Wolf Kahn (1927-2020), was born to Jewish parents in Stuttgart, Germany before immigrating to the United States in 1940 to escape World War II. Kahn is an artist who embodies a synthesis of artistic traits - the modern abstract training of Hans Hofmann, the palette of Matisse, Rothko’s sweeping bands of color, and the atmospheric qualities of American Impressionism. Kahn is known for his fusion of color, spontaneity and loose brush strokes, which create the luminous and vibrant atmospheric rural New England landscapes and color fields.
Kahn’s unique blend of American Realism and the formal discipline of Color Field painting sets the work of Wolf Kahn apart from his contemporaries. Inspired by life on his Vermont farm, his works feature weathered barns, pastural landscapes, and tree-lines which create a lavish depiction of a sparce New England countryside, he intuitively harnesses the struggle between the man and nature without overthinking the psychological effect of his works. Of this, Kahn says, “I think the more you concentrate on factors other than the emotional content in your paintings, the better off you are… nature and the artist's feelings are merely raw materials.”