Items Similar to 'Study for Connecticut at Putney' original pastel drawing signed by Wolf Kahn
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 8
Wolf Kahn'Study for Connecticut at Putney' original pastel drawing signed by Wolf Kahn 1973
1973
About the Item
'Study for Connecticut at Putney' is an original pastel drawing by American artist Wolf Kahn. The landscape is an exploration of color and light: it is rendered in cool blues and purples with fields of subtle yellow, the pastels treated with the same gesture as Kahn's paintbrush on a canvas. Indeed, this pastel was a study executed en plein air for a painting – the painting now sometimes called 'Bend in the River' – that he later created in the studio. This process of creating studies, selecting the best of the studies, and then recreating them as paintings was typical of Kahn's studio process and makes this pastel a significant example of the artist's creative output.
9 x 11 inches, artwork
15.5 x 18.13 inches, frame
Signed 'W. Kahn' lower right
Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag matting. Housed in a gold finish wood moulding.
Acquired directly from the artist.
Wolf Kahn, the youngest of four siblings, was born into a well-to-do artistic family. His father was the conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Symphony, and his mother came from a family of art collectors.(1) During 1938, Kahn took his first art lessons, but most of his initial drawings were of military or historical events. The next year Kahn was sent to England for safety following the ascendancy of Hitler to power, and in 1940, he immigrated to the United States.
In 1942, he entered New York's High School of Music and Art, and while there, he was employed by a commercial art firm doing illustrations. After a stint in the Navy, Kahn entered Hans Hofmann's school, and among his fellow students were Neil Blaine, Jane Freilicher, Allan Kaprow and Larry Rivers. His initial results were done with a dark palette and abstracted forms, and although Hofmann's style of teaching was difficult, Kahn has consistently praised him for teaching him the value of control and understanding.(2)
Kahn's first exhibition was a 1951 group show in a loft with several other artists in lower Manhattan. From this impromptu show, a group effort evolved called the Hansa Gallery Cooperative.(3) In 1953, Wolf Kahn had a one-man show at this gallery, which was reviewed by Fairfield Porter, and at this same time bolder, more vivid colors began to appear in his work. By the mid-1950's, on a summer trip to Provincetown, Kahn's paintings indicated a new direction of softening warm colors in the manner of Bonnard. He was included in Meyer Shapiro's seminal exhibition, The New York School: The Second Generation at the Jewish Museum, and by the end of the 1950s, he had developed his abstracted landscape style for which he is best known.
In 1966, he made his first "barn" painting on Martha's Vineyard that reduced the complexities of detail of the architecture to a more basic shape, a stylistic convention that is evident in the Museum's painting. Kahn has since commented frequently on his use of color as a unique and specific component of each work as the situation demands, where the gradual buildup of the colors resembles the beauty and translucent nature of pastels.(4) Since then Kahn has had one-person exhibitions at the Kansas City Art Institute, Chrysler Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art and the Columbus Museum, among others. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums throughout the United States.
Footnotes:
1. Much of the biographical information is drawn from Justin Spring, Wolf Kahn (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996).
2. Spring, 21. Wolf Kahn draws this from a 1973 address to the College Art Association.
3. This group included Jane Wilson, Allan Kaprow, Richard Stankiewicz, John Chamberlain, Lucas Samaras, George Segal and Robert Whitman. The name paid homage to Hans Hofmann.
4. Wolf Kahn, "Notes 1990-1991," Wolf Kahn: New Landscape Paintings and Pastels (Charlotte, NC: Gerald Melberg Gallery, 1991), unpaginated. In a 1995 catalogue, Wolf Kahn, New Paintings - Celebrating Color (New York: Grace Borgenicht Gallery, 1995), Kahn goes on to state that the "use of color, especially bright color, requires the strict exercise of tact and decorum…art must not be allowed to degenerate into stroking."
Biography from The Columbus Museum of Art, Georgia via the archives of AskArt
- Creator:Wolf Kahn (1927, German)
- Creation Year:1973
- Dimensions:Height: 15.5 in (39.37 cm)Width: 18.13 in (46.06 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Milwaukee, WI
- Reference Number:
Wolf Kahn
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1927, Wolf Kahn fled Nazi Germany to Britain through the Kindertransport in the late 1930s. He eventually settled in the United States, where he completed high school and enrolled in the Navy. Following his service, he studied with the legendary teacher and Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann, eventually becoming his studio assistant.
In 1950, Kahn enrolled at the University of Chicago and completed his bachelor of arts degree within one year. He had his first solo exhibition at Hansa Gallery in New York City in 1953 and went on to be represented by Grace Borgenicht Gallery, where he exhibited regularly until 1995.
