Wolf Kahn's America: An Artist's Travels (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A popular painter who claims to hate traveling has written a "travel book" illustrated with his own brightly colored landscapes. What's that all about? Wolf Kahn's America: An Artist's Travels is actually a record of the pleasant American locales Kahn has visited over the past forty-odd years in order to teach a workshop, attend an exhibition of his work or fulfill a commission from a wealthy patron. A refugee from Nazi Germany, born in 1927, he understandably prefers the comforts of home to the anxieties of travel. Yet he finds visual inspiration everywhere he goes, even in a restaurant parking lot overlooking a marsh. Kahn gracefully interweaves studio shop talk about color with brief observations about specific landscapes and the inevitable mishaps of travel. The book includes 100 full-color reproductions of his gentle, quasi-abstract renderings of barns and dunes, woods and shorelines, sunsets and snowy fields. The painting sites range from Maine to Florida, with excursions to Yosemite and New Mexico, but Kahn's high-keyed colors and favored compositional devices vary only slightly. Although he studied with Hans Hofmann and writes of friendships with other major American painters, his own work has a prettified quality at odds with his peers. One of the challenges of landscape painting, he writes, is to find locales "where comfort and subject coincide." Kahn's most self-revealing moment occurs when he asks Fairfield Porter why he painted a gas tank in the foreground of a Maine landscape. Porter replies that the tank was in his field of vision and he doesn't want to "censor" landscape. Kahn writes that he respects this point of view, but "I certainly would have kept the gas tank out." —-Cathy Curtis

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest collection of paintings and pastels, Kahn, aformer student of abstract expressionist Hans Hoffman, offersimpressionistic landscapes rendered in bright fuchsia, orange, violetand lime green accompanied by personal mini-essays. Assembled from histravels across the United States over the past decade (along with someearlier works), Kahn's day-glo waves of grain and magenta mountainsmajesty often resemble Monet in Technicolor (though some paintings arecrisper and less abstract, there's hardly one with naturalisticcolor). Kahn muses about his past voyages and inspirations in theaccompanying narratives, while in the foreword, John Updike declaresthat the artist "still sees on his travels," unlike those who tearpast views in rushing vehicles and high-speed trains. But oddlyenough, Kahn's impressions of Texas, Vermont, California look quitesimilar to his impressions of Connecticut, Michigan and SouthCarolina, as if, in the energetic sweep of his pastels, thespecificity of place is lost in the vividness of color. 103illustrations.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810967960
• ISBN-13: 978-0810967960
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 10.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #70,188 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wolf Kahn at his finest., October 11, 2003

By	SZEWC (IL USA) - See all my reviews

Having had the privilege of meeting, painting and listening to Wolf Kahn in person this book, without a doubt, is the next best thing. This new book is Wolf Kahn at his finest as artist, teacher and storyteller. What a rare blessing to have the artist pen his own history for us to enjoy. The work and words are inspiring. There is a treasure trove of experience to glean for the artist, art lover and laymen. The format is enjoyable, similar to, "Wolf Kahn Pastels". If you want "how it is" first hand, I strongly recommend this new book. Sincerely Tom Szewc

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, February 26, 2006

By	A. McMeekin "Student Artist" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is beautifully presented, with a large number of colour plates of his oil and pastel paintings. I really enjoyed the sensitive, well written and interesting story by Wolf about his travels across America and his findings along the way. He shows its not necessarily the subject that makes the painting but how you treat it and Wolf is a master of atmosphere and luminous colur to the max.
Angela McMeekin - Te Anau, New Zealand

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wolf Kahn's America, September 21, 2005

By	L. H. Lazarus (Durham, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Excellent, personable insight on the rationale and approach by an artist relative to his subject matter. Kahn succinctly summarizes, discusses not only his appreciation for the unusual, be in Nature or weathered man-made structures, but also the specific application of the medium used, pastels and oils, to capture the emotional content of the scene, as well as the color harmonies developed over a lifetime of conscientious study. Freedom of action and thought pervades the book that appeals to his artistic soul.