see the progress of Kahn's struggle and success as he moves into his current, very effective, and now over-imitated style (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but often one of the ugliest.)

I hope Kahn lives and paints for many more years, because he is one of the tops painting today. Great book, by the way.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb reproductions and interesting commentary, August 2, 2009

By 

Tom Lalicki (Westchester County, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wolf Kahn (Hardcover)

I saw Wolf Kahn's work for the first time this year at the Ameringer Yohe gallery and found it inspiring and exciting. Because Kahn is now 81 years old, the story of his life and careers spans several important art movements including Color Field and Abstract Expressionism. Early on he was a teaching assistant for Hans Hoffmann, and his contemporaries include Larry Rivers and Jane Frielicher. Anyone interested in art will learn a lot in a pleasurable way by reading this book. And the paintings are luscious!