Kahn was the recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Medal of Arts from the State Department. He married the artist Emily Mason in 1957. Their marriage lasted sixty-two years until Emily’s death in December 2019, just a few months before Kahn's passing. The pair lived and worked between New York City and W. Brattleboro, Vermont.
Kahn’s work has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout North America. His work is held in important museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Find authentic Wolf Kahn paintings and prints on 1stDibs.
(Biography provided by Miles McEnery Gallery)
About the Seller
4.9
Platinum Seller
These expertly vetted sellers are 1stDibs' most experienced sellers and are rated highest by our customers.
Established in 1966
1stDibs seller since 2017
392 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 1 hour
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Milwaukee, WI
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
More From This SellerView All
- "Wolf Lake A-11, " Pastel Landscape signed by Jan Richardson-BaughmanBy Janet Richardson-BaughmanLocated in Milwaukee, WI"Wolf Lake A-11" by Janet Richardson-Baughman is a pastel drawing on paper. It is signed in the lower right and titled in the lower left, both in pencil. The work is framed and matted with a white acid-free mat board. Though it seems contrary to the title, the main focus of the image is not a lake, but a yellow and gold field of grass that leads to a distant dark green treeline. The cloudy blue sky meets the horizon, and perhaps the darker line of blue above the trees is the far-off lake. With its restrained palette of yellow, green, and blue, it creates a send of calm. Art size: 22" x 22" Frame size 36 1/4" x 36 1/4" A move to an eighty-acre farm in Western Michigan from Detroit suited Janet Richardson Baughman to a tee. She and her three siblings loved country life, and relished the many humorous adjustments to their new surroundings. The one-room schoolhouse she attended, for example, contrasted sharply to her earlier city school. Sports programs had been fairly sophisticated in the city. Rural sports consisted of her teacher piling everyone in her car, including the trunk, and then driving the children to another one-room schoolhouse for games. When Janet reached the sixth grade, a chapter in American history closed because all of the one-room schoolhouses were annexed by the nearest cities, but that unusual educational experience is something Janet fondly remembers. Growing up in a family that was very artistic, it is not surprising that Janet loved drawing. She and her brothers and sisters would make Christmas decorations for the Christmas tree and had ongoing art projects all year long. Her architect father was an artist in his free time. As the children have become adults, they are all involved in artistic endeavors from carving to sculpture. Janet's high school years were spent riding and showing her horses. "That was my life," she says. Living on the farm allowed her freedom to indulge her love of animals including the dogs that were so special to her. Active in 4H, Janet became an accomplished seamstress and an excellent cook. She took no art classes in high school although she sometimes helped her father with drafting. Starting college with the intention of majoring in speech and drama, Janet took an art class only because it was required. She found the art classes so appealing that she took one after another. Eventually, having taken every art class offered, the university had to design independent studies for her. With her beloved horses back on the farm, Janet discovered a new passion, and that was ceramics. First working as a waitress during college to earn income, Janet later became a Student Assistant and lived at the Ceramics Studio. As an assistant, she would make clay and glazes, fire the kiln, and assist the instructor however she could. At first, she had planned to become a high school teacher, but she was encouraged to earn her graduate degree and pursue her artistic endeavors, in addition to teaching. Janet graduated in 1975 with a BFA in Ceramics and Weaving from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI. Following her mentor's advice, she went to Indiana State University in Indiana for her graduate work where she studied under Dick Hay...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Pastel
- "Wolf Lake A-18, " Pastel Landscape signed by Jan Richardson-BaughmanBy Janet Richardson-BaughmanLocated in Milwaukee, WI"Wolf Lake A-18" by Janet Richardson-Baughman is a pastel drawing on paper. It is signed in the lower right corner and titled in the lower left, both in pencil. The piece is framed a...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Pastel
- "Crossroads A-73, " Hazy Pastel Landscape signed by Jan Richardson-BaughmanBy Janet Richardson-BaughmanLocated in Milwaukee, WI"Crossroads A-73" by Janet Richardson-Baughman is a pastel landscape drawing. The landscape figures a yellow field in the foreground and a cluster of deep green trees in the middle ground, behind which the tiniest strip of water is visible in light blue. On the distant horizon, a dark green hill meets a serene blue sky. Art size: 16" x 12" Frame size: 29 1/2" x 25 1/2" Framed to conservation standards. Matted with a cream-colored acid-free mat board and glazed in UV Clear Glass that filters 99% of UV Rays to inhibit fading. All this is housed in a traditional moulding in a gold finish. A move to an eighty-acre farm in Western Michigan from Detroit suited Janet Richardson Baughman to a tee. She and her three siblings loved country life and relished the many humorous adjustments to their new surroundings. The one-room schoolhouse she attended, for example, contrasted sharply with her earlier city school. Sports programs had been fairly sophisticated in the city. Rural sports consisted of her teacher piling everyone in her car, including the trunk, and then driving the children to another one-room schoolhouse for games. When Janet reached the sixth grade, a chapter in American history closed because all of the one-room schoolhouses were annexed by the nearest cities, but that unusual educational experience is something Janet fondly remembers. Growing up in a family that was very artistic, it is not surprising that Janet loved drawing. She and her brothers and sisters would make Christmas decorations for the Christmas tree and had ongoing art projects all year long. Her architect father was an artist in his free time. As the children have become adults, they are all involved in artistic endeavors from carving to sculpture. Janet's high school years were spent riding and showing her horses. "That was my life," she says. Living on the farm allowed her freedom to indulge her love of animals including the dogs that were so special to her. Active in 4H, Janet became an accomplished seamstress and an excellent cook. She took no art classes in high school although she sometimes helped her father with drafting. Starting college with the intention of majoring in speech and drama, Janet took an art class only because it was required. She found the art classes so appealing that she took one after another. Eventually, having taken every art class offered, the university had to design independent studies for her. With her beloved horses back on the farm, Janet discovered a new passion, and that was ceramics. First working as a waitress during college to earn income, Janet later became a Student Assistant and lived at the Ceramics Studio. As an assistant, she would make clay and glazes, fire the kiln, and assist the instructor however she could. At first, she had planned to become a high school teacher, but she was encouraged to earn her graduate degree and pursue her artistic endeavors, in addition to teaching. Janet graduated in 1975 with a BFA in Ceramics and Weaving from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI. Following her mentor's advice, she went to Indiana State University in Indiana for her graduate work where she studied under Dick Hay...Category
1990s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Pastel
- "Looking North II-8, " Pastel Autumn Landscape signed by Jan Richardson-BaughmanBy Janet Richardson-BaughmanLocated in Milwaukee, WI"Looking North II-8" by Janet Richardson-Baughman is a pastel landscape drawing. The work is framed and matted with acid-free mat board. The signature is in the lower right in pencil...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Pastel
- "Crossroads A-38, " Pastel Landscape signed by Jan Richardson-BaughmanBy Janet Richardson-BaughmanLocated in Milwaukee, WI"Crossroads A-38" by Jan Richardson-Baughman is a pastel drawing on paper. The work is framed and matted with an off-white acid-free mat board. It is signed in the lower right corner and titled in the lower left, both in pencil. The landscape drawing shows a country road starting in the lower left and heading off into a grove of trees in the center. Vivid green grass frames the lower right, offsetting the dark green and red of the trees, while the expansive blue sky takes up the top third of the image. Art size: 16" x 20" Frame size: 30" x 26" A move to an eighty-acre farm in Western Michigan from Detroit suited Janet Richardson Baughman to a tee. She and her three siblings loved country life and relished the many humorous adjustments to their new surroundings. The one-room schoolhouse she attended, for example, contrasted sharply with her earlier city school. Sports programs had been fairly sophisticated in the city. Rural sports consisted of her teacher piling everyone in her car, including the trunk, and then driving the children to another one-room schoolhouse for games. When Janet reached the sixth grade, a chapter in American history closed because all of the one-room schoolhouses were annexed by the nearest cities, but that unusual educational experience is something Janet fondly remembers. Growing up in a family that was very artistic, it is not surprising that Janet loved drawing. She and her brothers and sisters would make Christmas decorations for the Christmas tree and had ongoing art projects all year long. Her architect father was an artist in his free time. As the children have become adults, they are all involved in artistic endeavors from carving to sculpture. Janet's high school years were spent riding and showing her horses. "That was my life," she says. Living on the farm allowed her freedom to indulge her love of animals including the dogs that were so special to her. Active in 4H, Janet became an accomplished seamstress and an excellent cook. She took no art classes in high school although she sometimes helped her father with drafting. Starting college with the intention of majoring in speech and drama, Janet took an art class only because it was required. She found the art classes so appealing that she took one after another. Eventually, having taken every art class offered, the university had to design independent studies for her. With her beloved horses back on the farm, Janet discovered a new passion, and that was ceramics. First working as a waitress during college to earn income, Janet later became a Student Assistant and lived at the Ceramics Studio. As an assistant, she would make clay and glazes, fire the kiln, and assist the instructor however she could. At first, she had planned to become a high school teacher, but she was encouraged to earn her graduate degree and pursue her artistic endeavors, in addition to teaching. Janet graduated in 1975 with a BFA in Ceramics and Weaving from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI. Following her mentor's advice, she went to Indiana State University in Indiana for her graduate work where she studied under Dick Hay...Category
1990s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Pastel
- "Wolf Lake I-5, " Pastel Landscape signed by Jan Richardson-BaughmanBy Janet Richardson-BaughmanLocated in Milwaukee, WI"Wolf Lake I-5" by Janet Richardson-Baughman is a pastel drawing on paper. It is signed in the lower right and titled in the lower left, both in pencil. The work is framed and matted with an off-white acid-free mat and museum glass. This view of the edge of a forest is unique for its vibrant use of color. The field bears a spot of orange, while the mostly-blue sky includes a streak of violet just above the treeline. The trees blend together in yellows and greens with delicately-made lines to indicate their trunks and branches. Art size: 22" x 22" Frame size: 36 1/4" x 36 1/4" A move to an eighty-acre farm in Western Michigan from Detroit suited Janet Richardson Baughman to a tee. She and her three siblings loved country life and relished the many humorous adjustments to their new surroundings. The one-room schoolhouse she attended, for example, contrasted sharply with her earlier city school. Sports programs had been fairly sophisticated in the city. Rural sports consisted of her teacher piling everyone in her car, including the trunk, and then driving the children to another one-room schoolhouse for games. When Janet reached the sixth grade, a chapter in American history closed because all of the one-room schoolhouses were annexed by the nearest cities, but that unusual educational experience is something Janet fondly remembers. Growing up in a family that was very artistic, it is not surprising that Janet loved drawing. She and her brothers and sisters would make Christmas decorations for the Christmas tree and had ongoing art projects all year long. Her architect father was an artist in his free time. As the children have become adults, they are all involved in artistic endeavors from carving to sculpture. Janet's high school years were spent riding and showing her horses. "That was my life," she says. Living on the farm allowed her freedom to indulge her love of animals including the dogs that were so special to her. Active in 4H, Janet became an accomplished seamstress and an excellent cook. She took no art classes in high school although she sometimes helped her father with drafting. Starting college with the intention of majoring in speech and drama, Janet took an art class only because it was required. She found the art classes so appealing that she took one after another. Eventually, having taken every art class offered, the university had to design independent studies for her. With her beloved horses back on the farm, Janet discovered a new passion, and that was ceramics. First working as a waitress during college to earn income, Janet later became a Student Assistant and lived at the Ceramics Studio. As an assistant, she would make clay and glazes, fire the kiln, and assist the instructor however she could. At first, she had planned to become a high school teacher, but she was encouraged to earn her graduate degree and pursue her artistic endeavors, in addition to teaching. Janet graduated in 1975 with a BFA in Ceramics and Weaving from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI. Following her mentor's advice, she went to Indiana State University in Indiana for her graduate work where she studied under Dick Hay...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Pastel
You May Also Like
- La Rivière de Lyora by Lélia Pissarro - Pastel on paper, LandscapeBy Lelia PissarroLocated in London, GBLa Rivière de Lyora by Lélia Pissarro (b. 1963) Pastel on paper 13 x 19 cm (5 ¹/₈ x 7 ¹/₂ inches) Signed lower left, Lélia Pissarro Executed in 2020 This work is accompanied by a ce...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Waterc...
MaterialsPaper, Pastel
- UNTITLED (lake)By Deborah CornellLocated in New York, NYpastel drawing on paper of a lake with trees in brown frameCategory
1980s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsArchival Paper, Pastel
- Trees and SunBy Oscar BluemnerLocated in New York, NYTrees and Sun 1927 Color pastels on ivory wove paper 10.375 x 7.25 inches This work is offered by ClampArt in New York City.Category
1920s Contemporary Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
MaterialsOil Pastel, Paper, Pastel
- Church in Prague, Pastel Drawing by Kamil KubikBy Kamil KubikLocated in Long Island City, NYChurch in Prague by Kamil Kubik, Czech/American (1930–2011) Pastel on Paper, signed l.r. Size: 19.5 x 25.5 in. (49.53 x 64.77 cm)Category
1990s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPastel, Paper
- Fullerton Music Studio, Pastel Drawing by Kamil KubikBy Kamil KubikLocated in Long Island City, NYFullerton Music Studio by Kamil Kubik, Czech/American (1930–2011) Pastel on Paper, signed l.r. Size: 19.5 x 25.5 in. (49.53 x 64.77 cm)Category
1990s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPastel, Paper
- Chairs in the Park, Pastel Drawing by Kamil KubikBy Kamil KubikLocated in Long Island City, NYChairs in the Park by Kamil Kubik, Czech/American (1930–2011) Pastel on Paper, signed l.r. Size: 19.5 x 25.5 in. (49.53 x 64.77 cm)Category
1990s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPastel, Paper
